Protecting Protest, Preventing Terrorism
It is rare for a week to pass without a story about the UK’s counter terrorism strategy ’Prevent’ appearing in the media. The public has become used to a steady stream of media hysteria and embellished stories that run the gamut from ‘terror tots’ and spelling mistakes to Orwellian dystopias, and we should give the public the credit they deserve for most of these stories falling flat once outside their frenzied echo chambers.
Part of this may lie with the tellers of these tall tales. Groups who relentlessly try to undermine counter terrorism laws while earning their living supporting terrorists. Or those who claim to be human rights advocates, but are shunned by actual human rights organisations because they harbour views on women and female genital mutilation that are brutal “examples of torture and degrading treatment”. These hypocrisies are not lost on the public and they are wise to sense ulterior motives.
However, one story has broken through the hyperbole and resonated with the wider public, and for good reason. A document entitled “Safeguarding Young People and Adults from Ideological Extremism” was produced by a Police unit in the south-east of England, Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), which mistakenly included the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion. To put this into context, the document also included guidance on banned terrorist groups like the neo-Nazi movement National Action and the Islamists group al-Muhajiroun.
Let’s be absolutely clear, Extinction Rebellion are not and never have been a terrorist organisation and they have no place in a document produced for the Prevent strategy. Freedom of speech and the right to protest are vitally important pillars of our democracy. Membership of Extinction Rebellion is no more an indicator of terrorism than supporting a football club is of being an advocate of right wing hooliganism.
The Police have been quick to respond. They have done the right thing and not only withdrawn the document but have apologised for their error. Forage to the very bottom of the original story and you will also find the Police’s unequivocal clarification that, “By including Extinction Rebellion in this document, it gives the impression we consider them to be an extremist group, which they are not.”
The Prevent strategy has achieved many successes over the years. Since 2012, over 2,200 people have been supported through the voluntary ‘Channel’ programme, an initiative that helps those vulnerable to terrorist grooming and coercion protect themselves from abuse. The majority of it’s work focuses on the threats from Islamist and Right-Wing Terrorism and working closely with community groups to build a grassroots response to the problem, last year it funded 200 community-based projects building resilience to radicalisation and reducing the risks from terrorism.
Whilst we should not lose sight of its successes, we must also accept when things go wrong. To pretend that mistakes will never happen would be both unrealistic and dishonest. It is how we learn from those mistakes that defines us and enables a vital programme like Prevent to continually evolve for the better.
There are two sides to this particular coin however. While it is essential in an open society that our media hold the Government, Police and local authorities to account, it is equally their duty to do so responsibly. In an area as sensitive as counter terrorism, when the safety of our families is at stake, there should not be mischievous or malicious attempts to undermine trust in the people and policies keeping us safe. I have lost count of the number of woefully (or perhaps wilfully) incorrect representations of Prevent that have been published in the UK media. Irresponsible reporting that undermines trust in Prevent, whether by accident or design, can lead to people not reaching out for help when it’s needed most.
I asked one young mother, who refused our help for many months despite her children having been groomed by an ISIS supporter, why it took her so long to have the confidence to seek support. She told me the “media game” of the anti-Prevent lobby is huge and that the advice they gave her was to purposefully “obstruct the process” and refuse our help. They use tactics of smear campaigns and bullying to intimidate people daring to share their positive experience of Prevent. This mother recently met with senior Police and Prevent safeguarding staff to express how grateful she is for the assistance she and her children received and how we should be doing more to amplify the good work we do. I have seen letters sent to local Prevent staff thanking them for turning their lives around for the better, when they were being led down a path towards violent extremism.
No one can argue with fair media reporting that highlights an area of improvement or an error of judgement to be corrected, it is wholly welcomed by all who work in counter terrorism. We pride ourselves on being public servants and that means being accountable to the public. All we ask in return is the same level of professionalism and accountability of those whose job it is to scrutinise us.
The inclusion of Extinction Rebellion in a Police fact-sheet was a mistake. It has been corrected. Inevitably there will be other mistakes as well as greater successes, and we will learn from both. The threat from terrorism persists and in a healthy open society, we will not defeat terrorism by working against each other, but by working together.
