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What about Alfie? Top cop owes him an apology too
Charles and Camilla get a fawning apology from the Met commissioner. But they didn’t need emergency brain surgery
Are we living in Ruritania? According to the Sunday Times, Sir Paul Stephenson, Britain's most senior cop, offered his resignation as Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, after the car carrying Charles and his wife was surrounded by protesters in central London last week.
Now we know that HRH, number two in a constitutional monarchy, has long had ideas on architecture, planning and whatever else swims into his appalled view - if not above his station, certainly beyond the parameters of his 'above the fray' non-political role. But even Charles clearly baulked at the idea that he should accept Sir Paul's resignation.
The Met Commissioner is responsible to us, the people, through the Home Secretary. His grand-standing offer to go (he admitted to colleagues, apparently, that his resignation was unlikely to be accepted) was all of a piece with the fiasco that unfolded on Thursday during the student protests against the coalition Government's trebling of tuition fees.
Reporting a demonstration that shades at its margins into a riot is not an easy task. Over many years I have scurried around the streets of London trying to make sense of skirmishes, speeches, police charges, hurled missiles, baton assaults, disputed numbers and testimony.
Truth tends to lie in the eye of the beholder: reporters from right-wing papers see gallant cops attacked by anarchist scum, while those (usually far fewer) scribes from the left see police lose their cool.
Reported injuries give a limited picture, because the police catalogue even slight grazes on their side, while demonstrators' injuries only get logged if severe enough for hospital treatment.
On Thursday, there clearly were injuries and violence on both sides. But two of the people certainly not hurt who indeed proceeded to their 'duties' of a night out at the London Palladium were Charles and Camilla.
So the question should be: if Sir Paul is seriously thinking of quitting, ought it not to be for the consequences of failures by his force other than the upset experienced by the heir to the throne?
One student, 20-year-old Alfie Meadows, was allegedly struck so severely by a police baton that he fell unconscious and required emergency brain surgery.
That is bad enough. But the story emerging is far, far worse: that police officers prevented Alfie's tutor summoning an ambulance; that when he finally did get to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, there was a stand-off because according to Alfie's mother the hospital was treating injured police who didn't want an obvious protestor, however badly hurt, treated in the same building.
Even in Afghanistan, coalition Medevac helicopters will remove injured Taliban fighters for treatment even in the heat of battle.
It was only - as Alfie's mother, Susan Matthews, 55, herself a university lecturer and also on the demonstration reported - the intervention of an appalled ambulance man, who insisted that Alfie stayed put, that stopped him being driven away to another hospital with severe (and possibly fatal) consequences.
A senior nurse then took the stricken Alfie to a separate resuscitation room to keep him away from the police who found it "upsetting" to see protestors in the hospital.
Jody McIntyre, also 20, a wheelchair-bound demonstrator who suffers from cerebral palsy, claims that he was twice pulled from his chair by police on Thursday.
He was hit, he says, with a baton; grabbed and carried 100 yards to behind the police lines, and only reunited with his wheelchair after 10 minutes when his brother was allowed through. Half-an-hour later he claims he was again pulled from his chair by one of the same policemen.
I once spent the day of a student demonstration alongside police officers, ordinary plods from outer London brought into Westminster in case of trouble.
We hung about in vans for hours, lurking in side streets in case the officers were needed. In fact, it was a quiet day with little to do beyond routine crowd control but inside those vehicles (officers themselves 'kettled'), patience wears thin and the temperature rises. The chat was all about the 'scum' they had to police.
When finally liberated into a melee that is even more shapeless to them than it is to reporters, it is little wonder that the more aggressive can lose control. As one Sunday paper columnist commented: "Some of the yobs were wearing uniforms."
Violent and distressing incidents affect individuals, but clearly the police lost the wider plot. They allowed both the Treasury and the Supreme Court to be repeatedly attacked. And though they had warned both West End shop-keepers and even a street sweeper of possible violence, they allowed the royal Rolls Royce straight into the eye of the storm. Lord Lucan conducted the charge of the Light Brigade with more tactical savvy than the Metropolitan police showed on Thursday.
Perhaps Sir Paul should consider his position. But if he intends seriously to tender his resignation, he should call the Home Secretary rather than the heir to the throne. We do not live in Ruritania nor even a Gulf state.
And now that Sir Paul has apologised to Charles, maybe he could give Alfie Meadows a call too and say sorry. A second-year philosophy student at Middlesex University, Alfie is said to be recovering well after his operation. But he really was very badly hurt. ·
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if your there you risk it. i think the police should be harder. its not as if the students are peaceful!
