This is just terrible

The female officer shown inside Fortnum and Masons telling the protesters that their exit from the store and  subsequent journey home was going to be expedited was either lying or was being seriously mislead by her colleagues outside: the UK Uncut protesters were all arrested as they left the building. I'm actually not sure which is worse, but either way police actions like this have, I think, enormous potential to seriously undermine public trust. Especially when they are caught on camera.

Whatever the potential justification - presumably, to make sure people (a) left the building and (b) did so peacefully - police officers simply cannot mislead people in this way. To do so completely undermines the role the police should have in maintaining an honest, respectful and open relationship between state and citizens. More specifically, such dishonesty damages the ability of the police to act as honest brokers between competing parties (here, Fortnum and Masons and the protesters), public trust in their fairness, and their ability to give unbiased evidence in any subsequent trial.

A couple of more specific points arise from this situation. Firstly, the protesters were, apparently, only inside the building for so long because the police outside would not let them out. One obvious defence -or at least mitigation - at trial will presumably therefore be "I wanted to leave when I was asked, but the police wouldn't let me".

Second, and much more important in terms of public perceptions of last Saturday's events, of the 149 charges made so far 138 arise from the UK Uncut occupation of Fortnum and Masons.1 In other words, to an entirely peaceful event exactly the same in format as several previous protests. These figures completely undermine press and government accounts that paint last Saturday as marked by massive violence. There obviously was some trouble, but there were only 201 arrests in total. So violent protests lead to a maximum of 63 arrests (actually less, since some were for drunk and disorderly etc.). So it can't have been that bad, surely?

1. For a full list of the charges made see here.