UNACCEPTABLE!

Video of police abusing power by detaining and searching innocent citizens

By Oliver May

POLICE held innocent people in a pub while searching them and threatening to keep them in a cell overnight in what appears to be a huge misuse of power.

Alan Miller of the Together Declaration had visited the Cenotaph and been to Parliament Square to witness reaction to the Pro-Palestinian march on Armistice Day.

Later, he had entered a pub to use the toilet but, when he tried to leave, police had blocked the road outside and told everyone inside they could not leave until they were searched.

Miller, speaking to Talk TV earlier, said: “I went to show support for Armistice Day and also to challenge anti-semitism. I then went to the Palestine demo because I wanted to see what people were saying. I’ve got friends on that one who just want to see things stopped, but I was also concerned at some of the things being chanted and I wanted to get my own take on it.

“I then left that demonstration and went to a pub [The White Swan on Vauxhall Road, London] to go to the bathroom and then I was not allowed out and the police had sectioned it off – there was probably about 200 police.

Palestine march

“Now I want to say this, I know that it’s been difficult for the police but at the same time many people criticise Suella Braverman [Home Secretary] for making some comments [about how the police handle different protests].

“I was on the lockdown demos and I saw how they [the police] treated people and this is not how they are treating people who chanting all sorts of things – by the way I don’t think they should treat them badly, it’s Armistice Day – people fought and died for our right to have debate and discussion.

“But we were not allowed to leave the pub. They cordoned it off, made it look like we were all part of some group and it was a bit worrying really. They were not doing it for our protection because we could have walked out and no one would have said anything.

“Then the police said the only way you can leave, under section 60, is if we search you. Now they were actually arm folding and arm twisting people – I did not have that happen to me. I had a civil discussion with the two female PC’s but the chief inspector did not want to speak to me.

“But basically I said I understand you are doing your job but this a problem in Britain. The idea that tens of thousands should, quite rightly, be able to protest but people in a pub are somehow seen as a problem… and then I’m being searched under emergency powers.

“I am very concerned and I would like to express this to Suella Braverman and to Mark Rowley [Metropolitan Police chief] and also to the Government, who are trying to ostracise Suella Braverman because many people agree with her about what’s happened to policing.

“What’s just happened should remind everyone that when they are calling for certain things to be banned and stopped, it ends up restricting us all.

“We don’t do things like that in Britain, particularly on Armistice Day. Now I’m going to come back for Remembrance Day. But to be honest it was slightly farcical but they didn’t put me in an arm lock but I saw how citizens were treated and I was very deeply uncomfortable with it. It’s unacceptable.

“I asked several times, what are the grounds for this? And I was told that the governor has said that under section 60, emergency measures in the context of this demonstration. So no answer. I never got clarity. And they said people were going to get detained – so I was going to spend a night in the cells.’

It is still unclear why police saw fit to detain them and search them or what crime they believe they had committed. But Miller and the rest of those people in the White Swan were eventually released without any charge.

Mainstream media is again awash with stories that so-called ‘far-right’ protestors had attacked police. These stories, it seems, had been stoked by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who said far-right “scenes of disorder” at the Cenotaph were a “direct result” of Braverman's comments before the march.

This week, Braverman accused the police of bias claiming aggressive right-wing protesters were “rightly met with a stern response” from police, while “pro-Palestinian mobs” were “largely ignored”.

Video evidence here appears to back-up Braverman’s claims even further, with police appearing to misuse their power to detain and search people who had been doing nothing more than enjoying an afternoon drink in a pub.

Watch the shocking video here: