145 People Arrested by Met Police During Armistice Day Protests
The arrests were for offences including ‘assault, possession of weapons, criminal damage, public order, inciting racial hatred, and possession of drugs.’ Some 145 people were arrested during pro-Palestinian protests and counter-protests on Armistice Day, with the Metropolitan Police hunting for more “hate crime” suspects.
The arrests were for offences including “assault, possession of weapons, criminal damage, public order, inciting racial hatred, and possession of drugs,” the Met said on Sunday. Seven men have been charged with offences including criminal damage, resisting arrest, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of class A drugs, being drunk and disorderly, and assault on an emergency worker. A large number of counter-protesters who were trying to reach the main pro-Palestinian march were arrested to “prevent a breach of the peace.”
People during a pro-Palestinian protest in London, marching from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy in Vauxhall, on Nov. 11, 2023. (Aaron Chown/PA) The Met said a total of 91 people were arrested to prevent a breach of the peace, adding those who were not suspected of other offences had been released. “This is a power officers have available to them where there is an imminent threat of harm. Once the imminent threat has passed, it is normal for those arrested to be released. Only where it continues will a person be put before the courts,” the Met said.
Related Stories A senior Met officer claimed police experienced “extreme violence from the right wing protestors” while breakaway groups from the 300,000-strong pro-Palestinian March behaved “in an intimidating manner” at the end of the day. Protesters from both sides have thrown objects at officers, and nine officers were injured while preventing “a violent crowd” from getting to the Cenotaph, according to the Met. Counter-protesters clash with police in Parliament Square in central London, during a pro-Palestinian protest march which is taking place from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy in Vauxhall, on Nov. 11, 2023. (Jeff Moore/PA) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hit out at the “violent, wholly unacceptable scenes” from “the EDL [English Defence League],” an anti-Islam group, and “Hamas sympathisers,” saying “the despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully.”
It’s unclear whether the EDL still exists as an organisation. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, commonly known by his alias Tommy Robinson, who founded the group and left it in 2013, has called on “young English and British men” to mount a vigilante assembly in London on Saturday to “show respect and to make sure that there is respect shown.” He pleaded with followers to “behave” but also said they would be “prepared to defend” if necessary, claiming the police can’t be trusted to do their job.
It followed concerns that the Cenotaph or other war memorials may be desecrated, a concern that was echoed by the prime minister although the marching route was moved away from Whitehall this week. It also came after Home Secretary Suella Braverman insisted the pro-Palestinian protests are “hate marches” and said police chiefs are perceived as playing “favourites” with protesters. Most of the pro-Palestinian protests in recent weeks have been non-violent, although The Telegraph reported that groups with links to the Hamas terrorist group, which started the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, have been organising the protests along with anti-war groups.
The Met on Friday night set up exclusion zones at locations including the Cenotaph, saying “anyone believed to be part of, or associated with, the pro-Palestinian demonstration trying to assemble in this area can be arrested.” Senior Officer: ‘Extreme Violence’ On Saturday morning, the Met said the two minutes silence, which is observed at 11 a.m. on Armistice Day every year in remembrance of Britain’s war dead, was “marked respectfully and without incident” in an update on X, formerly known as Twitter. But it also said officers had “faced aggression from counter-protestors” who were “not one cohesive group.” In a video posted by the Met, counter-protesters can be heard shouting, “You’re not English anymore.” The Met said officers “were met with violence and abuse by counter-protestors who threw bottles and other missiles at them. In another video circulated
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“There were also a number of serious offences identified in relation to hate crime and possible support for proscribed organisations during the protest that we are actively investigating,” he added.
In addition to arrests made on Saturday, the Met also posted photos of six pro-Palestinian protesters on X and appealed for information. In descriptions of four other photos showing five people, the Met said the individuals are each under investigation in relation to “a hate crime.” There is no “hate crime” in England’s statute book. The police record any criminal offence which is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s actual or perceived race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or sexuality as a hate crime. Once a defendant is convicted of a crime, the Crown Prosecution Service can ask the court to increase the sentence if the crime has been flagged as a hate crime. In a statement posted on X, the prime minister said, “I condemn the violent, wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen today from the EDL and associated groups and Hamas sympathisers attending the National March for Palestine. The despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully.” Mr. Sunak said the scenes disrespect the memory of “those who fought and died for our freedoms.””That is true for EDL thugs attacking police officers and trespassing on the Cenotaph, and it is true for those singing antisemitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing on today’s protest. The fear and intimidation the Jewish Community have experienced over the weekend is deplorable,” the prime minister wrote. “All criminality must be met with the full and swift force of the law. That is what I told the Met Police Commissioner [Sir Mark Rowley] on Wednesday, that is what they are accountable for and that is what I expect,” he said, adding that he will meet Sir Mark in the coming days.
Labour has ramped up its call to sack the home secretary, with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper telling Sky News’s “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” programme that she doesn’t see how Ms. Braverman “can continue to do this job.” She accused Ms. Braverman of launching an unprecedented attack on the impartiality of the police” and “deliberately inflam[ing] tensions in the run-up to remembrance weekend.” Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who has called on his party to back a ceasefire, labelled counter-protesters at the Cenotaph “far-right” and claimed the violence was “a direct result of the…
