Unexpected consequences

A bright sunny day and for me a fruitful morning as I wrote the final two Easter week reflections before lunch. Then I walked into town, in the hope of finding a store open where I could buy some new socks, as almost all those in my drawer have holes in them. I was delighted to find Marks and Spencer open to sell clothes, so I was able to buy just what I needed. 

I walked back through Bute Park, where scores of different species of trees are now in full blossom - its a glorious sight. I was astonished at the large number of young people out in groups of two to a dozen, chatting, picnicking, or just reading quietly in the sun. I'd guess around two thousand spread across all three open areas. I think they were mostly Uni students. Term may just about be ended now, but there are still restrictions on non essential travel so British students won't be able to go home to family yet.

There have been no covid related deaths now for several days and the infection rate is low, but caution is still being exercised over the resumption of normal activity. It's still a matter of the country feeling its way, measuring the impact of every relaxation, which I think is sensible, if painful to bear with. But at least, outdoor socialising is possible with better weather and lifting restrictions. 

The Inspectorate of Constabulary enquiry into the handling of the Clapham Common demonstration has exonerated Police action, seeing it as consistent with their obligation to enforce public safety legislation. Politicians came in for criticism about the lack of clarity and changes in legislation which Police were called to enforce, as this made this more difficult. Seeing the whole picture from many angles, the enquiry considered that the majority of demonstrators were seen to behave responsibly, and it was a small number of people whose conduct put others at risk, prompting the need for arrests, exploited on social media. The report highlighted weakness in police operational communications when the situation changed rapidly and went off-plan. Ultimately, a few big egos ruined the event for everyone else, just as I thought. 

Again this evening I walked to St Luke's for the Eucharist, attended by sixteen of us once more. The streets are quiet after dark except where fast food takeaways are open, but there are no queues, very few customers. I wonder how they survive economically. It's the same in the city centre by day too, shoppers are few and far between, some pubs and restaurants are in the throes of refurbishment. How they afford to do this after a year with only a fraction of normal trading is a mystery to me.

It only takes a few

Although Saturday lie-in and pancake breakfast are part of our 'new normal', it still succeeds in feeling special - the absence of compulsion to get on and do other things. So much so that today I forgot to take my blood pressure medication altogether and only remembered while out walking with Clare at tea-time. I didn't notice the difference at all in fact, not like I noticed the difference when I stopped taking the top up doxazosin, absence of a fuzzy swimmy head, absence of unusual joint pains, and my blood pressure generally about the same, and not screaming 'crisis!' at me.

People in Wales are allowed to travel more than 5km from today. There were noticeably few people out in the parks, and not all the parking spaces were taken up in consequence. It was more like midweek than a weekend. We decided not to join the inevitable rush to the coast or the mountains. Not much point in traffic queues or hunting for parking spots. We can venture out when it's quieter, and people are back at work, although most children are back in school only for a few days this coming week, and then it's the Easter holidays.

Infection levels are diminishing, but not as rapidly as in the past couple of weeks. Given the third wave of contagion surging through several European nations, it's right that government public messaging repeatedly highlights the need for continued vigilance and precaution. International travel is tightly controlled and foreign holidays deemed illegal at the moment, which sounds bizarre and is a red rag to bullish libertarians. There have been protests this week in cities throughout Britain against legislation aiming to bolster police powers in relation to protest demonstrations. Last weekend, there was a vigil of protest on Clapham Common which police badly mishandled, arousing a storm of public indignation. 

More often than not, police manage demonstrations successfully, containing unruly elements, spotting and defusing threats of chaos. If something goes wrong, the world notices and pronounces before there's been any proper analysis or conclusion reached about the chain of events. Maybe that Clapham Common event went wrong because police team briefings weren't adequate or far sighted enough to achieve the objective of keeping everyone safe in a public space, without unnecessary enforcement action. 

Organisers of the demonstration claim to have planned and prepared with safety in mind, and most of the day's vigil occurred without issue. Things went wrong as some individuals decided to give impromptu speeches to the crowd without a public address system. This caused people to bunch up as they tried to listen and put each other at risk. The police saw the danger and acted clumsily to manage the situation. 

The fact that some people felt their voices must be heard, that they had a right to speak regardless of the circumstances, may not have been intended by the organisers. It meant they lost control, and the police were obliged to step in unprepared. Thus the thoughtless egotism of the few precipitated chaos. How much more powerful an expression of protest it could have been if this hadn't happened - unanimous disciplined silent witness, not disrupted by noisy voices stating the obvious.

