Police response to protests causing confidence in the law to evaporate, says DAVID SPENCER

Londoners are being forced to cope with the chaos that has been unleashed on the capital by ‘Just Stop Oil’ protestors on a daily basis. This small band of extremists have committed criminal damage, blocked roads, prevented ambulances and fire engines from getting to emergencies and generally spent the last month making a nuisance of themselves.

A new report by the think tank Policy Exchange released today sets out the action that Government and the police need to take to get a grip of the situation and tackle the carnage that is unfolding on our streets.

The protestors themselves have shown that they are determined to get arrested.

The protest group organisers are even convincing young and impressionable members to sign ‘contracts’ which then require them to commit acts that will lead to arrest.

Indeed, repeated arrests are all part of the game they are playing, with some of the protestors boasting of being arrested as many as sixteen times.

Yet the courts act like a revolving door, bailing offenders so that they can return to their campaign of criminal disruption.

Tougher sentencing and bail guidelines are required so that judges have the power to deal with repeat offenders.  

At the heart of the problem is a legal quagmire created by the Supreme Court. Last year’s ruling in the case of DPP v Ziegler puts the rights of protestors above the rights of ordinary people going about their daily lives.

The Government has repeatedly failed to close this loophole. Neither the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act which became law last year, nor the Public Order Act which is currently going through Parliament resolves the issue that the Supreme Court created.

The Government must act urgently and change the law to close the loophole – now.

Officers remain far too slow to deal with those breaking the law. Recent footage of protestors climbing on top of police vans outside Downing Street, while officers watch on, makes a mockery of both the police and the concept of law and order itself.

Most worryingly a lack of faith that the police will resolve the disruption has resulted in have-a-go heroes taking on the protestors.

Any hesitancy of the police to make arrests and put a stop to the disruption on our streets must end. It is sadly inevitable that people are going to be hurt if officers don’t start to step in far more quickly.

While most of us are concerned about climate change, thankfully very few of us seek to make our point by repeatedly breaking the law.

These extremists cannot be allowed to continue making their points in this way. Parliament, the courts and the police must act to bring the criminal actions to an immediate end.

• David Spencer is head of Crime & Justice Policy Exchange & Former Detective Chief Inspector