“This was an intentionally disruptive protest with minimal cooperation received from those protesting," Hertfordshire Police Chief Constable Charlie Hall said in a statement.
Richard Walton, former head of Counter Terrorism Command at the Metropolitan Police called XR an “extremist organization,” and said “intrusive surveillance” is warranted to obtain intelligence on the organization.
“Their actions have exposed an intelligence gap that the police need to fill, using intrusive surveillance measures if necessary—which can be justified because their actions amount to serious criminality,” Walton said.
“Good intelligence would have enabled the police to prevent this criminality,” he added.
“The blockading of the free press demonstrates that the leaders of Extinction Rebellion seek a more subversive agenda than simply campaigning for environmentalism.”
Extinction Rebellion at ‘Cross Roads’
Walton coauthored a report (pdf) on XR in July for British think-tank Policy Exchange, of which he is a senior fellow.“The leaders of Extinction Rebellion seek a more subversive agenda, one that that [sic] is rooted in the political extremism of anarchism, eco-socialism, and radical anti-capitalist environmentalism,” he wrote in the preface to the report.
“Many followers of Extinction Rebellion are completely unaware of this secondary objective, despite it being readily espoused by their leaders.”
Walton concluded that XR is at a cross roads.
“If it persists in its current strategy of encouraging mass law-breaking in order to bring down the government in the furtherance of its cause, then it will be treated as an extremist organisation, lose its mainstream supporter base, and all public sympathy for its environmental cause,” he said.
Newspapers Like ‘Nazis’
Donnachadh McCarthy, a prominent figure in XR, compared the blockaded newspapers with the Nazis.“It puts you on the side of the existential threat. It is a different existential threat but it is a bigger one than the Nazis.”
Government ‘Will Not Stand By’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel both said the blockades were an “unacceptable” attack on free press and democracy.Patel wrote in the Daily Mail that XR, while claiming to be “an environmental rights campaign group,” continuously use “guerrilla tactics” with contempt, “seeking to grind the economic well-being of our nation into the ground under the pretence of tacking climate change,” and that the government “will not stand by.”
The Home Secretary said she is “committed” to looking at “every opportunity available, including primary legislation,” to ensure that the police have the tools to tackle disruptions.