The Metropolitan police have reportedly begun a major effort to find and detain climate change activists who are allegedly preparing reckless and dangerous road disruption as Cop27 gets underway.
Matt Twist, the Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan police, said that three individuals who were suspected of plotting public disturbances were caught last week. The police anticipated making additional arrests.
Twist said that the inquiry has good grounds to believe that the Just Stop Oil organization intends to recklessly impede the public on a broad scale in order to disrupt important highway road networks, endangering the public in a serious way.
He also added that all people detained are suspected of conspiring to create a public nuisance in violation of Section 78 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act of 2022.
According to the Met, the National Police Coordination Center (NPoCC) is to be involved in the operation.
The Met reported that Just Stop Oil organized a 32-day disruption from September end through the beginning of October that led to 677 arrests, 111 charges, and policemen working a total of 9,438 extra shifts.
The government has been urged by the climate change advocacy group to stop licensing more than 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025 and to assist people with their energy bills.
According to a statement from Just Stop Oil, Policy failure will push millions into poverty and force people to choose between eating, heating, or providing the fundamental necessities for themselves and their families.
The organization claims that the UK is in the midst of an existential crisis due to decades of climate misinformation and procrastination. It further stated that in order for everyone to have a role in the decisions that will shape humanity's future, they need to abandon new oil and gas today and alter their political system.
The group claims that since the start of its campaign on April 1, supporters of Just Stop Oil have been detained nearly 2,000 times, with five of them currently in jail.
Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/cop27-met-says-arrests-made-as-just-stop-oil-intend-to-disrupt-motorways