London Crowd Control Causes Controversy

If you want to know the time, just ask one of our friendly approachable polite and peace-loving policemen. You know the ones. They wear slightly silly looking hats and don't carry guns …well very few of them do.

But Britain's boys in blue have been developing a recent reputation for complete over-reaction. When Mr. Obama came to London a week or two back for the G20 summit, pretty well every policeman in the capital was sent out to control protestors.

Most of them did it well. But a few seem to have acted like thugs.

A newspaper vendor died shortly after being knocked to the ground by an officer. It was taped by onlookers. It looked bad - really bad. This officer and others involved in different incidents are now under official investigation - in his case, for possible manslaughter.

Then there's the strange case of the police inquiry into secrets leaked from the very Government department that controls the police. The Government said the leaks were a threat to national security. They called in Scotland Yard who arrested one civil servant for passing documents to a very senior opposition legislator.

Days went by. Then in a scene more suited to a Hollywood blockbuster, the cops suddenly descended on Parliament itself, raided the legislator's office, an unprecedented event - in full view of the cameras - and carted him away for nine hours of interrogation. His homes were also raided, and numerous personal items were taken away. They told him he faced a long prison spell for receiving the leaked government papers.

Well it now transpires that the secrets weren't so secret at all. They weren't a threat to national security. The legislator isn't going to be prosecuted. And the man in charge of that misjudged police operation was the same accident prone cop who had to quit his job for inadventently leaking to the press all the details of a huge upcoming anti-terrorist raid.

Believe it or not, he walked into 10 Downing Street holding his top secret briefing paper for the Prime Minister and facing the photographers. One of them snapped a close-up of the front page, up it popped clear as crystal, and bang went his job the next morning. Scotland Yard is feeling the heat.
By Ed Boyle