Opinion: Don’t blame the entire police force

By Paloma Mairone

Following the devastating death of Sarah Everard, 33, police have experienced threats after detaining women at a vigil in London to mourn and remember the young woman.

It is unfortunate that when an officer is accused of a crime, whether that be in George Floyd’s case, Breonna Taylor, and any other victims of police brutality – that all officers are at risk and everyone’s reputation within the police community becomes more and more tainted.

On Saturday night, Met officers were forced to maintain order during the protests in Clapham. Hundreds of people attended the event which posed a threat to the pandemic, due to overcrowding and close contact between protestors and Met officers.

Also, a group had blocked Westminster Bridge obliging police to hand out fines for breaching the COVID-19 restrictions and four arrests were made. The home secretary, Priti Patel, said that she is “listening to women and girls” ahead of criticism on police’s behaviour, according to the BBC. 

So how must it be like to work for the London Met Police during this tragic turn of events? 

One Met officer tweeted, “I’ve just got back and I am sat with a colleague who was punched today. Was told she was a ‘disgrace to females’ and a ‘murderer’ today. She’s going to respond to 999 calls tomorrow. Without questioning it. Yes, it didn’t go the way anyone wanted it to, but this is also wrong.” The officer tweeted.

But the point most people are missing, is that the police officers out on duty on Saturday were not opposing the protestors, they were simply maintaining forming of large groups which is BANNED in England during this time – they were just doing their job, so why should they receive the scrutiny?

Imagine one of your family members was held accountable for something. They and your entire family get threats and verbal and physical abuse for their actions, but you were not involved in the incident – would this be fair? And would you appreciate this?

Another officer, PC Harry Rance, has made it clear that it doesn’t matter how much controversy the police receive, they will ‘still respond’ to calls. He tweeted how people will still call for the police when it ‘all goes wrong’.

Police officer Wayne Couzens has been charged with the kidnapping and murder of Sarah Everard. He appeared for his first hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court and will be appearing at the Old Bailey on March 16^th 2021.