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Following the protests at Epping in Essex, police are warning that they are not ready for a summer of riots.
Last weekend protests started in Epping which has been dubbed a “signal flare” fore more kick off in the coming weeks, the head of the Police Federation Tiff Lynch has warned.
Lynch is warning that police are being “pulled in every direction” as police chiefs are being “forced to choose between keeping the peace at home or plugging national gaps.”
She said it is “dangerous to assume” the police can “hold the line indefinitely” should there be violent riots and unrest seen in 2024, Lynch wrote in The Telegraph.
Lynch said, “It would be comical if it wasn’t so serious – and so familiar. Local commanders are once again being forced to choose between keeping the peace at home or plugging national gaps.”
Speaking about the riots in 2024 Lynch said this “exposed the deep fragility within our public order policing system.”
She added, “Officers were left to face missiles with little more than a shield and a short briefing. The risks were there in black and white – yet little has improved since.
She warned that many people across England feel “utterly abandoned” and questioned if the UK values those who step forward when things go wrong.
Lynch said, “This is about whether the country still values the men and women who step forward when everything else breaks down.
“Right now, many of them feel utterly abandoned.”
This comes as Essex Police has been hit with allegations that they “bussed” in pro-migrant protesters to the Bell Hotel in Epping using police vans.
Ben-Julian Harrington, Chief Constable of Essex Police has faced calls to resign and he denied the claims on Wednesday.
Harrington told GB News, “We had officers there and they walked alongside to make sure they understood so they could intervene and prevent crime.
“That’s what happened, that’s what the photos show and that’s what we did.”
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