Met Chief Calls Time on ‘Woke’ Policing
Sir Mark Rowley, the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has told his officers to stop associating themselves with political causes, such as Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion and Pride. The Telegraph has more.
Britain’s most senior policeman has said his officers will not be allowed to express support for “woke” causes while on duty because it is essential that they are impartial.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, made it clear that he will not tolerate officers taking the knee, flying rainbow flags or adorning their uniforms with badges that support environmental causes.
He described himself as “fairly narrow-minded” on the issue and said the only acceptable additions to uniforms were remembrance poppies, Help for Heroes wristbands and the police memorial badge.
His comments signal that he will take a much harder line than his predecessor, Dame Cressida Dick, who was criticised for allowing officers to take the knee while policing Black Lives Matter protests and under whose watch officers danced and skateboarded with Extinction Rebellion activists.
Sir Mark said getting drawn into political causes – even popular ones – could be “fatal” for policing, telling the Telegraph: “Wearing a poppy in the autumn is perfectly proper, but there is not a lot that we should align to because the danger is that once you say, ‘we are going to align ourselves to a cause because 90 per cent of the population support it’, what about the 10 per cent?
“Once you start having environmental and other subjects there are lots of people in the organisation who will personally support those causes and that is OK, but the Metropolitan Police explicitly supporting them is quite tricky. I’m fairly narrow-minded on this. There are very few causes policing should be attached to.”
Sir Mark’s comments signal that he will be less tolerant than Dame Cressida, under whom Scotland Yard initially said it was at individual officers’ discretion if they wanted to take the knee to support Black Lives Matter, even while they were policing protests. Dame Cressida later said she would not take the knee and that she had ordered her officers not to do so.
Under her watch, a police vehicle was given a Pride rainbow colour scheme to show support for LGBTQ+ causes at taxpayers’ expense.
In 2019, there was public outrage after Met officers were seen dancing and skateboarding with Extinction Rebellion eco-warriors when they were meant to be policing an illegal protest. The officers’ commander later described the behaviour as “unacceptable”.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: In a leading article, the Telegraph says if the police want to restore public confidence they should stop investigating incidents the vast majority of the British public don’t believe should be criminal acts – and aren’t in fact criminal acts – such as ‘offensive’ tweets.
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“Met Chief Calls Time on ‘Woke’ Policing”
We hear this kind of announcement at least once a week. But nothing changes
Indeed. Judge the man by his actions. Words are cheap, cheap, cheep.
As with the uniformed officers glamming up and dancing the Macarena at the ubiquitous Pride fest, what on earth is going through the tiny minds of those prostrating themselves in the photo above?
I feel the image of the UK police as a whole, not just the Met, has gone to the dogs and now damaged beyond repair. They will never claw back any sort of respect from the majority of Jo Public, in my opinion anyway. Too many stories, many been shared on here, illustrate what an absolute laughing stock and national disgrace they all are. The public have every right to be wary, distrustful and regard the police with complete contempt, after the way people have been and continue to still be treated by them. There is no protection, keeping the peace or upholding the law, quite the opposite, and we see who’s side the officers take and their heavy-handed, disproportionate approach, when they aren’t behaving like absolute embarrassing clowns and lording it up with the Woke Brigade. A bit like the national disgrace that is the NHS, too much damage has been done by them as an organization to ever restore trust and respect again. People do right to regard anyone in a position of authority with complete distrust going forward now we’re firmly established as Clown World inhabitants. We’re not living in the same world we were several years… Read more »
Talk is cheap. ———ACTION is what is needed. Lets see in the months and years ahead whether the police will actually stop policing everything except crime or not. ——I mean real crime, not thought crime, or hate crime or opinions.
We are all entitled to our opinions and to be “sceptical” of everything. After all this is the Daily Sceptic. But I find it totally bizarre that a person could thumbs down my comment above. Which means that person wants the police to chase after people for their opinions and thoughts etc……Watch what you wish for mate.
I’m happy to stick the boot in when necessary but also believe it’s right to acknowledge when they get things right. The new chief of Greater Manchester Police has taken a ‘back to basics’ approach and the force has seen a marked improvement as a result. If The Met are going to take a similar approach then I think it’s only fair to say (about time but) well done and good luck.
