| schema:articleBody
| - London's police chief on Friday called violence towards officers "utterly unacceptable", after they faced a second night of attacks while trying to break up illegal street parties. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the force had "a duty" to shut down unlawful music events on the British capital's streets, especially during the pandemic. "For our officers who are simply doing their duty to be attacked is utterly unacceptable," she said. "These events are unlawful. They shouldn't be happening and we have a duty to go and close them down and to disperse them." The comments came after police said officers were pelted with objects as they tried to disperse crowds late Thursday at an unauthorised event in Notting Hill, west London. That followed violent scenes the previous night in Brixton, in the capital's south, when 22 officers were injured attempting to close down an unlawful street party. Footage on social media showed police vehicles smashed and officers pelted with bottles and other objects during clashes with a large and unruly crowd. "It was a really really horrible incident for them to deal with, really vicious attacks by people using bottles, glasses and anything they could pick up," said Dick. Three officers suffered "really quite nasty injuries", she added. In response, the Met launched an "enhanced policing operation" Thursday night, with officers specially trained in public order and in enhanced personal protective equipment. In addition to the disturbances in Notting Hill, where no officers were injured, police also shut down another illegal party in Streatham, south London. Interior minister Priti Patel said Friday the violence was "appalling". "The police have my full backing in tackling criminality & enforcing the law -- criminals will face consequences," she added on Twitter. The latest unrest follows several weeks of sometimes violent protests sparked by the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, during a police arrest in the United States. Clashes involving a small minority of anti-racism demonstrators and some counter-protesters saw dozens of officers injured, according to the Met. The disturbances also come as the three-month coronavirus lockdown is eased in England before a scheduled reopening of the hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors, including pubs. The reopening on July 4 has prompted fears of further violence and anti-social behaviour, and police fear being overstretched. In Germany, hundreds of people unleashed a riot of an "unprecedented scale" in the city centre of Stuttgart in the early hours of last Sunday, attacking police and plundering stores after smashing shop windows. German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the rampage as "abhorrent" as concerns grew that law enforcers were increasingly treated with contempt. jj/phz/lc
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)