Unpopular lockdowns, a despairing public amidst soaring bankruptcies and evictions offers a backdrop to a police service increasingly seen as the state’s heavies employed to ruthlessly suppress the slightest dissent and opposition to unpopular laws.

Predictably, attacks on the police by frustrated citizens are soaring not only in the UK but across Europe. Attacks on police in London have risen sharply during the lockdown.

Metropolitan Police figures showed 2,027 assaults on officers were recorded between May and July, a 38% increase compared with the same period in 2019. Scotland Yard said the rise was partly driven by a series of protests and forbidden music or social events marred by confrontations with police. Assaults could have long-term effects on officers, the Met said.

In the 12 months to the end of July 2020, there were 6,668 assaults on police, a 16% increase compared with the previous year. In leafy Sussex, there were 628 assaults on PC Plod; an increase of 20 per cent.

Police said a series of protests and events that turned into confrontations had contributed to the increase, including protests by Black Lives Matter and far-right groups, and a series of unlicensed music events. The referral to the BLM protests is likely a smokescreen for the public were aghast as uniformed police ‘took the knee’ when challenged to do so by coloured teenagers.

The term ‘far-right’ is generally regarded as a media code-word for White-skinned protestors. Here, there was no ‘taking the knee’ and the public was again horrified to see truncheon wielding mace-spraying cops assault and arrest the elderly and even school children.

The figures provided include Covid-related assaults, in which officers were spat at or coughed on, which often had multiple victims.

One victim of assault was PC Morley, who is now a sergeant with the Westminster emergency response unit, said the incident was ‘always in the back of my mind’.

‘I’m not scared, but now as a supervisor, it surprises me how often PCs get assaulted on a daily basis. In my opinion, it’s getting worse and I don’t know how to stop that.’

Michael Walsh, author-journalist and lifelong White Rights activist was gaoled on several occasions and offers insight.

‘Every day we see sickening images of the police attacking and injuring protestors who by no stretch of a journalist’s imagination could pose a threat to anyone. Just today, the images published show Finnish police casually and routinely pepper-spraying elderly protestors during a sit-down protest.

‘How out of touch the cops are to think that such brutality will be accepted by the taxpayers. Ironically, if a citizen were to act as brutally towards a fellow citizen he or she would be handed down a prison sentence of several years.

‘The clear message is if you are thug minded and want to destroy the lives of innocents then get a job in the police service. It’s the same thing but you don’t go to prison for it.’

Attacks on police have soared by 185% since 2014. Many join the police as a cosier alternative to the rigours, discipline and dangers of being a soldier in the Army, perhaps posted to Iraq or Afghanistan. As the chasm between the police and the public widens, a posting to the Middle East could become a safer option to a posting to London, Manchester or even Brighton. Source