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Met only authorised baton rounds for black-led events, FOI reveals
(www.theguardian.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Known as plastic bullets, baton rounds have never been fired during public order incidents on the British mainland, but have been used in Northern Ireland, where earlier versions of the weapons led to deaths.
Liberty Investigates submitted a request asking the Met whether police chiefs had approved the potential use of baton rounds – which are officially called attenuating energy projectiles [AEP] – before events from 2013 to the present.
Oliver Feeley-Sprague from Amnesty International said: “The Met’s pre-authorisation of their use at Notting Hill and at Black Lives Matter protests smacks of racist decision-making from a force already notorious for its institutional racism.”
“They have been authorised as a precaution in a very limited number of situations in recent years, including protests in central London in 2020 where serious violence was anticipated and occurred, resulting in significant injuries to more than 40 officers.
“This was prompted by serious concerns about a further escalation in disorder, with large numbers of people anticipated and an indication that counter-protesters could travel to London, leading to potential confrontations between groups.”
Victor Olisa, a former Met chief superintendent, said other events during the period in question, some of which turned violent, were not assessed as potentially requiring baton rounds.
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