Ban 'luxury' protests to save cops cash, says Croydon and Sutton MPA (From Your Local Guardian)

Ban 'luxury' protests to save cops cash, says Croydon and Sutton MPA

11:30am Thursday 29th July 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(2)

Police should have the option of banning public demonstrations to help the force cut costs, a leading Croydon and Sutton police authority member has said.

Cabinet member Steve O’Connell questioned whether dissenters should continue having the “luxury” of public protest as the Metropolitan Police prepares to cut 25 per cent from its budget.

Coun O’Connell, who sits on the Metropolitan Police Authority as member for Croydon and Sutton, made the comments during the group’s last meeting on July 22.

He said: “We need to be thinking the unthinkable.

“Should we not be considering whether actually we could continue offering the service to police these demonstrations?

“If you ask residents out there about their priorities in this time of difficult challenges they will have priorities around youth violence, safety, trafficking.

“In the new era of political responsibility, of responsibility to our residents and voters would policing demonstrations be at the top of their priorities?”

Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson told Mr O’Connell he would not be drawn into a political debate, but said London’s reputation for peaceful protests was a point the city “is very proud of”.

He said London was a “highly popular” place for demonstrations and policing them was “part and parcel of what we do”, but said the force was looking at ways to get event organisers to provide their own stewarding to save the police money.

Speaking to the Croydon Guardian after the meeting, Coun O’Connell said such proposals would only affect large scale protests such as the G20 and Tamil anti-war demonstrations.

He said:”I’m not pursuing a position where we ban demonstrations - it’s a British tradition.

“But we’re looking at a minimum of 25 per cent (police) budget cuts, and if we’re going to look at things like Safer Neighbourhoods and operational policing we need to look at everything.

“The large majority will go ahead, but there are demonstrations like the Tamils and G20 that are so large the police are chucking enormous amounts of resources at them.”

Labour MPA member Val Shawcross, who spent six years as a New Addington councillor, said: “In a very large borough like Croydon the police service are already very thinly stretched.

“Steve O’Connell could better earn his enormous salary if he fought for Croydon's corner against the coming cuts in police numbers rather than suggest spurious ways of saving money.

“Is he really saying he would be happy to see our democratic rights undermined and our police service cut by 25 per cent?”

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(2)