Speaking about the protests in other parts of the UK, Kay asked: “There have been protests in other parts of the UK, some of the large protests but none of them have descended that this has in Bristol, now three times. What is it about what’s happening in Bristol or maybe what is it about the way you’re policing it, that’s causing it to end in a different way there?”
Hitting back Supt Runacres replied: “I wouldn’t agree with that Jon. We have a long history of effectively facilitating protests in Bristol, we’ve done that extremely effectively.
“We’ve gained great support from the local community in Bristol around working together with them to facilitate protests.
“It’s something we pride ourselves on and the city prides itself on. On Sunday we ran what we believe to be a proportionate policing operation to facilitate any gathering that happened.
“The numbers that came on Sunday far exceeded those that we expected and there were clearly some amongst that group who had the intent of causing or using violence against the police and that unfortunately set the tone for that evening.”
BBC Breakfast airs daily at 6am on BBC One.
Published at Sat, 27 Mar 2021 09:57:00 +0000
Bristol police chief furious slap down on BBC as Jon Kay infers blame ‘Wouldn’t say that!’
