Sam Ashworth-Hayes Sam Ashworth-Hayes

The police have bowed to the mob

A crowd blocks an immigration enforcement team, Peckham

On Saturday immigration enforcement officers went to Peckham to pick up a man suspected of overstaying his visa. When they arrived, a crowd of protesters turned up to stop the ‘immigration raid’, blocking the van from departing. When the police turned up, they also found their way blocked. Eventually, they gave up. The arrested man was released on bail.

The Home Office released a statement which said that ‘preventing immigration enforcement teams from doing their job is unacceptable.’ This was accompanied by the universally understood but officially unstated caveat: not that we’d prevent you from preventing officers doing their job.

British law enforcement is based on the principle of ‘policing by consent’. This has traditionally meant police forces winning the confidence and trust of the general public so they can pursue their roles with minimal resistance. Over the last five years this code has been gradually updated.

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