London police chief grabs reporter's microphone and throws it to the ground when asked about riots
2024-08-07
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According to reports from the RT website and the BBC on the 5th, when asked about the alleged "double standards" of the police in connection with the recent riots across the UK, London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley snatched a reporter's microphone and threw it to the ground.
According to reports, on August 5 local time, after an emergency government meeting to discuss how to deal with the riots, a reporter from Sky News asked Rowley who was hurried out of the venue: "Are we going to end double-standard policing?" Rowley did not answer the question, but snatched the reporter's microphone, threw it to the ground, and continued to walk towards his car.
London Police Commissioner Mark Rowley Source: British media
The BBC reported that the so-called "double standard policing" refers to the fact that right-wing protesters are believed to be dealt with more harshly by the British police than left-wing protesters. In an interview after the meeting, British Prime Minister Starmer was asked about this incident and the accusation of "double standard policing". He replied that "double standard policing does not exist" and said it was "not a problem."
RT reported that a spokesman for the London Police Department defended the situation by saying that Commissioner Rowley was "eager to return to New Scotland Yard (headquarters of the London Police Department) to take action according to the agreed next steps."
Martin Brunt, the Sky News reporter whose microphone was taken away, said Chief Rowley's move was a "petty, even childish" response to a "perfectly reasonable" question. "It was a fuss over a mountain top, but perception is everything," Brunt said, adding that Rowley later explained that he was in a hurry and that it was "remedial, not justifiable." Although the reporter could have filed charges of assault, criminal damage or misconduct in a public office against Rowley, he reportedly chose not to press charges.
On July 29, a knife attack occurred in Southport, Merseyside, northwest England, when a 17-year-old male suspect broke into a primary school dance class and killed three children and injured several others. After the incident, protests broke out in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Hull, Manchester and other places, and turned into violent riots. Some rioters vandalized refugee shelters, mosques, shops, etc., attacked police officers and burned police cars.
RT noted that while the initial protests were sparked by rumors that the knife attacker was wrongly identified as a Muslim, they have since evolved into riots targeting immigrants and the view that British authorities are more concerned with suppressing domestic dissent than combating immigrant crime.
On August 3rd local time, more than 150 people were arrested in Liverpool, Manchester, Stoke, Leeds and other cities for riots. British Prime Minister Starmer vowed that the participants in the riots would be "fully sanctioned by the law" and that the UK would strengthen its police force by forming a "standing army" of professional police officers. "This is not a protest, this is pure violence," he said. The British government also said it would "hold social media companies accountable" for not deleting "false information."
