By Lucy Caulkett-
Sections of the British police force has come under fire for allegedly using extreme measures in relation to the coronavirus. Derbyshire Police has been singled out and criticised for alleged harsh measures in support of the stringent rules to keep people at home. The force defended its actions and said its advice to the public was ‘in line with national government instruction’.
The uproar comes after the force also revealed it had dyed black the Blue Lagoon in Harpur Hill near Buxton, in order to stop groups of tourists flocking to the nature spot. Derbyshire Police said the ‘tactic’ has been used since 2013, adding it has received ‘high levels of local public support’.
Lord Sumption also warned that the public are displaying ‘collective hysteria’ over the pandemic. He added: ‘The pressure on politicians has come from the public, they want action. They don’t pause to ask whether the action will work, they don’t ask themselves whether the cost will be worth paying, they want action anyway… ‘Hysteria is infectious. We are working ourselves up into a lather in which we exaggerate the threat and stop asking ourselves whether the cure may be worse than the disease’.
He added: ‘Yes, this is serious, and, yes, it’s understandable that people cry out to the Government, but the real question is, is this serious enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment, wrecking our economy for an indefinite period, destroying businesses that honest and hard-working people have taken years to build up, saddling future generations with debt?’
EXCESSIVE
Former supreme court justice Lord Sumption has condemned the measures taken by Dernyshire police and others in the country, saying that excessive measures were in danger of turning Britain into a “police state” as he singled out Derbyshire police which deployed drones and dyed a lagoon black for “trying to shame people in using their undoubted right to take exercise in the country and wrecking beauty spots in the fells”.
Elsewhere, the MP son of Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, was publicly shamed by police for “non-essential” travel during the coronavirus lockdown after going to celebrate his father’s 78th birthday.