From the Telegraph
Do British police see the nation’s flags as a threat? Protestors in Newcastle have been asking that question after two incidents took place during protests in the city centre on Saturday. Both were filmed and shared widely on social media.
One video shows a teenage girl standing exuberantly on a picnic table while waving a Union flag. A female police officer appears to tell the girl to climb down. Then a male officer wearing a blue “police liaison” tabard snatches the flag from the girl and crushes it into a ball. He leaves the area, apparently without returning her property, although a Northumbria Police spokesperson told me that the flag was returned later.
This is the link to the X video posted above and this is the incident from another angle.
The other video features a man carrying an England flag on a pole. A group of police liaison officers confront him, with one telling him to “put your flag away until you get [to the protest] then”, before stating that “there’s conditions in place” which mean he can only fly the England’s flag in “designated areas”. On the video, locals can be heard expressing astonishment that Palestine flags are being freely flown by counter-protesters.
Nick Tenconi, Ukip leader and Turning Point UK chief operations officer, who was leading Saturday’s demonstration, is outraged, saying: “We live in a country filled with two-tier policing aimed at demonising patriots. We saw a Union flag snatched from a young girl, meanwhile the counter-protesters waving the Palestinian and Communist flags never have them snatched by the police”.
Northumbria Police said that it is “aware of video clips circulating online in relation to an officer removing a flag from someone during protest activity in Newcastle yesterday”, before going on to say that it “is important that these are put into context” and that “when a small number of people became close to a much larger protest group, action was taken to de-escalate tensions and help ensure the safety of all present”.
The police also acknowledged the other incident, saying they “are aware of a further video of someone being asked to lower a flag until they had reached the designated protest zone”. The spokesperson seemed to acknowledge that these officers may have overstepped their duties, saying Northumbria Police “will be reviewing what happened to identify any potential learning” and that they “recognise the right to lawful process” which they “will uphold”.
It’s worth pausing to consider what these incidents reveal. Some police officers believe that waving the flag of the United Kingdom might cause “tensions”, and that these risks are so serious that they justify snatching a child’s property. They also believe that the England flag is so provocative that they have a right, or even a duty, to ensure it is only flown in certain “designated areas”. In even plainer terms, the police force of the British state are treating the British and English flags as though their display is a threat to public order. This is astonishing. To fear a nation’s flags like this is more like the behaviour of an occupying force, than the police of a democracy.
Those officers will not have decided to act like this on a whim. This behaviour is a result of training and of a culture within the police that treats normal expressions of patriotism and Right-wing beliefs as dangerous. As The Telegraph revealed over the summer the Government’s anti-extremism Prevent programme considers “concern over mass migration” to be a terrorist ideology.
Good heavens – I have been designated a ‘dangerous’ individual in the past;now I’m a terrorist. If only my family were ‘terrified’ of me; I might get someone else to do the washing up.
The flag-snatching in Newcastle occurred on the same day that the Prime Minister described Reform as “an enemy” which “is detrimental to our country” before concluding that “we have to win this battle”. . . If the police are to retain the support of our society, they need to ignore the PM, and remember what nation they serve.
