A second English police force is under pressure after footage emerged of its officers escorting counterprotestors to a demonstration outside an alleged migrant hotel.
Asylum seekers were reported to be lodging at a premises in Aldershot when, back in May, locals objected to their presence. Their initial protest was met with a counter-demo, whose participants seem to be arriving under the protection of Hampshire police, dropping them off at the scene. When the footage was seen by former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, he complained
It is simply not the police’s job to facilitate protest. It is their job to make sure there is peace on the streets.
The revelation comes as community-led protests heat up in Epping, Essex, where an Ethiopian resident of the Bell Hotel has been charged with sexual offences against a 14-year-old girl. As local outrage grew, far-left campaigners from out of town—notably Stand Up to Racism—turned up to shout ‘fascist scum’ at angry parents. The police denied bringing the sometimes-masked protestors to the hotel, until video evidence showed otherwise, whereupon the tactic was hastily reclassified as a ‘safety decision.’
Now Hampshire police are accused of doing the same thing, begging the question: just whose side are they on?
