COVID THUGS TARGET OUR 999 HEROES
ASSAULTS REVEALED AS HOME SEC BRINGS IN £800 FINE IF YOU GO TO A HOUSE PARTY
VIOLENT assaults on emergency workers saving lives from Covid-19 are the most common crime of the pandemic.
As well as coughing and spitting on police officers, rule breakers have kicked, bitten and hit them with heavy objects. Attacks on nurses and paramedics are also among 1,688 charges for assaults in just six months, CPS figures show. In one incident at a hospital in Sussex, a drunken thug punched an A&E doctor to the floor then spat in the face of an officer trying to detain him.
Last night – as home secretary Priti Patel announced tougher £800 fines for people partying during lockdown – there were calls for mandatory jail terms for people who attack 999 staff.
Police Federation chair John Apter said: ‘Being spat and coughed at in the
middle of a pandemic is disgusting, dangerous and inhumane. Those who commit these attacks must spend time in prison. We need the CPS to consider a more serious charge than “assaults on emergency workers”. Without it, these attacks will continue to rise.’
Director of public prosecutions Max Hill called the high number of assaults ‘particularly appalling’.
He added: ‘I will continue to do all in my power to protect those who so selflessly keep us safe in this crisis.’
Ms Patel revealed tough new fines – and promised increased enforcement – at a Downing Street briefing last night.
Those at house parties of 1 or more will be fined at least £800 from next week – up from £200. Fines double for repeat offences to a maximum £6,400.
She said: ‘These grievous breaches are costing lives.’ NHS England regional medical director Dr Vin Diwakar backed them warning: ‘Breaking the rules is like switching on a light in the middle of a black-out in the Blitz.’
Calls are also growing for police to go on the vaccine priority list.
Dorset Police yesterday revealed two officers at a flash mob protest at Bournemouth beach on January 9 tested positive for Covid-19 days later – and one of them is in hospital with a suspected blood clot on his lung.
Anna Harvey, chair of Dorset Police Federation, asked: ‘When will officers get the vaccine so no more of our colleagues end up in hospital?’
Met Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has said she was ‘baffled’ they were not on the list.
Prime minister Boris Johnson told MPs he hoped police, 999 workers and teachers would get jabs ‘as soon as possible’ but was waiting for guidance from the joint vaccine committee.