How the paparazzi must have groaned about Prince William’s low-key stag do, which took place in secret last weekend.
Last weekend, a relatively peaceful anti-cuts march through the capital was infiltrated by a small number of criminals armed with crowbars and intent on destruction. Their handiwork defined the march. All it took were a few iconic photographs — Santander’s windows being smashed, the occupation of Fortnum & Mason — and London looked to the world like a city under siege. The Metropolitan police could have and should have dealt with these disruptive thugs, but instead, as they wielded their weapons, they were surrounded not by police officers but by a throng of excited photographers.
The shops, hotels and banks of central London were not protected from rioters, but nor were they prepared — a sign that they had been assured by the Met that there would be no danger. It was as if the police calculated that the damage that might be done was not worth the risk entailed in sending officers to restrain the trouble-makers.
Imagine how the New York cops would have reacted if anarchists had tried to target Tiffany’s or a Wall Street bank. No one with a crowbar would have got within a hundred yards. In New York, the police are ubiquitous, highly visible, and famed for their zero-tolerance approach. In recent years, they have also excelled at infiltrating suspect groups and identifying the violent elements. It is no accident that Islamic terrorists have not laid a finger on the city since the Twin Towers fell almost ten years ago. Over the last decade, crime in New York has almost halved. In London it has soared. People living in Lambeth are now twice as likely to be murdered or raped as people in the Bronx.
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