Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

The problem with the Met’s morality policing

The problem with the Met’s morality policing

Ah, the last days of summer. Long evenings, sunny weekends, and crusty Extinction Rebellion hippies blocking arterial traffic lanes to the audible grinding of teeth from the police officers tasked with standing by and politely watching their sub-art-school amdram productions, rather than getting on with the business of giving them a much-needed hosing down with Boris’s water cannons.
As Charlie Peters has pointed out for the Mail, the impression of police impotence has nothing to do with the willingness of the bobby on the beat to break out a truncheon and apply it liberally to the thorax of middle-class graduates enjoying their day off by making everyone else late for work.

Instead, their natural inclination towards robust enforcement of the law is being held in check by red-tape and lawyerly wrangling, and by the tacit support of their superiors for Extinction Rebellion’s ‘important cause’.

It’s natural for the police to want to stay on the good side of public opinion, but looking over the last year it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that the upper echelons spend more time trying to triangulate their position in the political game than they do actually enforcing the law.

When Black Lives Matter dominated the political conversation, Chief Constables said their first responsibility to illegal rallies smashing statues was to try ‘to protect property if that’s the right thing to do’, but mostly to make sure ‘officers and those taking part are safe’. When a vigil was held for Sarah Everard, it was time to consider the importance of consistency, take into account the risk of Covid spreading, and send in the heavy squad to break things up.

It’s no wonder that officers sometimes end up finding themselves in trouble when the rules are so inconsistent. Every year, we’re told that Pride is political and Pride is a protest. And the police, as apolitical enforcers of the law, wear rainbow epaulettes and march in their uniforms. At BLM protests, officers at an illegal gathering taking the knee in solidarity with the cause were given a stern instruction almost a year later to ‘think very carefully’ before doing it again, but also told it would be ‘unfair’ for the brass to ‘criticise officers who take actions on the spur of the moment’. This was all fine and good because the police were using political symbols we liked. Then a Met officer shouted ‘free Palestine’ and all hell broke loose.

The effect of these political games is dispiriting and confusing for both the police and the policed. Just imagine listening to your boss work through the logical contortions that come with trying to explain why it’s essential that one protest in breach of the rules should be allowed to go ahead, but also that it must end by 8 p.m. so that people attending other unauthorised gatherings can be identified and arrested.

Decking police cars out in rainbows ‘to give confidence to our LGBT+ community’ belongs to the same category of behaviour. The rainbow flag might be unofficial state regalia for a few months of the year, but it is still explicitly political, and associates the police with political stances. No one sensible disputes the point that the law takes sides in moral arguments. No matter how strongly a liberal society claims to be ‘hands off’, it demands significant concessions in terms of personal morality and public behaviour rather than presenting a truly neutral face. But for the police tasked with upholding those rules, it’s important to be seen as impartial.

No matter how much they want the support of the political and media bubble, they also need the support of conservatives and religious minorities. And when these equally valid segments of society have clashing values, the best way to achieve that is to stay neutral. Claiming that the rainbows on your cars are supposed to encourage ‘other underrepresented groups’ when those groups are devoutly religious and not uniformly enthusiastic about the rainbow’s connotations seems less like a misstep and more like an insult.

Taking the decision to act as interpreters of the law rather than enforcers results in morality policing, where leeway is given to causes deemed sufficiently worthy while others are held to the harshest possible standards. If the police want the support of the public, they should be predictable, fair, and do their jobs. They should spend less time worrying about the decoration on their vehicles, and more time clearing the roads.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
×