If
anyone got robbed, burgled or raped this weekend in London and wondered where
the police were when they needed them - hey, they had other things on their
mind.
Around
4,000 cops took part in a 48-hour 'Operation Condor' operation to enforce
alchohol and other licensing laws. According to The Guardian today:
'Since 8am on Friday police have visited nearly 6,000 premises, where 1,046
offences were reported or disclosed during the operation, dubbed Operation
Condor. Twenty-two venues were shut down, including pubs, saunas and massage
parlours, with police checking for sex worker cards and that no-drinking zones
had been enforced... At least 297 people were arrested for various offences,
including 38 for theft, 20 for public order offences, 20 for possessing Class-A
drugs, 22 for possessing Class-B drugs, 26 for possession with intent to supply,
seven for possessing offensive weapons, 18 for drunkenness, and 52 for
immigration offences' (in other words mostly victimless 'crimes' which any
fishing expedition rounding up people in bars and clubs would find).
The
operation included a show-piece raid on 93 Feet East in Brick Lane on Friday
night: 'One of the largest individual operations involved 175 officers,
including the Territorial Support Group, the Met police's helicopter and dog
units, who raided the 93 Feet East club in Brick Lane after reports of dealers
selling Class-A drugs. Police arrested nine people for offences, including
possession of drugs with intent to supply, and the club was closed'.
The
police have posted some 'raid porn' footage on
youtube showing them piling in to 93 Feet East, the message being
'we are big, we are tough, and we mean business'. Ludicrous really, these
periodic blitzes have been going for decades and they don't make the slightest
difference to the levels of drug taking, or drinking after hours.
 |
| helicopter footage showing swarm of police at 93 Feet East |
By they way are the Metropolitan Police aware of the resonance of the term Operation Condor, particularly for the many Latin American migrants in London? It was also the name for a notorious campaign of terror conducted by right wing dictatorships in South America in the 1970s, during which tens of thousands of people were tortured and executed.
0 nháºn xét