At the very top it is considered good form to ignore your lawyer and go ahead and attack and kill other countries' leaders, the street cops have learned from the top what is right and wrong. Hopefully the violent protesters never achieve my level of anger.
This is somewhat reminiscent of the various demonstrations of 1968. Once things begin getting out of hand we expect our law enforcement folk to move robot-style, even if the crowd is completely out of control. What idealism!!! What immaturity!!!! What foolishness!!! But still understandable.
"Reporting a demonstration that shades at its margins into a riot is not an easy task." That is absolute truth, and reporting a demonstration when you bring your point of view with you guarantees that the reporter will not (because of the passion of the moment and his absolute bias in behalf of his point of view) do any more than write an opinion piece, even if he wants to convince us that it is really hard and unbiased news. Bosh!!!.
I am sympathetic to the students (I assume these were students here, unlike the "students" who kidnapped the Americans in Iran during the overthrow of the Shah), because of the inarticulate and ham-handed behavior of the Members of Parliment regarding tuition increases (on both sides---the conservatives who did not show the balance sheets and that we've lived in a fool's paradise at low prices, and the liberals who are intellectually dishonest and think that nothing costs anything if you can suck money from the taxpayers)
I also understand that the police cannot be expected to be the demonstrators' mothers and kiss their booboos while brickbats are flying through the air.
Bring out the waterhoses and red dye to paint the demonstrators so that they can be collected and interviewed. Or would that be too unfair to the darlings?
And fire the chief who apologizes to the Prince. The Prince should apologize for being financially supported by the students' parents when they pay taxes.
Thanks for this very important article and helping me understand that we live in a less democratic state than I thought.
Prince Charles and his vanity, total lack of humility at a time that many are being asked to make sacrifices, is not really touched here as being one of the factors in the incident. He turns up in the state Rolls Royce, the monarchs car, the only vehicle not required to have a registration mark, how does he do that? Should he have been prosecuted?
There are important questions that are raised here!
perhaps First Druid should realise that the police, in these instances, are human beings, admittedly reasonably fit and quite well covered, but when part of a relatively small number of people facing a "baying mob" of stone throwing,metal bar wielding young people intent on attacking them - they are probably as scared stiff as I was when attacked by German fighters in a bomber over Germany. At least we had machine guns and and means of corkscrewing out of the way. These guys have to stand there and stop them trying to cause damage and in many cases wound them. Why else would they throw great pieces of brick and metal?
I wonder how you would behave when armed with only a baton to defend yourself. I know what I would do!!
Robert Chesshyre,is this article some kind of joke? I am not a policeman by the way,but I would like to be there with you at the front of the police line face to face with SCUM,trying to physically attack you with metal railings,iron bars,snooker balls,sticks,plus fists and boots.It must be terrifying,almost life-threatning,if you were separated from your colleagues.Would your response to the rioters be to ask politely if they would stop trying to maim or kill you so you could go home in one piece to see your wife and kids,or would you try and defend yourself?Stupid question really as you wouldn't have the balls to do their job for a fraction of the money that you probably earn.Same as all journos who always criticise the police after little johnny gets hurt in a demo,but who would be straight on the phone to 999(police please)if their grandmothers or children were attacked in the street,most probably by the same scum they are defending in their anti-police articles.SHAME ON YOU.
What infantile nonsense. If you get yourself involved in a violent demonstration, you are putting yourself in harm's way, and therefore have no-one to blame but yourself if you get hurt. The answer is either not to be there in the first place, or to back away out of reach of police batons.
The whole business shows the total futility of such protests. They inevitably lure the hooligan/anarchist/antisocial elements to join them and incite violence. And once that happens, they completely polarise opinion. Having read the comments of people like "barton keys" and David Sketchley, I believe them to be beneath contempt, and no doubt they will feel the same about me. What a great way for a society to behave. Surely it is about time we started to use rational argument and debate to solve such problems, and not mindless thuggery.
I have been working as a photojournalist covering many protests, demos and occassionally riots since the late 1970's, the first casualty is usually the truth and that is not limited to the police as some would like it to be.
