Have the police criminalised being “openly Jewish”?
by Ike Ijeh and David Spencer, Artillery Row:
It is unacceptable for the police to blame the victims of potential bigotry.
If you want an illustration of what has gone so vastly wrong with the Metropolitan Police, you need only look at one of the interactions between a Jewish man and a police officer at a recent pro-Palestine march.
As thousands of noisy activists stream past them, many screaming and chanting as they go, having been informed by a police officer that he is “openly Jewish” he is also told he will be arrested for a “breach of the peace” unless he goes elsewhere. Another officer says that the man’s “presence here is antagonising a large group of people and we can’t deal with all of them if they attack you”.
It is worth giving thought to how such a scene might have played out if different religions or ethnicities were involved.
“You’re quite openly black. This is a BNP march. I’m not accusing you of anything but am worried about the reaction to your presence.”
“You’re quite openly Muslim. This is an EDL march. I’m not accusing you of anything but am worried about the reaction to your presence.”
Such statements would quite rightly be met with widespread public disgust. How have we come to a situation where a law-abiding Jewish man on the streets of London can be treated by a police officer with such casual disregard?
How can other London minorities have confidence that their own presence on London’s streets will not one day become an operational inconvenience for the police?
It is all the more tragic that this incident took place on Aldwych in central London, within yards of St. Clement Danes. This elegant Wren edifice serves as the memorial church for the RAF whose own officers made the ultimate sacrifice for the democratic freedoms and privileges the police are supposed to protect. London itself has offered sanctuary to the global oppressed and afflicted for centuries, why then should the persecution they have fled from find fresh purchase here?
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