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Hertfordshire police have been criticized for failing to stop Extinction Rebellion’s blockade of newspaper printers on Friday.
XR’s action saw protesters targeting Newsprinters’ printers in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and Knowsley, near Liverpool, blocking the output of Deposits Day newspapers.
The action started around 10pm on Friday night and the protesters were not cleared until 10am the next day, causing hundreds of Britons to be unable to read their newspaper on Saturday morning.
Now the police response has been condemned with allegations that Hertfordshire Police ‘facilitated’ the attack.
It comes after it emerged that XR’s intention to target newspaper printers was reported nine months ago, along with claims that police only dispatched six officers to the Broxbourne plant after the warrant was given. alarm on Friday night.
Hertfordshire Police said in a statement: “Protest rights are well established in this country and we remain committed to facilitating peaceful protest and ensuring compliance with the law.”
However, the stance was criticized by several high-profile figures.
David Blunkett, a former Labor Home Secretary, said: “ I think they are mixing up a historic debate on [union] pickets with protests related to political issues, which can be dealt with through the normal democratic process ”.
Richard Walton, former head of the Met’s Counter-Terrorism Command and now a senior fellow at Policy Exchange, said Friday’s protest showed how the group had gone from being simple protesters to organizing “planned crime and should be treated as such.”
“Their reluctance to do so undermines our democracy and strengthens extremist groups like XR.”
XR’s action saw protesters targeting Newsprinters’ printers in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and Knowsley, near Liverpool, blocking the output of Deposits Day newspapers.
David Blunkett, the former Labor Home Secretary, has led the criticism of the police response to the Extinction Rebellion action.
Ian Austin, a Labor MP, told the Telegraph: “The police must respect the law, allow people to go to work and read the newspapers of their choice.”
It comes after Donnachadh McCarthy, a spokesperson for XR at the Broxbourne rally, said that only six officers attended the protest at around 10.15pm, with reports that police were not given advance warnings.
A Hertfordshire police spokesman declined to confirm how many officers attended.
Police also insisted they had no notice of the protest before it continued, despite claims that it had been planned since last year.
XR’s plans to target the media began in October last year and reportedly wanted maximum disruption in articles published by Rupert Murdoch, the Telegraph Media Group and the Daily Mail and General Trust.
A document obtained by a Sunday newspaper last December showed that organizers detected how “vulnerable” Broxbourne was because it only had one exit that led onto a busy road.
Merseyside police announced this morning that they had charged 26 people, aged 19 to 60, following the demonstration at the ‘News International’ premises in Knowsley on Friday night.
They are to appear before the Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates Court and the St Helens Magistrates Court on 8 and 13 January next year.
Police said the 26 have been granted bail on the condition that they do not enter Merseyside or communicate with any News International employees.
Sources confirmed that Priti Patel, above, wants to take a ‘fresh look’ at how the climate change group is classified by law.
More than 100 protesters used vehicles and bamboo locks to block roads outside the Newsprinters premises on Friday night, and both protests continued until Saturday afternoon.
Hertfordshire police said they had arrested 50 people.
XR apologized to newsstands for the disruption, but added that he would not apologize to Murdoch, asking him to “ stop suppressing the truth about the climate crisis and benefit from the division your newspapers create. ”
Government sources have confirmed that Interior Minister Priti Patel wants to “take a fresh look” at how XR is classified under the law after a stunt that Boris Johnson deemed “completely unacceptable.”
The review could lead to XR being treated as an organized crime group, the sources said, as part of a crackdown on its activities, which have included paralyzing cities across the UK by forming human barriers along the streets. main roads and disruption of public transport.
Under additional proposals, Parliament, the courts and the press could be given special status with respect to the key role they play in democracy, with the possibility of empowering the police to prevent protesters from entering areas designated outside said premises.
“It would be illegal to prevent deputies from voting or judges to go to court and it would also protect a free press,” a government source told the Palestinian Authority.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he thought the police already had the necessary powers to deal with the protests.
Speaking to the Sky News program Sophy Ridge On Sunday, she said: “We always keep all of our laws under review, but I think the laws are actually in place to take appropriate enforcement action against criminal behavior.”
Extinction Rebellion protesters block access to a print shop in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, leaving the shelves of some kiosks empty on Saturday morning
The protesters appear to have avoided being slapped with the £ 10,000 fines awarded to those who violate coronavirus restrictions.
Jeremy Corbyn’s brother, Piers, received the first £ 10,000 fine in London for an illegal gathering after he organized a march claiming the coronavirus is a hoax last week.
The 73-year-old meteorologist led more than 10,000 anti-lockdown protesters at the ‘United for Freedom’ rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.
Corbyn, the former Labor leader’s older brother, was seen being taken away by officials after the event and his Twitter account has since confirmed that he was slapped with a colossal fine and “held for ten hours.”
He was one of eight other offenders who were fined in the rest of England under the new lockdown measures imposed on Friday that are designed to stop gatherings of more than 30 people.
The others who were fined had been hosting raves or house parties.
The members of Extinction Rebellion seem to have avoided that punishment.
Responding to Ms Patel’s criticism that her actions were an ‘attack on our free press’, XR said:’ Our free press, society and democracy are under attack, by a failed government that constantly lies to us, is it’s getting more and more authoritarian and it’s driving us toward four degrees of warming. ‘
The protest has been criticized for being politically motivated.
A statement from XR said the action concerned racism, as well as “immigration policy, the rights and treatment of minority groups and dozens of other issues.”
