Met Police spent £1.5million policing London BLM protest

English taxpayers reportedly paid out £1.5 million to police Black Lives Matter and counter-protests on the weekend of June 13th to 14th.

This is not the first time that vast amounts of public money has been used to pay for London’s Met to police protests.

It was reported last year that policing the Extinction Rebellion protests had cost £37 million by October of 2019. Covering the two-week-long ‘Autumn Rising’ actions cost £21 million alone. April 2019’s protests cost £16 million — more than the annual budget for the Violent Crime Taskforce, which is £15 million.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick had said at the time that policing the far-left eco-extremist events — which saw protesters glue themselves to buildings and vehicles, hold up public transport, and block London’s major roads — had come at the cost of policing other crimes.

At the time of the protests, Met Commander Bas Javid said police had made the right decision to allow demonstrators to gather in Central London despite the lockdown and fears of violent clashes.

England and Wales had seen a 1,700 per cent rise in violent protests in 20 years. According to the Police Federation, in 2019 some 126 protests descended into violence, compared to just seven in 2000. The increase in violence has resulted in millions of pounds’ worth of property damage and the injury of hundreds of police officers.

During three weeks of June, at the height of the BLM protests, 140 Metropolitan Police Force officers had been injured.