Defend Our Juries just told the Met police where to go over postponing this Saturday’s protest

On Thursday 2 October, Defend Our Juries laid out to Met police in no uncertain terms that it would not cancel its long-planned protest this upcoming weekend.

Defend Our Juries defies Met Police hypocrisy

The letter was in response to a communication from assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan to the group earlier this afternoon, asking it to consider postponing the demonstration in the light of the Manchester attacks. However, Defend Our Juries, while condemning the atrocious attack, have stood firm in their determination to oppose Israel’s genocide and the unjust proscription of Palestine Action.

The letter from Adelekan highlighted something egregiously hypocritical about the repressive policing of peaceful protesters more broadly.

In his letter the Assistant Commissioner said:

as you know your previous large-scale protests and other concurrent protests, place a significant pressure on policing and draw officers away from communities they serve to be in central London. This means less neighbourhood and response officers in their communities and less officers focussing on police crimes.

Your last three events in central London have required over 2500 to police including dedicated Counter Terrorism officers as a result of the Terrorism offences observed at your previous events.

Police failing to prevent real terrorism as they target peaceful protester

In reply, the group wrote:

First let us say that we utterly condemn the attack on the Jewish community in Manchester today.

This is what genuine terrorism looks like and we join with others in condemning it unreservedly.

As we have pointed out in our, sadly unacknowledged and unanswered, letters to Met Commissioner Mark Rowley, it has always been the choice of the Metropolitan Police whether or not to make arrests at our protests. Amnesty International has advised Mark Rowley that these arrests fall foul of international law and our fundamental rights.

As you know we are making two demands of the government: that it reverse the ban on a domestic protest group that poses no risk to the public; and secondly that the government take action in line with its obligations to prevent genocide.

It is unfortunate that the Home Office has not decided to rescind the ban in the wake of the ever-growing defiance and has chosen instead to put an increasing and unnecessary strain on police resources.

It is unfortunate that the Home Office has not decided to rescind the ban in the wake of the ever-growing defiance and has chosen instead to put an increasing and unnecessary strain on police resources. According to your letter, it appears the political oversight in proscribing Palestine Action, which aimed to save lives in Palestine, is taking away from the police protecting the community from those who seek to take lives.

As I’m sure you will understand, the protection of our democracy and the prevention of countless deaths are critical issues. Therefore, our protest will go ahead as planned for this Saturday.

We urge you therefore to choose to prioritise protecting the community, rather than arresting those peacefully holding signs in opposition to the absurd and draconian ban of a domestic direct action group.

We hope you make the right choice to not arrest those taking part, and correctly deploy counter-terrorism resources this weekend.

Please understand that some 1,500 people have given deep consideration to committing to this nonviolent action which, as the Met has repeatedly pointed out, comes with serious risks. We hope you respect our fundamental right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression.

Feature image via The London Standard/Youtube.