Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick is being urged to resign, following a series of violent clashes between police and crowds at a vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham last night.
A crowd gathered at Clapham Common to remember the 33-year-old marketing executive but scuffles broke out as police surrounded a bandstand covered in flowers left in tribute.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police were seen grabbing several women, leading them away in handcuffs and the force later said four people were arrested for public order and coronavirus regulation breaches.
READ MORE: PICTURES: Four arrested after 'disturbing' clashes at vigil for Sarah Everard
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey has now written to Dame Cressida, urging her to "consider your leadership of the service and whether you can continue to have the confidence of millions of women in Londonthat you have a duty to safeguard and protect."
He said the response to the vigil was "a complete abject tactical and moral failure on the part of the police."
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also said he was "urgently seeking an explanation" from the Met Police chief, as #DickOut trends on Twitter.
The scenes from Clapham Common are unacceptable. The police have a responsibility to enforce Covid laws but from images I've seen it's clear the response was at times neither appropriate nor proportionate. I'm contact with the Commissioner & urgently seeking an explanation.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) March 13, 2021
However, Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins said she wanted to give Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick the chance to explain what happened on Saturday night.
Asked whether Dame Cressida should leave her post, the Home Office minister told Sky: “I really, really want to support the Home Secretary in her request to have a report from Cressida.
“The police have got a tough job in policing the coronavirus pandemic more generally at the moment.”
She added: “I think this morning given how difficult last night was, after what has been an incredibly upsetting week, I’m very keen that we don’t pre-empt that report and we give the Met Commissioner a chance to explain what happened last night.”
Atkins described the clashes at a London vigil in memory of Sarah Everard as “upsetting” and said she takes the issue “very seriously”.
She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “This has been an unimaginable week for the family and friends of Sarah Everard – the loss that they are suffering is beyond our comprehension.
“And I think in response to that, the reaction that we have seen from women across the country in terms of their own experiences of sexual harassment in the street and violence and being frightened to walk in our streets is also very, very shocking and very, very upsetting…
“Through the day we saw many people come to that particular part of Clapham Common, to pay their respects, to lay a flower around the bandstand and of course the majority of them had a peaceful experience.
“Now the scenes that we have seen later on in the day and the evening are very upsetting. I take it very seriously, the Home Secretary takes it very seriously, which is why she has asked the Metropolitan Commissioner for a report on what has happened last night.”
Who is Cressida Dick?
Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London, made history in 2017 when she was appointed as the first woman to lead Scotland Yard.
The 60-year-old joined the police force in 1983 and later joined an accelerated promotion course in 1993.
In 2001, she was awarded a Master of Philosophy in Criminology.
Before becoming Met Commissioner she was known for being gold commander in the control room during the operation which led to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes.
READ MORE: Cressida Dick and her role in the killing of John Charles de Menezes
She was later acquitted and exonerated by an inquest jury.
In 2013, having become acting deputy commissioner, Dick was announced as one of the UK's more powerful women.
She came out as gay in April 2017. It made her the highest-ranking lesbian officer in British policing history.
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