West end letters: Protestors and police | Mark Newberry | G20 death | Europol | Grosvenor Square

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 5 June 2009

Protesters and police

• DURING my service with the Metropolitan Police I saw my share of demonstrations, Grosvenor Square among them, as well as plenty of angry trade disputes requiring a police presence.
I read your report (G20 death: Protest at cop tactics, May 29). Policing these events is hardly easy and sometimes short, sharp, responses deter escalation in the behaviour of those whose intent is not always peaceful.
It should be mentioned that around the time of the G20 demo, a Met officer died from injuries sustained when called to an aggravated burglary elsewhere.
Does anyone recall media outrage and pious editorials about that or the other Met police deaths on duty this year? During my 20-plus years as a central London sergeant I dealt with many thousands of prisoners. Some I saved from dying, either at their own hand or through their own actions. I notice no rush to celebrate this positive side of policing by those who pop out of the woodwork to knock the police at every opportunity. Perhaps they, unlike yours truly, have refrained from protesting about the EU plan for Europol - a European police force legally immune to action or complaint.
Let them march about that and the assault on our tradition of habeas corpus!
Mark Newberry
Harcourt Street, W1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
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Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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