London’s police busted a group of 12 people who were playing dominoes in a restaurant under Tier 4 coronavirus restrictions.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) revealed on Sunday that last week it had raided a restaurant on Whitechapel Road, east London, where they found 12 people “hiding in a dark room”.
“They had appeared to have gathered in order to play games,” the statement read, adding that as well as fining the domino players, it had advised Tower Hamlets Local Authority to consider fining the restaurant as well, for hosting the so-called illegal gathering.
Like three-quarters of England, London is under Tier 4 restrictions that forbid socialising with people outside of your household.
Chief Inspector Pete Shaw, from the Central East BCU, condemned the people for meeting up for dominos, a common sight in British pubs, often associated with retired men. He said: “The rules under tier 4 are in place to keep all of us safe, and they do not exempt people from gathering to play games together in basements.
“The fact that these people hid from officers clearly shows they knew they were breaching the rules and have now been fined for their actions.”
The press release appeared as an item on Scotland Yard’s news page, and it is not the first time that British police forces have advertised their overzealous enforcement of the draconian lockdown measures.
Last year, Greater Manchester Police held a man up as an example of covid criminality on social media, detailing how they had caught him having a cup of tea at a friend’s house, which resulted in a £200 fine.
While earlier Warrington Police savoured telling members of the public that it had fined a group of people for walking to the shops to buy ‘non-essentials’ and penalised another man for going for a drive because he was bored.
One of the most extreme examples of a British police force celebrating their excess of power came in December when West Midlands Police posted a video on Twitter of them using a circular saw to cut into the door of a football club on suspicion that some people had gathered “illegally” inside for drinking.
Breitbart News’s James Delingpole remarked on the offbeat publicity stunt: “How come, for example, West Midlands Police can go in mob-handed to stop a few people having a drink but failed to show up when a man armed with a machete smashed up a mother’s car as she was taking her four-year-old child to school?”
That same day, it was revealed a man had attacked a woman’s car as she was taking her young child to school, with the woman claiming West Midlands Police failed to attend the scene, despite receiving multiple calls from the school and parents.