Police arrest 19 at London protest against social distancing
17 May, 2020
London police arrested 19 persons on Saturday for deliberately breaking social distancing guidelines in protest against the guidelines, on the first weekend since Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced hook loosening of England's lockdown.
The Metropolitan Police said that a group in central London's Hyde Park have been protesting about the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and had didn't adhere to repeated requests to disperse.
"It was disappointing a relatively small group in Hyde Park came together to protest the regulations in clear breach of the guidance, putting themselves and others vulnerable to infection," Laurence Taylor, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, said in a statement.
"Officers once again, took a measured approach and tried to activate the group to disperse. They evidently had no intention of doing so, therefore it did cause 19 persons being arrested, and a further ten being issued with a set penalty notice."
Last Sunday, Johnson outlined plans to ease the lockdown, and persons in England are actually allowed to talk with another person from a different household in a park. However social distancing should be maintained under the rules, and gatherings of large groups aren't allowed.
The protesters represented a minority of these the authorities encountered on Saturday, Taylor said.
"It had been pleasing to see that persons were largely compliant with the federal government guidance. Where they weren’t, and directly after we engaged with them, they quickly were," he said.
Source: japantoday.com
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