Over 150 arrested in anti-lockdown protests in London

London, November 29 

Scotland Yard has mentioned its officers policing anti-lockdown protests in central London have made 155 arrests as a part of early interventions to forestall individuals from gathering amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Metropolitan Police made arrests for offences together with breaching coronavirus rules, assaulting a police officer and possession of medication.

Save Our Rights UK, a bunch holding demonstrations towards the stay-at-home guidelines, mentioned it held protests on Saturday towards the federal government’s COVID-19 lockdown.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had on October 31 introduced a second lockdown in England because the nation crossed the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus circumstances. The lockdown took impact on November 5 and can final till December 2.

Large gatherings are banned below the coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

The Metropolitan Police on Saturday mentioned its officers made a lot of early interventions to forestall individuals from gathering and urge them to go dwelling.

As a part of this, coaches transporting protesters into the UK capital had been intercepted and people who didn’t flip again had been both arrested or issued fines or fastened penalty notices below the coronavirus laws, it mentioned.

“This was a challenging day for Met, City of London and British Transport Police officers,” Chief Superintendent Stuart Bell, policing commander on the protests, mentioned on Saturday.

“On Friday, we made it very clear how we would police this event, warning those looking to attend that they risked facing enforcement action if they attended a gathering in London,” he mentioned.

“The enforcement action is a direct result of those individuals deliberately breaking the law and at times, targeting our officers with aggression and causing disruption to the road network,” he added.

Bell urged individuals to observe the foundations to keep away from “enforcement action” and assist defend everybody throughout the “health crisis”.

Some of the protesters had been dressed up as elves and waved placards studying “All I want for Christmas is my freedom back”, “Ditch the face masks” and “Stop controlling us”.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel lauded the Met Police motion and emphasised that the intention behind the rules was to avoid wasting lives.

“We’ve seen our police officers yet again do incredible work to ensure that they help to stop the spread of this awful virus,” she mentioned.

“The people that are protesting today have been protesting for many months, and we’ve seen this over successive weekends. We ask everybody to be conscientious, we all know the regulations and the guidance. We have brought these measures in to save lives and to prevent preventable deaths,” she mentioned.

After the four-week nationwide lockdown in England ends on Wednesday, will probably be changed by a three-tiered system of regional measures that limit enterprise exercise, journey and socialising. The overwhelming majority of the nation is being put into the higher two tiers.

Some rights teams have referred to as for the proper to soundly protest to be explicitly outlined as an exemption in rules protecting England’s tiered restrictions. PTI