Police will 'bring eco mob to justice' after causing 'serious disruption' across capital, warns Met cop
1 November 2022, 12:57
Police will bring eco protesters to justice after causing "serious disruption" across London, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist has warned.
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Just Stop Oil (JSO) have recently turned to defacing artwork and buildings with orange paint to draw attention to their campaign.
On Monday, they targeted the Home Office, the MI5 building, the Bank of England and the headquarters of News Corp at London Bridge - covering each building in bright orange.
Speaking on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Mr Twist said that with groups taking more extreme measures across the capital, he would ensure "they're all brought to justice".
"What the police need to do is to provide an impartial, fair response, sticking to the law," he said.
"And we'll deal with the events as we find them.
"The important thing is, whether one per cent or 99 per cent of the population support a cause, we will police it impartially.
"What we've seen in this case is that a relatively small group of people have caused serious disruption to London and as a result of that it's absolutely our intention to make sure that they're all brought to justice."
'We've got to get in there quick.'
It came after AC Twist reflected on the main things police had learnt while dealing with the increasingly disruptive protesters.
"The key things that we've learnt as we've moved through it is that we need to get there quickly," he said.
"We realised quickly that JSO as a group wouldn't engage with us.
"Normally, we'd have quite a bit of engagement with protesters who are organising their events and we can work with them to minimise disruption but that isn't what JSO are doing.
"I think what we've realised is the priorities are to get there quickly, to engage with the protesters, to prove the offence of highway obstruction and then to move them quickly.
"The thing I would say to listeners is - and people will understand - that no matter how quickly we can do the first two things, if people have glued themselves to the road or locked themselves on with complex devices then that will take a bit of time.
"But as the month has gone on we've got quicker and quicker with getting them off."
