Outnumbered But Unyielding Two Officers Hold the Thin Blue Line And Chaos At an MOD Protest.

By Chris Hobbs – Retired Metropolitan Police Officer and now police commentator

As I walked down the Strand towards Aldwych, I could hear the chanting from protesters which I knew was in relation to the London Defence Conference that was due to take place at Bush House; this event was linked by pro-Palestine activists to the current conflicts in the Middle East. When I arrived, I could see the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups facing each other with both doing a passable impression of rival football fans.

It occurred to me that one crucial element was missing from this scenario and the penny soon dropped; it was the police or rather the lack of them. Instead, around 100 pro-Palestinians were confronting about 60 pro-Israeli activists watched by intrigued passers-by.

I was about to dial 999 when I saw two police liaison officers (PLO’s), distinguished by the sky-blue tabards, appear at the rear what was turning into an increasingly agitated confrontation. One officer was talking into her phone and radio as the situation became tenser.

Both groups began inching towards each other as if plucking up the courage for confrontation and eventually they did meet which led to angry exchanges: Immediately the two PLO’s intervened breaking up several potentially violent incidents.

After about twenty minutes a police carrier arrived with one sergeant and seven PC’s alighting to assist the two officers already present. However, almost immediately the pro-Palestinians began moving out of the Aldwych area after forming up and taking to the road thus blocking traffic. They made their way onto the Embankment by the Thames blocking the westbound lane. The two PLO’s caught up with the noisy group and were later joined by officers from the carrier.

At any moment I expected to hear the sound of sirens as additional police officers rushed to assist but there was no further police intervention. Eventually the group plus the handful of officers reached the rear of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) building and made their way on to Whitehall via the alley that runs between the MOD and New Scotland Yard. Once on Whitehall, the chanting marchers, without blocking traffic, reached an anonymous building where they stopped and continued chanting. This puzzled the watching press and observers including myself. It was subsequently revealed that this is the headquarters of the Royal United Services Institute described as ‘the world’s oldest independent defence and security think tank.’ Clearly the march organisers had done their homework.

They then moved up Whitehall and stopped outside Raffles Hotel which again puzzled the journalists and observers. Clearly the protesters had better sources than we did as it later transpired that the conference had been moved to Raffles as the original venue was deemed too small.

Raffles placed a couple of security staff in front of the doors which were later closed. In the interim protesters attached stickers to the walls and the closed doors before they then moved around to a back entrance.

Military officers menaced by protesters.

The protest looked to be coming to a close when suddenly and dramatically, the activists became galvanised. It soon became obvious why; walking across the road, about 50 metres from the protest were a group of senior military officers in full uniform heading towards the entrance of the Ministry of Defence.

The crowd became a mob and began running towards the military officers hurling abuse which frequently included the term ‘murderers.’ The number of Met officers hadn’t increased during that period but those present also began running in order to form a cordon that would protest the servicemen: Present on the steps of the MOD, were several Ministry of Defence police officers sporting semi-automatic weapons.

With Met officers, they simply used two handed pushes to keep the protesters at a distance. There was a subsequent near meltdown on social media later when an MOD police officer was seen briefly adjusting his firearm. This was hysterically proclaimed as a police officer deliberately taking aim at ‘peaceful’ protesters.

The military and civil servants accompanying them, seem totally unfazed by the whole incident as they entered the building, which was brought to a rapid conclusion when it became known that there was a security alert and Whitehall was being closed.

Somewhat incongruously, the protesters leaders behaved responsibly by announcing the alert using a megaphone and telling the protesters to leave the area which they did. The impressive bomb-proof doors at the MOD were being closed and the day’s events were effectively over.

Questions and commendable conduct.

The question as to why the days events were so lightly policed, especially at the beginning, probably will never be answered, but the officers involved acquitted themselves well. The commendable conduct by the two PLO’s at the beginning has been passed to the Met and assurances given that their efforts will be acknowledged by senior officers.

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