An interesting interview with British journalist, Mick Hume, talking about what’s become of free speech in the UK, touches on this; ”It is indeed quite extraordinary that the police have for several years in Britain become more interested in, as I used the slogan once, policing the tweets rather than policing the streets. They have become a kind of thought police. They’re obsessed with what people say on social media and hassle them for things that are not a crime. It’s not a crime to call someone a man who is a man. It’s not a crime either to call a woman a man. But somehow they’ve invented these things as crimes. And what’s interesting about that is that they started keeping a register of what was called non-criminal hate incidents: Things that weren’t a crime, but which they’d decided were hate speech. So, your name would be in that register even if you hadn’t committed a crime but just said the wrong thing. They were told from the top to stop doing this, and they’ve just carried on. They are a law to themselves. The British police are one of the most woke institutions in our society. You’ve only… Read more »
Here’s the response I just received from Northants Police over my complaint on yesterday’s nonsense.
Thank you for emailing the Chief Constable, when this matter was brought to the attention of the Chief Constable he commissioned a review into the circumstances and facts. This is a live investigation so no comment will be made at this stage and will await the findings of the initial review.
Regards
Xxxx
Inspector xxxxxx
Staff Officer to CC Nick Adderley / Head of Executive Support
Grass, long, kick.
Well done of course for letting them know, that we know.
Clever name you chose for your handle.
Long time lurker but not yet commented.
I worked for Northants Police for several years. I can tell you now that this ‘review’ will be dealt with by a complete yes man/woman of little competence and with their full focus on saying the right thing to get their next promotion. They will be rubbing their hands with glee at having something substantial to stick into their personal portfolio, but will be careful not to poke the hornets nest.
To try to be fair, I strongly suspect all county forces to be similarly staffed with incompetents (with the greatest of respect to those staff who haven’t yet contracted the woke mind virus and who are, under difficult circumstances and internal pressures, still trying to do the job they actually joined to do)
I had to leave Northants Police – I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“I’m fairly narrow-minded about this…”
An interesting paradox: Cressida Dick was broad-minded, which led to the force being narrow-minded. Rowley is narrow-minded, which if all goes well will result in the force becoming broad-minded again.
Took him far too long.
one more “error” by Rowley or his officers should lead to dismissal with prejudice v
Just to draw people’s attention to this excellent initiative, if you aren’t already familiar with their existence; ”Fair Cop is a group of individuals who have come together over shared concerns about police attempts to criminalise people for expressing opinions that don’t contravene any laws. Some of us have been victims of police interaction following social media activity; some are police officers ashamed at police action. All of us are furious with the ‘Big Brother’ overreach of various police forces and other authorities. We are united in our aim of enforcing existing laws governing freedom of speech, conscience and assembly – rights that belong to us all in this country. Fair Cop is committed to working with the College of Policing, police forces, police & crime commissioners and other relevant authorities to improve the existing guidelines, ensuring they recognise citizens’ freedom of expression while continuing to provide robust protection against real crimes that are truly motivated by hatred. If you’ve been contacted by the police for expressing criticism of transgender activism or if you agree with us that the authorities should follow the law of the land, get in touch and find out how you can help ensure that policing is fair… Read more »
So how long before Sadiq Khan writes to express ‘no confidence’ in the Met Commissioner?
He needs to get on with it because the fan is about to become contaminated! When ULEZ is shown to be entirely about money (which is just about now) Khan should be prosecuted for Malfeasance in public office and Fraud by misrepresentation. He is guilty of both in my opinion, and there is loads of evidence. His defence case is based on false statistics (as usual), saving 6000 deaths of Londoners per year. No contest!
Like Doctors, Policemen have strayed a long way outside the roles that we used to have confidence in them for. Banning membership of politically motivated special interest groups would also help. Black police officers, Muslim police officers, LGBMGB-GT officers. Once you take the oath, you are just a police officer, and that’s sufficient without divisive self interest groups.
It is all issing the point. Without some sort of cultural or spiritual centre you will have nothing to fall back on. You could be challenged by Woke or some ultra hardline geneticist faction. You would have nothing to say to them because you believe in nothing.
“you believe in nothing”
I believe in plenty thanks, and so do the rest of us here. Speak for yourself.
Let the FA tell that to Football Clubs such as West Bromwich Albion who continue to show a “knee taking” partiality to career criminals such as George Floyd.