Masked Thugs Hired to Protect Surveillance Cameras in Hated Scheme
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Summary by JW Williams
The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is a regulation in London that imposes an emissions charge to non-compliant road vehicles such as pre-2006 petrol cars and pre-2015 diesel cars and vans that emit more nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) than later models. Cameras are used to monitor drivers. Owners of older cars are fined £12.50 per day for traveling. The program has been expanded across London under Mayor Sadiq Khan and covers 9 million people. ULEZ is part of the destructive Net Zero climate plan that is spreading across the West. It imposes an unfair tax, curtails travel and is a surveillance scheme.
Agenda 2030.
The program is so unpopular that Khan may be voted out of office in May 2024.
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From The Times (UK)
Masked security “goons” hired to guard Sadiq Khan’s low emission zone cameras have been accused of assaulting and intimidating locals.
Residents in suburban areas of London claimed the “heavies” had harassed them and refused to display their security licence cards when asked, as industry rules require.
The “thuggish” guards are dressed in dark clothing, and sometimes cover their faces with hoodies, balaclavas and surgical masks, while recording campaigners with body-worn CCTV cameras.
The mayor of London’s political opponents, who have pledged to scrap the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) scheme if they win at elections in May, branded the guards’ behaviour “disgusting”.
Heather Watt, 63, claims a security guard purposefully ran her over twice while she was protesting, leaving her walking with a crutch and unable to work. “They just drove at me,” she said. “They hit me off my feet onto the bonnet of their vehicle. I’ve come off the car, I’m hobbling away, with that the car sped up and hit me again into the side of the road.
“It’s totally wrecked my confidence, and I’m a driving instructor. I’m still on a crutch, still hobbling around indoors, my knee and ankle still swells up, it’s very painful.
“I think it’s absolutely awful. We don’t know who they are, they don’t show their security badges when asked and they’re intimidating. I think they’re hiding behind their mask to instigate trouble. All we are is peaceful people trying to protect our community from, as far as I’m concerned, this unlawful tax.”
Watt immediately reported the incident to the Met Police, which is investigating, and locals have raised close to £1,000 to help fund Watt’s recovery.
Claire Dyer, from Biggin Hill in Bromley, southeast London, said: “Their attitude is extremely bad, they are very intimidating. I have been on my own as a woman and they have tried to harass me, intimidate me. They’ll be dressed in balaclavas, hoodies, and skeleton masks. All you can see is their eyes.”
Dyer, 47, added: “It seems like there is a directive for them to try and cause trouble. There have been assaults made by the security on the public that’s been caught on camera, they had taken people’s signs and thrown them away. They tell me I shouldn’t be here, but I’m 100 metres away from my house — it’s them who shouldn’t be here. It’s antagonistic.”
Transport for London said the security was necessary because anti-Ulez protesters had vandalised and stolen hundreds of cameras. It added that the security were held to high standards of professionalism, and had been told they should hide their face only if they feel intimidated by being closely filmed.
The Ulez, which was expanded to outer London in September, now covers nine million people, making it the largest scheme of its kind in the world.
Moving the boundary of the scheme, which charges £12.50 per day for petrol cars registered before 2005, or diesels before 2015, raised £23 million in its first month of operation.
Extremist anti-Ulez vigilantes boast online about tearing down the cameras, and the Met Police recorded 141 crimes relating to Ulez cameras per month between April and October this year. Other residents have taken to lawful protests near mobile camera vans, leading to clashes with security.
“Most of these security people are thugs, lots have got hoodies and masks, and they often don’t have their security industry badges displayed,” Howard Cox, Reform UK’s candidate for London mayor and a fuel pricing campaigner, said. “It’s disgusting what’s happening.”
Susan Hall, the Conservative mayoral candidate, said: “Sadiq Khan has serious questions to answer about what his Ulez enforcers have been doing. These hired goons are very intimidating for local residents, with many of them covering their faces and failing to display their badges. It is completely unacceptable and I will put a stop to it next year, by scrapping the unfair Ulez expansion tax on day one.”
The guards “must wear your licence where it can be seen at all times”, according to conditions set by the regulator, the Security Industry Authority. Photographs passed to The Times would suggest that the guards were not displaying their cards.
Transport for London said: “We have hired a small number of qualified security staff who are suitably licensed by the Security Industry Authority, due to ongoing criminal damage to Ulez cameras and vehicles. They are held to high standards of professionalism.”
It confirmed it was investigating Watts’s case, adding: “Any injury sustained by a member of the public while using or interacting with our services is a concern.”
The Security Industry Authority said: “We take our responsibility to protect the public very seriously. We want to know when people working in the private security industry break the law or do something that might bring the industry into disrepute.”