London cop sparks outrage after saying swastikas ‘need to be taken into context’
The London Metropolitan Police is facing outrage after a video posted online showed an officer telling a woman that swastikas need “to be taken into context” and may not necessarily be antisemitic at a massive anti-Israel march over the weekend.
Footage posted online shows a woman speaking to a uniformed officer stationed on the side of a march calling for a ceasefire in Israel on Saturday, saying that another cop told her “that a swastika was not necessarily antisemitic or a disruption of public order.”
“That doesn’t seem right to me,” she says.
The unidentified police officer in the video then seems to double down on what his colleague said, as he starts to explain, “so I think the symbol in itself —” but is cut off by the unidentified woman who tells those around her, “Please for the love of God, film this.”
“A swastika in and of itself is not antisemitic?” the main woman continues to press.
At that point, the officer then starts to explain the UK’s Public Order Law, which gives law enforcement in the country greater powers to shut down disruptive protests.
“A swastika is a swastika,” the woman replies.
“Under what context is a swastika not disrupting public order?” she asks.
“I haven’t said anything about it — that it is or isn’t — everything needs to be taken in context doesn’t it?” the officer fires back.
“Yeah but it’s a context of a hateful march,” one of the other women replies.
The main woman in the video, meanwhile, continues to ask, “Why is a swastika not immediately antisemitism? Why does it need context? This is what I’m confused about.”
“In what context is a swastika not antisemitic and disruptive to public order? That is my question.”
The officer then replies that he does not have “in-depth knowledge of signs and symbols.”
“I know the swastika was used by the Nazi Party during their inception, and the period of them being in power in Germany in 1934, I’m aware of that,” he said.
“I just can’t believe this conversation is actually happening,” the woman shuts him down.
When she continues to ask why a swastika is not immediately considered antisemitic, the officer replies, “I suppose to some, I don’t know how everybody would feel about that.”
Emily Schrader, the CEO of Social Creative, shared the video on X.
“If you’re holding a sign with a swastika at an anti-Israel march — this is blatantly antisemitic,” she wrote.
“Come on Met Police… this is pathetic.”
Retired international relations professor Colin Wight also claimed that the police “can’t do anything” about people flying Nazi flags “without causing a major public disorder incident.
“They’ve lost control of the streets and they know it,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism also said the exchange was “absolutely gobsmacking.
“The very notion that a British police officer could imagine a context in which the Nazi swastika is an acceptable image to be displayed in public is distressing,” the spokesperson told the Daily Mail.
The spokesperson added that if Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley agrees that the swastika is context-dependant, “let him tell that to the hundreds of thousands of Britons who gave their lives to prevent that despicable symbol from ever being flown on the streets of London.”
Even Susan Hall, the conservative candidate in London’s upcoming mayoral election, called out the police department for the video.
“Antisemitism is unacceptable in any context, and the police need to be far more robust in rooting this out at protests,” she told LBC.
But the Metropolitan Police have so far defended the officer’s actions, and have confirmed the officer in the video will not be disciplined.
In a statement, the department noted that the three-minute clip “is a short excerpt of what was a 10-minute conversation.”
“During the full conversation, the officer establishes that the person the woman was concerned about had already been arrested for a public order offense in relation to a placard,” the police department said in a statement.
“The officer then offered to arrange for other officers to attend and accompany the woman to identify any other persons she was concerned about amongst the protesters, but after turning to speak to his supervisor, she unfortunately left.”
“We take hate crimes and public order offenses very seriously, and a number of people were arrested during today’s protest for hate crimes, public order and terrorist offenses,” the police department noted.
“We are also gathering and assessing evidence with a view to making further arrests where we can identify other offenses.”