I started covering this protest at 11:30 on the day, it was obvious from 12:30 that the organisors had no control what so ever even at that early stage. They allowed groups to join the protest with home made riot shields and other items not associated with peacefull protest. The first incident I photographed was earlier near the Savoy Hotel, a site with nothing to do with the protest and abuse and threats made to people who had nothing to do with the issue. That was probably one of several warnings that the police and organisors ignored in the hope it would be an isolated incident.
The "kettling" that is being put up as an excuse for what happened later, is false, there was no "ketting" until well after the main protest went off route and forced its way into Parliament Square. The moment that happens and advice/routes are ignored all bets are off, its what has happened at every other disturbance down the years.
I have no idea what happened to Alfie and its sad when someone does get hurt, but if he was totally innocent there will be enough video and photos to back this up, but the same will apply if he was not.
Carrying your view further that an appology is required, then you will also be calling for a similar appology from the organisors to the injured by-standers and police. Possibly followed by resignations from them also, or were they as I have seen described (on a student forum) colateral damage and as some are saying deserving injury.
This set of protests has the potential to be long and drawing out, those in control of events and those planning future events, the Police and the Organisors need to look hard at how they allow other protests to proceed. It OK to focus on the police as they are accountable, but we need to find out what the real objectives are of the other side, so far there has been no "we got it wrong" "we need to do better" or even appologies for what happened. If it carries on without better control from all sides then someone will be killed, its only by luck a policeman was not killed (0r a photojournalist), the same can be said for the protestors pure luck so far. WE have had the warnings where this could end up, its now up to all sides to make sure it does not or live with the consequences.
It shold be remembered that for a member of the public to push a police officer even accidentally is an assault, it takes a much more serious attack to assault a demonstrator if it didn't all the police who appeared on television using, in most cases unecessary force, on demonstrators, would appear in court - don't hold your breath.
Looks like the police state is fast becoming a reality. Poor, poor boy. The C&W should be charged with negligence by the family. This is highly unethical practice. They have a duty of care full stop! In his condition he posed no threat to staff or patients. Would they have done the same if the complaints were based on race or religious grounds? No chance. To refuse the provision of needed help is breaking an ethical maxim. The family should sue the Chelsea & Westminster for a failure in their public duty of care. Absolutely appalling.
I hope that Alfie makes a full recovery and wish him well. I also hope that he sues the police and any public authority that failed to take prompt and appropriate action relating to his injuries. Police have a long and ignoble record of severely injuring innocent demonstrators and bystanders, and then 'smearing' them, trying to justify police errors and misconduct. We saw this tactic in action following the death of Ian Tomlinson in the G20 demo - and on many other occasions -all the way back to Blair Peach at Southall in 1979. I do hope that it doesn't happen in this case.
What an excellent and important article. It's so necessary that pieces like this appear against a near unrelenting pro-police coverage of the mainstream media. Well done TFP and Mr Chesshyre.
Absolutely no way is anyone involved in a demo deserving of an apology if they get hurt. The police have a difficult job to do and those who choose to demonstrate must be prepared to take the risk.
I can't say Afie was engaging police anymore than the author of this piece can say he was not - neither of us was present. But an
apology to Alfie? That's preposterous. Had he not been at the front near police he wouldn't have been within striking range of a baton, would he?
Having seen and heard what his parents and lecturer friends had to say its plainly obvious to me that they, like the author of this piece are sadly biased.
I have no sympathy for Alfie - like the rest he shouldn't have been there. Now, for his trouble he will stutter for words his memory cannot find, his personality will have changed and his short term memory will let him down, just like mine did when I suffered brain damage.
This is, in no way a fault of the police - what do you think the batons are for? In other countries such animal behaviour as we have seen reported in Whitehall would have been rewarded with bullets, indiscriminately fired.
Personally, I think our police behaved wonderfully. I'd like to see more 'Miners Strike' style of policing rather than the state kurtow to the sad mass of students and others who have no discipline and bow to that other need, Self, Self, Self.
Has 'policing by consent' ever truly existed? Has it ever meant more than 'keeping the population in line with the wishes of the Establishment'? I have only known a handful of policemen personally. One of them I would trust my life to, the others I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them. Sorry to all the police I haven't met who are doing a wonderful job out there, but your ranks contain, as you know, some very nasty frustrated people. Reform can only come from within your ranks, because the guys at the top have their position in the Establishment to consider.
Just as well he already had his knighthood....the man is a criminal. Aiding and abetting criminal policemen. Disgusting.
Excellent. Stephenson is a strutting oaf whose authoritarian tendencies and pronouncements behaviour require investigation by the Home Secretary.