Press Release:
Let London Live will be at New Scotland Yard on Tuesday 27th April 2021 12.30pm to present the news release below and call on police to answer our accusations that their intervention at the end of the historic peaceful march was a provocation.
Piers Corbyn the Mayoral candidate of Let London Live said:
On Friday 23 April, I and Dr Heiko Khoo applied for a High Court Injunction against the Commissioner of Police to prevent violence against people exercising their right to free speech, protest and assembly in Speakers’ Corner on Saturday 24th April.. Sadly Mr Justice Martin Spencer decided that such an injunction would excessively bind the hands of the Commissioner. However, our fears that there is a faction inside police command who will seek to instigate violent conflicts was confirmed by the events on Saturday. The reports about the “violence” from protestors in Hyde Park on Saturday totally misrepresented what happened. The demonstration that began and ended in Speakers Corner of between 200-500k people was a protest for Freedom and against Vaccine passports and Medical Apartheid. Anyone who has watched the actual footage live streamed from these events and the videos of what happened will be compelled to admit that the actions of the police were a deliberate provocation.
As a candidate for Mayor I demand an immediate inquiry into this operation to ensure complete transparency and accountability. The Let London Live candidate for the Central/West constituency Dr Heiko Khoo had just finished a speech about his election and witnessed the events first hand. He observed that the police attacked people enjoying a peaceful performance by musicians. Sadiq Khan, Dame Cressida Dick and Priti Patel must investigate the events and should make an apology to the public for misrepresenting the whole course of these events. This is what we observed and is confirmed by the video evidence.
Out of the blue the police aggressively marched towards the middle of a crowd of about 200 people listening to music.
The police had been watching that music event for at least an hour without taking any action.
The police assaulted multiple people men and women as they marched straight into the crowd. There was no attempt to engage or discuss with people at that moment.
The police grabbed one man and forced him to the floor while other officers tried to form a circle around the officers who were assaulting that person, who they grabbed without warning or any engagement.
The police pulled out truncheons and swung them at people without any grounds, despite being asked to put the truncheons away.
The crowd were peaceful, however, because the police were so violent,. aggressive and unreasonable in their assault on the group, many people shouted at the police, saying slogans such as “shame on you”, “what are you doing”, “we are peaceful you are violent”.
From the back of the crowd a few missiles were thrown. There seem to have been a couple of people in the crowd who were undercover police. We request that the Commissioner provide details of the undercover police who were in that crowd when the missiles were thrown and explain their role.
As the crowd followed the police and berated them for their violence and aggression, many of the protestors formed human shields to protect the police officers from violence.
One of the protestors is seen insistently approaching an officer with a head injury, to offer medical assistance. The police commander who ordered the police to attack the group listening to music and dancing must have intended to create an incident. In doing so he/she not only created a violent conflict endangering the public, but he/she also deliberately put these police officers in harms way. Throughout the day there were no conflicts or violence. The violence in the evening was entirely initiated by the police. There was no attempt by the police to claim that coronavirus rules or regulations were being broken in advance of their assault. Compare this with the cannabis smoking event on Tuesday 20 April when 20-50,000 young people played music and smoked drugs in Hyde Park without a single arrest and no attempt to break up music/dance and drug taking.
The evidence for what happened on the 24th April can be clearly seen here:
I trust the commissioner, the London Mayor and Priti Patel will launch an immediate inquiry with public representations into the false presentation of these events by the police, by the Home Secretary, and by the media.
As Mayor I would hold an inquiry into this and other incidents of political policing.
Yours sincerely
Mr Piers Corbyn, candidate for Mayor and Dr. Heiko Khoo candidate for London Assembly for Let London Live.
For further information:
Mr Piers Corbyn 07958 713320 corbynpiers@gmail.com
Dr Heiko Khoo 07722 523629 heikokhoo@googlemail.com