There was a fascinating(!) thread here https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/1655555277150732290 https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/16555552771507322

There was a fascinating(!) thread here https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/1655555277150732290 https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/165555527715073229... with a longer story: Right-wing "English Constitution Party" were going to demonstrate with rape alarms (https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/1655555314215780352 https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/165555531421578035...) and that got 'confused' in the more rabid press as 'eco-zealots' plot' sort of stuff. The Met decided they needed to be seen to act to remove the "dangerous" rape alarms, but the easiest way to do that was to arrest these poor folks (https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/1655616449375875094 https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/165561644937587509...). The police knew they knew were around and had rape alarms because that's their job and the police gave them the alarms. Anyhoo, the rabid press, the deeply populist government, and the disgraced met police (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-65164489 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-65164489) are quite a mix.