How unfortunate this should happen as national debate over increasing police powers gained momentum. In a few days, the energy of protest shifted from violence against women to the tabled legislation. A demonstration in Bristol city centre turned into a violent attack on the central police station, and further protests happened there in the days following. 

When youth rioted in the St Paul's area of Bristol where I was parish priest back in 1980, it was very much a local incident of rebellion. In the hours and days that followed, anarchist activists with little or no local foothold arrived, to take advantage of the sense of injustice and discrimination felt within the community. They were soon spotted and told to clear off by local leaders. 

It's interesting to observe that the radical creativity characteristic of the city still contains a hard core of old school anarchists, willing to cause trouble and do so violently. It's another kind of selfish egotism, that masquerades as freedom for all. St Paul's rioted in Holy Week back in 1980. It gave us a different context for understanding Christ's passion and condemnation by a crowd turned into a vicious mob. It only ever takes a few people of ill-will or selfishness to re-direct the energy of a large gathering of people. Nothing has changed, in forty years, or two thousand for that matter.

Bed early tonight, as the clocks move forward an hour to summer time.

A policeman's lot is not a happy one

Surprisingly, there were only twenty two of us at the St Catherine's Eucharist this morning. Presentation bunches of daffodils for mothers were available on a takeaway table in the church grounds after. As the congregation are encouraged to clear out of the church as quickly as possible and not bunch around the main door, nobody hangs around on church grounds, but sensibly now, clergy hang around on the grass at a distance, where they can see and greet people departing. It's better than clergy hiding in the sacristy until the faithful have departed, but it still feels surreal, unnatural.

After preparing lunch, I went out for a circuit of Llandaff Fields before switching everything on to cook. For once, I got the timing right and we ate at the usual time, which was quite satisfying. Having had a good night's sleep, eight and a half hours, I didn't expect to fall sleep for an hour after the meal as well. I don't feel especially tired at any time and have no trouble falling asleep at night, but I sit down and doze off easily. Perhaps it's my age. The wind and the weather turned around midday, and it rained while I walked again later in the afternoon. There weren't as many people out in the park as is usual on a Sunday morning, but in the afternoon it was deserted, the car park by Cafe Castan was empty. The cafe closes at four these days and was already shuttered. Few takeaway consumers in the rain!

A Metropolitan police officer has been charged with the abduction and murder of Sarah Everard who vanished a week ago while walking home alone across Clapham Common. The whole story has not been told yet, and is of necessity sub-judice, but the vital role played by CCTV and residents' internet doorbell camera streams to track her movements, and alert investigators to the presence of the accused is already mentioned. The whole police force is naturally shaken and distressed by the betrayal of trust implied.

Women's groups then tried to organise a vigil on Clapham Common to protest about the persistence of violence against women. Covid safety rules banning mass assemblies were invoked, despite an assembly safety plan presented by organisers that would ensure social distancing, masks. The high court dismissed an appeal. The vigil was publicly cancelled, but this didn't stop a thousand or so women turning up with flowers and hanging around on the Common to pay their respects. A few started speech-making, people bunched together to listen in the absence of a public address system, the police deemed this was a public health risk, and started dispersing the crowd, meeting resistance, leading to some forceful arrests. Now there's a storm of media and political indignation and criticism of the police.

At various times over the past year, the police stood by when large crowds flocked to the beaches, and when people partied in Soho streets after the pubs shut, drawing criticism from the Home Secretary for not acting. The Home Secretary has endorsed last night's police action. I don't understand why no thought was given to a contingency plan to manage a spontaneous gathering if one should arise. There's been such strength of feeling all over the country, women and men needing and wanting to express grave concern about the persistence of violence against them. Did nobody think of this possibility? 

The police are good at erecting cordons (all that tape flapping in the breeze), cordoning the Common with supervised entrance points where people could register their presence with track and trace. Then a socially distanced entry and time slot for laying tributes, and leaving. It was reported people had taken flowers to the Common bandstand during the day. This could have stimulated 'What if?' thinking about handling affairs if numbers continued to grow and compromise public safety. Policing works by consent and trust. If these break down, from lack of information or poverty of imagination, things fall apart. 

Fear of covid is a persistent element of life nowadays. The insecurity it generates leads some to comply with safety measures while others deny and ignore them. And there's inevitably a confused grey area, where working out what is the right thing to do. It's complex and difficult. Police and other public servants, despite roles being specified in black and white terms, are trusted to occupy and act in the grey areas, and often without advice and support when they most need it. It's an unenviable position to be in. In the next week or so, debate about this sad breakdown of police - public relations is bound to be thought provoking.