Whose Freedom?

The revelation that it has cost the Metropolitan police over £32.3 million to police the anti Gaza war marches since the pogrom in Israel on October 7th is staggering. This is only for the marches in London; we know that they have occurred across the UK, and that each has required most of that city’s police force to keep order. And of course the costs given do not include the costs of cleaning the streets afterwards, or of trying to scrub off graffiti which has been scrawled on war memorials and buildings. 

 The Met revealed that 35,464 officer shifts, and 5200 officer rest days have been cancelled because of the London demonstrations.  Now, the government’s independent advisor on political violence, Lord Walney, suggests that the government explores the prospect of reclaiming some of the money from the organisers of the protests.

This is the very least that should happen. My preference would be for the marches to stop. Before anyone starts shrieking about freedom of speech, I have to clarify: freedom of speech does not mean automatically being granted a platform whenever you demand one. Freedom of speech means that you are free to say or write what you wish as long as it does not break the law. This is very different from being given the automatic right to disrupt the life of millions of people. The case to do so becomes even less convincing if the same march has already been carried out. In fact, it has been carried out numerous times since October 7.

We are able to comprehend clearly that any idiot who demands a slot on prime time BBC News is not entitled to it unless they have earned it through the democratic will of the people, for instance, by being elected as a member of Parliament. Why then do we have a disconnect as far as marches are concerned? Should we not apply similar criteria? By all means people should be allowed to compile petitions, shout on social media, and gather in their living rooms if they wish. But bring our streets to a halt and, as has been seen in the case of Gideon Falter, stop certain groups of people from being able to go about their life peaceably? No. Not unless an overwhelming majority of the population demand it. And that doesn’t seem to be the case. It seems to be the ranks of the far left and the Muslim population who make up the majority of the marchers. Fine, they have been given a chance to express their views, and not just once. 

But when we hear that a vast amount has been spent in our capital city alone simply to police these marches? It might be easier to stomach if we had a police force that was performing well on all indicators of crime. But in the capital, the police almost never attend a domestic burglary, even when the loss is of thousands of pounds worth of goods, or the citizen is a vulnerable person on their own terrified of a repeat visit. The looting of shops has become a daily occurrence, with thieves now so brassneck that they don’t even bother to try and hide their actions, instead piling trollies high with bottles and making a dash for it. Numerous security staff have been attacked when they try to approach these looters - shoplifters isn’t an adequate term for them. Small businesses are going bust. But the police don’t even attend unless the goods come to over several hundred pounds, and even then, there is no prospect of getting the stolen items back. 

And what about violent crime? The number of stabbings on London Street continues to rise unabated. Women are afraid to walk home even after work in case some psychopath leaps out at them. Gangs roam the streets armed with knives or guns. Young people lose their lives every day. Of course you can’t predict violent crime, but if those police officers keeping order at the marches were instead employed on the beat, day and night, there  would immediately be reassurance for law abiding people and a deterrent to criminals.

I’ve also seen people sniping that it’s a falsehood to say that the streets of London are not safe for Jewish people because Gideon Falker was not telling the truth when he said he happened to be in the area. ‘ He intended to confront the marches’, splutter the selectively self righteous. I’ve even seen reasonable secular Jews write this in articles, as if it somehow vindicates the Met’s response.

Let’s just reverse the situation for a minute. Instead of the marchers shouting ‘death to Jews’ and brandishing Hamas posters and parroting the murderous Hamas intent ‘ from the river to the sea’, imagine if they were waving National Front flags and shouting ‘death to Blacks.’ For a start, they would never be allowed to do so. They would have been arrested immediately rather than a blind eye being turned to them for numerous marches. Secondly, if a white person decided to go and confront the marchers, do you think he would be threatened with arrest? Do you think that people would mutter that he was asking for it; looking for trouble; he should have known to leave well alone? Of course not, he would be hailed as a hero, by you and by me. Because bigotry is disgusting. If the police will not do their job and clamp down on it, then courageous ordinary citizens will do so, and we will laud them.

So the next time you defend the right of the pro Hamas mob to march, just ask yourself, whose freedom of speech are you protecting? Is it freedom of speech or freedom of pique? And does it come at the expense of the freedom of others to exist.