Following my correspondence to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner following Sunday's anti-Semitic incidents, I have received the following response, including further information on the response undertaken by the Met. I am pleased that the Met will continue to monitor the current situation in the coming days, while providing extra patrols.
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Thank you for your email, received in the Commissioner’s Office.
With regards to the concerns you have outlined below, I can offer the following updates on the situation.
Police in North London, particularly within the North West Command Unit, received reports on Sunday of people shouting anti-Semitic abuse from a car travelling within a convoy of vehicles through the St John's Wood area on the afternoon of 16th May. Enquiries were carried out and officers traced a car to the A40 in Hillingdon. The police helicopter was deployed and officers stopped the car at approximately 18:30hrs. Four men were arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences. They were taken into custody at a west London police station where they remain.
Further to this, extra uniform support was also deployed across London and uniform officers were retained on duty to significantly increase our operational response, overnight and into Monday morning. Officers were deployed to key venues working alongside partners to provide the maximum reassurance to the local community and deal robustly with anyone committing racially aggravated offences towards the Jewish Community.
Such behaviour is utterly despicable and will understandably have caused distress and alarm to those who were witness to it. We will continue to monitor the situation over the next few days and resource accordingly, arranging extra patrols in key areas across London.
We take this extremely seriously and continue to do all we can to provide reassurance, while dealing with any further offensive behaviour as effectively as possible.
I do hope that this assists in reassuring your constituents in some way. Thank you again for taking the time to write in.