Former Met detective Peter Bleksley has hit out at the police for “going from heroes to victims” after scenes of violent disorder in the seaside town of Southport.
Merseyside Police said eight officers suffered serious injuries after clashing with people causing unrest by setting cars alight and throwing bricks at a local mosque.
Speaking on GB News, Bleksley said the chaos was “depressingly predictable” due to a supposed lack of communication from the police after a stabbing attack on Monday at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.
“It was horrific. It’s so depressingly predictable and therefore avoidable”, he said.
Bleksley has hit out at the police
PA / GB NEWS
“The communication from the Merseyside Police just doesn’t butter any parsnips. It has been appalling. The reach out to the community has failed.
“The police are so distant to the public these days so anyone could see this event coming.”
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He added: “These young girls were murdered and police officers heroically went to the scene and tried to save lives and arrested a man.
“The bigger picture is, with identikit police officers in this day and age who can write you a dissertation on reflective practice but do not know how to engage with people, the connection is now nonexistent.
“People are not fools. We have an entire breed of senior police officers who do not know how to speak to the man and woman on the street.
“People think they have the wool being pulled over their eyes, any spark of rumour goes around the community like wildfire and you, regrettably, have police vans being set on fire and officers being injured.
Peter Bleksley joined Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello on GB News
GB NEWS
“They have gone from heroes to victims in the matter of days, and that is a tragedy.”
Police officers had objects hurled at them by protesters following a vigil for Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.
Merseyside Police said “a large group of people – believed to be supporters of the English Defence League” – began to throw items such as bricks towards the mosque in the seaside town at around 7.45pm.
Officers put on helmets and riot gear after stones and bottles were launched at them and police vehicles were damaged and set on fire.
Police donned riot gear as violence erupted in SouthportPatrick Hurst/PAIn a post on social media, the force said shops had been “broken into and looted”, adding that “those responsible will be brought to justice”.
Elsie’s mother, Jenni Stancombe, wrote on Facebook: “This is the only thing that I will write, but please please stop the violence in Southport tonight.
“The police have been nothing but heroic these last 24 hours and they and we don’t need this.”
Chairman of Merseyside Police Federation Chris McGlade said more than 50 officers had been hurt in a “sustained and vicious attack”.
He added: “Police officers are not robots. We are mothers and fathers. Sons and daughters. Husbands, wives and partners.
“We should be going home at the end of our shifts. Not to hospital.”