Mayor Sadiq Khan has been told that far-left Black Lives Matter UK rioters had verbally abused and physically attacked London’s black police officers in recent protests.
Susan Hall, leader of the Conservatives on the Greater London Authority (GLA), said at Mayor’s Question Time on Thursday that she had been informed of the attacks on black officers by Scotland Yard deputy commissioner Sir Stephen House.
Ms Hall told Mayor Khan that “black officers were attacked apparently more vociferously during the recent protests”, according to remarks reported by the London Evening Standard.
“Sir Steve House was very clear that a proportion of these attacks came from the Black Lives Matter protesters themselves,” she added.
Labour’s London mayor responded that he had heard reports of attacks first-hand from black police officers covering the far-left protests.
“I was really distressed when I spoke to black officers during Black Lives Matter protests,” claimed Khan.
“What was distressing, in addition to the abuse and violence our officers faced being unacceptable, was when I was told that black officers were being verbally abused and attacked by those on the Black Lives Matter protests.”
Appear to imply that black protesters were among those assaulting black officers, he continued: “We are doing all this hard work to recruit black officers, to keep and progress them [within the Met] but yet members of the community are giving them a hard time for joining the police service, and it’s very difficult.”
The Police Federation, roughly equivalent to a union for lower-ranking officers, has already criticised Mr Khan for failing to protect officers from assault by protesters during weeks of vandalism and violence in the British capital.
Violence against police occurred early on in the London demonstrations, with extraordinary footage of protesters throwing punches at officers outside of Downing Street. Days later, an officer was violently thrown from her horse — after protesters threw a bicycle at another mounted officer, spooking the nearby animal — inflicting several serious injuries.
Another policeman was caught on film walking away from the protest on Whitehall with blood running down his face. At one demonstration, BLM activists were chasing a large group of officers outside the Houses of Parliament, throwing projectiles while yelling: “Run, piggy, run!”
Sixty-two officers had been injured at protests in one week alone. The chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, Ken Marsh, criticised Mayor Khan for failing to shut down public transport ahead or mass protests, which should not have been allowed to take place due to strict coronavirus lockdown regulations.
Violence against police came despite some officers ‘taking the knee’ in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, the very movement which calls for police to be abolished.
The recent Black Lives Matter UK protests were sparked by the death of black American George Floyd in police custody in the United States. The movement was quickly transported to the UK, with protests erupting over claims that British police commit brutality against minorities.
The London Metropolitan Police Service had admitted that the protests were unlawful, but said that they were reluctant to enforce the law for fear of “serious disorder” that could turn “into a violent situation”.
Violence spilt out of protests and into what the mainstream media termed “street parties”, when neighbourhoods of large illegal gatherings reacted to calls by the police to disperse into riots and attacks on police, in one incident leaving 22 officers injured.
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