London’s Metropolitan Police has revealed that nearly 800 spy cameras installed to enforce far-left Mayor Sadiq Khan’s green agenda car tax have been stolen or destroyed since May.
In August, Mayor Khan expanded the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) — a system of fines and levies originally intended to reduce traffic and pollution in Central London — to the entire greater area of the British capital, thereby taxing thousands of workers driving anywhere in the city, including in suburban and semi-rural areas between £12.50 to £27.50 if their vehicle does not meet the local Labour Party government’s climate standards.
The widely unpopular move has been met with widespread acts of civil disobedience, with individuals and groups such as the “Blade Runners” targeting the licence plate reading surveillance cameras that were installed across the city to enforce the green taxes.
According to figures released by the Met Police, there have been reports of 200 of the spy cameras stolen and another 595 being damaged between April 1st and the end of September. The police force said that an operation was launched in May to investigate ULEZ-related crimes, to which the Met said they are dedicating “considerable resources”.
“Where there are possible lines of enquiry, local investigators will follow up using a range of investigative approaches including CCTV trawls, witness searches and an assessment of forensic opportunities,” the capital’s police force said in a statement.
Despite dedicating “considerable resources” to the operation, the Met only claimed to have arrested three individuals since May, one of whom has already had the case against them dropped, until making a fourth apparent arrest on Wednesday morning of actor and campaigner Laurence Fox. While he is not accused of having actually damaged any cameras himself, he was arrested for “conspiring” and “encouraging”.
The scale of the attacks on ULEZ cameras has reportedly forced Transport for London (TfL) to deploy up to 20 camera-equipped vans to attempt to fill the gaps in the surveillance network and continue imposing the green tax on the public.
The TfL has said that the vigilante actions taken by the public against the spy system will not deter the government from enforcing the climate agenda throughout the entirety of London.
The government body went on to say per The Times: “Vandalism on our network is unacceptable and all incidents are reported to the police for investigation… Criminal damage to Ulez cameras puts the perpetrators at risk of prosecution and life-changing injuries, while simultaneously risking the safety of the public.”
The acts of civil disobedience have won some support, however, including from the former leader of the Conservative Party, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who said in August that he was “happy” for his constituents to rebel against the ULEZ expansion, claiming that the assertions made from Mayor Khan’s office about improvements to air quality “cannot be substantiated.”
“A lot of people in my constituency have been cementing up the cameras or putting plastic bags over them,” Sir Iain said. “I am happy for them to do it because they are facing an imposition that no one wants and they have been lied to about it.”
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