Speaking at the Police Chiefs Conference, home secretary Suella Braverman has urged officers to “take a firmer line in safeguarding public order” following three days of disruption on the M25.
Braverman told police: “I urge you all to step up to your public duties in policing protests.”
In recent months, climate activists from the Just Stop Oil organisation and other activist groups such as Extinction Rebellion, have been staging protests to draw attention to the climate emergency.
The Metropolitan Police said that it had arrested 677 Just Stop Oil protesters over 32 days from near the end of September to the end of October, with 111 charged with offences.
Just Stop Oil itself claims that as of Wednesday afternoon, 15 of its supporters are currently in prison and its activists have been arrested in excess of 2,000 times since it began its campaign on April 1 this year.
While Just Stop Oil's activities have in recent months seen protesters vandalise shops and glue themselves to famous pieces of art, over the last three days it has stepped up its activism by trespassing on overhead motorway gantries on the M25 to grind traffic to a close.
On Wednesday, two Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested for causing a public nuisance after a police officer was injured on the M25.
Activists had blocked parts of the motorway in Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire, which resulted in the police motorcyclist becoming involved in a collision with two lorries at a rolling roadblock.
The home secretary affirmed on Wednesday that enough was enough and said that the disruption caused by climate activists posed a “threat to our way of life” and it was the duty of the police to restore public confidence in their own authority.
“In recent months and years, we have seen an erosion of confidence in the police to take action against the radicals, the road-blockers, the vandals, the militants and the extremists,” Braverman said.
“It is not a human right to vandalise a work of art. It is not a civil liberty to stop ambulances getting to the sick and injured.
“I want to reassure you that you have my, and this government's, full backing in taking a firmer line to safeguard public order. Indeed, that is your duty.”
Braverman also posted on her Twitter account that the police had her full support in “using all tools available to prevent further disruption and protect the public”, while sending her “thoughts and best wishes to the officer injured while dealing with protesters engaging in guerrilla tactics on the M25”.
Image by UK Government,OGL 3, on Wikimedia Commons
