6th April 2008
Sir Ian Blair was criticised today for allowing the Metropolitan Police to become an additional private security force for the Olympic Torch procession.
The Commissioner of the Met said in a television interview that the Metropolitan Police would 'do everything' to protect the Olympic Torch procession from being disrupted by demonstrators.
Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said this afternoon:
'Sir Ian Blair should not have provided the Olympic authorities with an additional free private security firm in Metropolitan Police uniforms. The Chinese security should have been increased instead of presenting Londoners with a bill for something totally outside their control.
'Instead, the police should allow protests and merely keep the way clear for the procession. It should be the responsibility of the Olympic authorities to provide protection for the misguided celebrities taking part.'
In the past, Christian Voice has protested outside the Chinese Embassy against the Chinese policy of forced abortions and the Chinese Government's treatment of Christians. Christians who are not members of state-registered churches are, like Falun Gong followers, subjected to summary arrest, imprisonment and torture by a regime which cannot tolerate what it cannot control.
Stephen Green said: 'The last time we held a witness outside the Chinese Embassy, the Met had to be forced to allow it by the threat of court action. The British police should not allow themselves to be used as a private security force to save the blushes of one of the most despotic and anti-Christian regimes on God's earth. '
