The Metropolitan Police said its commissioner was “in a hurry” after grabbing a Sky News journalist’s microphone and throwing it on the ground.
Sir Mark Rowley grabbed part of the microphone and discarded it as he walked away after Sky News journalist Rob Catherall asked if he was “going to end two-tier policing”.
The UK’s most senior police chief was leaving the Government Office in central London, where he had attended an emergency COBRA meeting with the Prime Minister, ministers and other police chiefs to discuss the riots that spread across the United Kingdom.
Hundreds of people were arrested and many police officers were injured when riots broke out following the stabbing in Southport last Monday, which killed three girls and left 10 other children and adults injured.
Follow live political updates
Latest riots in the United Kingdom
Sir Mark was making his way past a small group of photographers and journalists to get to his car in Whitehall on Monday afternoon.
The moment was captured on camera.
The issue of two-tier policing arose after UK reformist leader Nigel Farage suggested that “the impression of two-tier policing” had become widespread since the “soft policing of the Black Lives Matter protests”.
A Met Police spokesperson told Sky News: “The commissioner had a positive and constructive meeting with the Prime Minister and government and policing partners.
“He was in a hurry to get back to New Scotland Yard to take action on the agreed next steps.”
See more information:
Liverpool protesters at court – youngest is 14, oldest 69
Starmer criticizes Musk’s comment on ‘civil war’
Prisons ready for ‘thug minority’
Protesters outside the Holiday Inn Express, housing asylum seekers in Rotherham. Photo: PA
Sky’s police correspondent Martin Brunt said Sir Mark’s actions were “petulant, even childish and unnecessary”.
“It was a storm in a teapot, but perception is everything,” he said.
“The commissioner, no doubt, like all police chiefs, has urged his team to show restraint in the face of bottles, bricks and fire.
“And all on a day when politicians demanded that the full force of the law be applied to protesters.”
Keep up with the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
He said the Met’s explanation was “mitigation, not defence”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer rejected Farage’s claims about two-tier policing, saying it was “not a problem” and that there is “policing without fear or favour”.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
