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The cost of ‘policing’ free speech
POLICE spent £111,000 last year on planning an assault on Brian Haw’s protest.
Mr Haw, 57, has held vigil in Parliament Square for six years, using a megaphone to attack the government”s policy on Iraq.
Up to 428 officer shifts were devoted to the overnight raid on May 23 2006 to scale back Mr Haw’s encampment, according to Scotland Yard figures.
The figure is more than four times greater than the £27,000 previously estimated.
A Scotland Yard report delivered to the Metropolitan Police Authority revealed “a large proportion of costs quoted do not represent additional costs to the Met. Rather, the officers and other staff assigned to a given operation would be assigned to other policing duties or operations,” the document added. |
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