A senior Metropolitan Police officer has urged Londoners and visitors to the metropolis to be alert, not frightened in congested spaces in the lead up to Christmas.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations Matt Twist urged people to be careful and look out for anything unusual, suspicious or concerning.
The warning comes after the UK’s terrorism threat was raised to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely after terrorists struck in Liverpool and Essex.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist described this year’s festivities as the first proper Christmas they’ve had in several years because of last year’s coronavirus restrictions.
He said there’s going to be loads of places that are busy and there are going to be lots of venues getting back on their feet, with loads of crowded places, and lots of gatherings, and that people should be alert, but not alarmed.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist also referred to the car crash at a Christmas parade in Wisconsin which killed at least five people as he stressed the importance of forward planning from authorities ahead of the busy time of year.
He told Nick Ferrari on LBC radio that this was about vigilance, and that there was a lot of work to be done in advance of gatherings and in advance of events in the United Kingdom.
He said that they’ve asked security officers to put in place things like vehicle mitigation or to put in place barriers, or to limit the risk to people.
He added that the incident in Wisconsin doesn’t appear to have been terror-related based on early media reports.
And he was asking the public to report anything unusual to the police in the build-up to Christmas, and he added that they want people to be vigilant, looking out for what’s unusual, looking out for things that may be suspicious, or may concern them.
He said that could be anything from a bag that’s in the wrong place, and he said that he believed that the public was already aware of that sort of thing, but also to stuff in their home or family lives, their friends becoming withdrawn or isolated, or making certain comments.
And he said that it was all about getting ahead of this and that if you report something, the message is, you’re not going to destroy someone’s life, but you might just save one.
Of course, there was a time not too long ago when we could just enjoy life, although we did have the IRA bombings and the likes of Peter Sutcliffe and Ian Brady, but even then we seemed to enjoy life more than we do now.
And it’s okay him saying that we have to be more alert but the anti-terror police only seem to turn up after the fact, to say that he or she was on the terror watch list.
There’s also a lot of mental illness about now and going untreated, but then look at the House of Commons, they’re by far the biggest group of mentally unhinged window lickers, and they’re far too busy making money so they can line their own pockets to even look after Joe Public, but this is Britain’s future now, thanks to consecutive government pandering.
It will be Christmas soon, which everyone is looking forward to, but how long will it be before we’re not allowed to say Christmas because it’s not politically correct, and without some people realising it because we’ve been so conditioned not to, the biggest threat to our society is from our very own Government.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 