Retired officers risk arrest as they join side of demonstrators
FORMER senior police officers joining climate protests today risk arrest amid pleas from their ex-colleagues over the resources being wasted controlling demonstrations.
Just days after the Met Police warned that the protests were taking officers away from other vital roles and placing a greater burden on the force than terrorism, several retired officers have released a video explaining why they joined Extinction Rebellion.
The most senior is Rob Cooper, 60, a former chief superintendent with Devon and Cornwall Police. He is risking arrest when he attends the protest in London today, where the group has vowed to shut down Westminster.
Mr Cooper, who retired a decade ago, said: “We really do face a climate emergency. There are times when I really struggle.” He added that the pressure climate change will put on the emergency services was one of the reasons he joined Extinction Rebellion, but admitted that in April’s protests: “I did feel self-conscious because I was used to being on the other side of the protest line.”
John Curran, 49, a retired detective sergeant, was held during action earlier this year when he refused to leave Waterloo Bridge. He will return to the capital and risk arrest a second time today. In a video he said: “Had you told me five years ago ‘John, you will be arrested, you will be interviewed in a police cell’, I would have laughed at you.”
They will be joined by Richard Ecclestone, a former inspector who was taught by Cressida Dick, the Met commissioner, at the college of policing, who argued: “A lack of action now is going to cost us far more in the future.”
The former soldier, whose role in Devon and Cornwall police was emergency planning, said of climate danger: “The security services, both police and the military as well, would be engaged in trying to stop people from basically killing each other for resources. Basic resources like food and water.”