‘Cops wasted no time in wielding their new protest-smashing powers at the coronation’

BEWARE a future of artificial intelligence, we are often told.

But it is not the existential threat of the steady creep of AI-style technology that should worry us the most right now.

It is the kind of spuriously-artificial “intelligence” referenced by the Met Police when justifying outrageous arrests.

We were told on Saturday that officers’ decision to pack up anti-monarchists placards and handcuff organisers was “acting on intelligence”, or as Channel 4’s newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy suggested: “imaginary things”.

In the days leading up to the coronation, Republic’s chief executive had said the group had been repeatedly assured by the Met that they would not be arrested if they did not actively disrupt the event.

Precisely what, or who, changed the Met’s mind that day has of course not been opened up to any public scrutiny.

All we know is the next morning a senior ranking officer visited the home of the chief executive of the Republic group to deliver a firm apology. Too late; damage already done.

More artificial “intelligence” was cited for the spectacular decision to arrest volunteers handing out rape alarms to vulnerable women in the West End, some actually wearing vests with Met logos on them as of a long-running women safety partnership.

In that case the intelligence was said to be a mystery tip-off that they might be plotting to disrupt the coronation, and this might scare the horses.

Who is sending in these great tips? Is there a vetting process?

You can bet we will be hearing many more references to intelligence thanks to two pieces of legislation.

The Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act targeting protests that cause “public nuisance” has been followed by the Public Order Act that was rushed through Parliament.

The Public Order Act – pushed through just in time for the coronation – has emboldened the Met and on Saturday the cops wasted no time in wielding their new protest-smashing powers at the coronation.

Protesters who block roads and railways could face a 12-month prison sentence, and there are six-month sentences and unlimited fines for those who lock on to objects or buildings.

But the legislation is clearly about more than simply cracking down on the rise of environmentalists or republicans.

It should be a total outrage to all of us that a basic-level placard protest – however distasteful it may be to the heads of state – can be broken-up in this way.

The Met is a disgraced institution. Few weeks go by without fresh findings of institutional racism, sexism, homophobia and misuse of powers.

Can they be trusted with their new ones?