Jenny Jones, Green Party London Assembly Member and member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, has commented on police failures at protests against tuition fee rises in Central London yesterday.
Jenny Jones said:
"The policing of the student fees demonstration shows that the Met still hasn't learned how crucial communication is to the effective policing of demonstrations. They under-estimated the numbers as they didn't listen to the National Union of Students who reported a big surge of interest with more coaches being booked. The Met failed to deploy quickly, even after the students entered the wrong building at Millbank Towers."
She continued:
"To be fair on the police, they got caught out by a spontaneous outburst of anger and those moments are very hard to anticipate and plan for."
The Green Party is committed through its Constitution to non-violent forms of direct action, and has criticised yesterday's violence for drawing attention away from the aims of the overwhelming majority of peaceful demonstrators, who are appalled at the government's plans to raise the cap on tuition fees to £9000 per year.
Opposing the use of violence by protestors and police alike, Jenny Jones concluded:
"Although I do not like seeing people breaking into buildings, I like seeing the police hitting peaceful protestors even less. From a police perspective, embarrassed is better than shamed."
Jenny is our candidate for London Mayor 2012. For more information on her campaign, please visit www.jennyforlondon.org