COUNTING COST
‘Militant’ eco-yobs slammed as a ‘drain on taxpayers’ after demos cost £7.7m in weeks – the same as 200 cops’ salaries
PROTESTS by Just Stop Oil eco-yobs cost the taxpayer a whopping £7.7 million in just 13 weeks, it has been revealed.
The Metropolitan Police today announced the huge cost of monitoring the 515 protests carried out across London by the environmentalist group since April.
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The sum shelled out by London’s Met Police on the climate protests since the end of April is equivalent to paying the annual salary of 200 officers.
More than 270 people were arrested, while more than 150 officers were taken away from community policing to keep an eye on the group on each day that they were active.
A Met chief accused JSO organisers of adding to pressure on resources by not communicating with police on plans for slow marches and disruption.
Speaking yesterday on , Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said: "The Met is a resilient organisation, we're a large organisation and we're used to policing protests, but this is quite a chronic thing.
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"In terms of every single day, we've got over 150 officers who ordinarily would be policing in local communities, who are policing in and around other parts of London.
"And one of the challenges we have with Just Stop Oil is they don't tell us where they're going to protest, they don't tell us when they're going to take this action, they don't engage, which means that we have to put more officers on it than we otherwise would do."
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: "This is militant extremism. JSO are a drain on British taxpayers and our police officers who are being taken away from neighbourhoods where they are needed most.
"Labour should return the cash from their JSO donor or, better yet, hand it straight to the police."
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Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson added: “Not only are Just Stop Oil's antics a menace to hardworking Brits, they're taking up time and money that could be used tackling London's soaring knife crime."
Met figures show the force has spent £7,729,086.20 in the last 13 weeks since eco-zealots in orange began slow marches to bring traffic to a standstill.
It has soaked up 23,597 officer shifts and a total of 273 people have been arrested so far.
That comes on top of the £7.5 million the Met spent on policing JSO between October and December last year.
Mr Twist said the right to protest “is very strongly protected” under the law.
But he added it tipped into crime when serious disruption stops people going about their daily business, to work, hospital or taking their children to school.
The eco-zealots regularly block motorists by slow-marching along roads, causing traffic to pile up.
This had led to clashes with drivers, who have been filmed dragging protestors off the roads and, in one case, even hurling a skateboard at them.
Just last week, a furious mum was heard screaming at the JSO yobs as they allegedly blocked her from driving her baby to hospital.
In addition, they have taken to disrupting televised events, including major sporting fixtures.
The Open, Wimbledon, The Ashes and the World Snooker Championship all faced disruption in their early stages, as did the final of rugby's Gallagher Premiership.
One of JSO's most-used tactics is for activists to run onto the field of play and hurl orange dust in the air
Other affected events include the Chelsea Flower Show, the London Pride march and Channel 4's The Last Leg.
Meanwhile, government and media buildings have been sprayed with orange paint as the organisation pushes its message of climate catastrophe.
One eco-idiot even made an appearance at the wedding of former Chancellor George Osborne, chucking orange confetti at the happy couple.
Labour's Rachel Reeves slammed JSO over the footage, though the group themselves denied involvement.
Ken Marsh, chair of the Met Police Federation, said that the protests are an "accident waiting to happen" and that officers have had enough of being "fall guys";.
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He told : "We need to get a grip of it – I hope none of my colleagues get seriously hurt, but it could possibly happen.
"Officers have had enough of it."
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