We would like to round off this letter by reminding Kent Police of their ethos of policing by consent. Set out in the Peelian principles, Kent Police are obliged to uphold ‘absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws’. The law, as set out above, cannot sustain arrests based on Palestinian solidarity, or anti-Israeli feeling, alone. As such, regardless of any orders or sentiment that may have been communicated by the government, arrests made on these bases cannot be justified. Impartial adherence to law demands lawful Palestine protests be treated as such and we demand the police adhere to this premise in their future policing of Palestine protests.
