Is there any way back for the Met Police?

‘You are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian march, I’m not accusing you of anything but I’m worried about the reaction to your presence.’

These were the words of a police officer to Gideon Falter last week as he walked along Aldwych after attending synagogue. The chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism was not protesting or making a public statement of any kind, yet an officer of the law warned him that his ‘presence’, wearing a yarmulke, was a ‘breach of the peace’.

Once the first wave of open-mouthed incredulity had passed, the widespread reaction to the police’s action was, quite rightly, outrage. The Metropolitan Police has been sharply criticised for its policing of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the capital since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October: the police have seemingly, at times, turned a blind eye to antisemitism, support for terrorism and incitement to hatred.