
The episode discusses the implications of Mark Rowley's actions against Zack Polanski and the political neutrality of the Metropolitan Police.
Mark Rowley tried to put Polanski in the dock over a retweet — and ended up putting the Met’s politics, tactics and neutrality on trial instead. Right, so Sir Mark Rowley has put himself in the dock by trying to put Zack Polanski there instead. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has taken a retweet by the Green Party leader – nothing he’s actually said himself, just a retweet of someone else’s comment - written a formal public letter rebuking him in his capacity as Met Police Chief, gone onto national broadcast studios on top of that to defend it in uniform, and done all of that in the final week before local elections. Polanski did not direct an arrest, did not interfere with officers at the scene, did not stand in Golders Green giving tactical advice from a Green Party soapbox, and did not defend the man charged over the attack. He reposted this: criticism of police force after footage circulated of officers kicking a man repeatedly in the head during his arrest. Rowley then took the authority of Britain’s biggest police force and aimed it straight at a named party leader, while telling everyone this was not politics, absolutely not politics, perish the thought, it’s…
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