The UK government has requested that police forces receive “clarified” guidance on how to handle hate crimes in response to recent events. The Met Police has been criticized for its handling of pro-Palestinian protests, which included a man shouting “jihad” at a separate event from the main march. Despite reviewing the clip, the Met said it had not identified any offences. Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said his force is limited by laws on hate speech but should be “ruthless in tackling anybody who puts their foot over the legal line.” However, he also argued that hate crime laws “probably need redrawing” as they give extremist groups the ability to spread “truly toxic messages” without breaking the law.
Several ministers, including Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, have called for tougher policing of the protests and for the “full force of the law” to be used against those inciting violence and using hate speech. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted that police already have the power to arrest those inciting violence or racial hatred and that there is “no place on our streets for that type of behaviour.” The Homes Office is working on providing officers on the ground with comprehensive guidance on the powers and tools available to them to enforce the law against hate crimes.
More than 1,000 officers were involved in policing the pro-Palestine demonstration in London on Saturday, which attracted up to 100,000 people. Thirty-four arrests were made relating to possession of fireworks, public order offenses, and assaulting an emergency worker. The smaller rally staged by the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, at which the man allegedly shouted “jihad,” was close to the main march.
The Public Order Act criminalizes inciting violence against another person, while the Terrorism Act requires prosecutors to demonstrate that a person was encouraging others to “commit, prepare or instigate acts of terrorism” to convict them. The Met Police, in a statement, argued that while the word jihad has various connotations, the public will most frequently associate it with terrorism. The force said specialists at the Crown Prosecution Service had also concluded there were no offenses relating to the specific clip of the man shouting “jihad.
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