London Police Claim They Were Powerless to Act as Palestine Protesters Stormed War Memorial

A British government minister said “I will not stand idly by” and that he wants to see those disrespecting war memorials “in handcuffs” after footage emerged of police failing to intervene as Palestine protesters scaled a major London war memorial.

Protesters climbed one of central London’s key war memorials on Wednesday night, straddling the stones, shouting, and waving flags while police appeared to look on, sparking criticism that officers failed to act when they could have. Responding to the footage gaining traction and critique mounting, the Metropolitan Police issued a statement where they apologised, but ultimately claimed they were powerless.

Government minister Johnny Mercer has made clear his disagreement with the claim, stating in response “the Met has a lot of power they can use, and should be using… let’s see these thuds dishonouring our war dead in handcuffs”.

The Police force said in their statement “most people would agree that to climb on or otherwise disrespect a war memorial is unacceptable” and asserted they had tried to prevent this from taking place recently, nevertheless a “breakaway group of pro-Palestinian protesters… climbed on the Royal Artillery Memorial”. Officers were “not there quickly enough” to stop this, the Met acknowledged.

Responding to questions over why, after the fact, no arrests were made, the Police claimed: “there is no law explicitly making it illegal to climb on a memorial”.

Yet as some have pointed out, including lawmaker the Conservative Member of Parliament Neil O’Brien, there are laws already on the book that allow police to make arrests in exactly such circumstances, with the former Under-Secretary of State naming Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 as an example. Indeed, just last week 92 “far-right” protesters trying to get near the Cenotaph war memorial on Whitehall were pre-emptively arrested “to prevent a breach of the peace”.

In 2011, the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour was jailed for a protest rampage which, in its most eye-catching stunt, saw the student attempt to climb the Cenotaph. MP O’Brien further noted Greenpeace protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage in 2016 after a protest where they climbed Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.

Another Member of Parliament to respond to the war memorial being scaled was Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer, who wrote in response to the footage that: “This is it. I will not stand idly by whilst individuals think this is the correct way to treat these memorials.”

Mercer also wrote “There is only one memorial of fallen soldiers in London”, which is not correct as there are dozens. Possibly his statement may rather refer obliquely instead to the recumbent fallen soldier cast in bronze as part of the Royal Artillery Memorial. As noted by English Heritage, the UK government body responsible for the memorial and several others, to have a fallen soldier so literally depicted — in this case with an army greatcoat draped over his dead body — in memorials is extremely unusual in the United Kingdom.

A further statement from Mercer on Thursday morning developed his position, and he wrote: “…we’ve got to stop thugs clambering over war memorials. The Met has a lot of powers they can use, and should be using… let’s see these thugs dishonouring our war dead in handcuffs”.

Footage of the Wednesday night incident, which came alongside yet another Palestine protest in Westminster outside Parliament as the House of Commons voted, clearly shows protesters climbing over the cast bronze of the fallen gunner.

The social media user who filmed the storming of the memorial also pushed back against the police’s claims, posting further clips which he asserted rubbished their assertions. In the new footage, reasonably large numbers of police can be seen standing by as protesters approach the memorial but remaining inactive.