A 73-year-old war veteran confronted a police officer after being asked for identification during an anti-migrant protest in Gosport. The former military man was reportedly trying to reach his home when police stopped him near Haslar Marina, where a boat carrying 149 asylum seekers had been brought to shore on Sunday, shadowed by two RNLI vessels.
Footage posted online by bizzybankin24s shows the veteran saying: "No, I don't have any ID [...] Get out of my face." He added: "I just live round the corner [...] I will go where I want; I am a British citizen. I fought for this country, so don't tell me what I can and can't do in my own country. Right? I lost a lot of friends [...] You're a bunch of w******."
Local resident criticises police
A Gosport resident who wished to remain anonymous told the Express: "Well to be honest mate [I] was disappointed from my end with our local police. Yet again they pick on the elderly people and veterans who fought for this country, lost friends at war. For what exactly? Britain is corrupted completely."
Hampshire Constabulary said around 350 people left Haslar Road at around 2am on Monday. The force had imposed conditions under the Public Order Act as well as powers prohibiting the wearing of face coverings.
Arrests and charges
A total of 12 people were arrested, including 11 men aged between 22 and 59 and one 57-year-old woman. They were arrested on suspicion of offences including assaulting a police officer, drunk and disorderly, failing to comply with conditions put in place on the protest, criminal damage and racially aggravated public order.
Jamie Bennett, of Thyme Avenue, Whiteley, has been charged with failing to comply with a prohibited assembly direction and was bailed to appear at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court on Thursday November 26. The other suspects have been released on bail pending further police inquiries.
Police statement and Channel deaths
A force spokesman said: “A small number of officers were treated at the scene for injuries, but no-one in attendance from any agency or the public was seriously injured. One person suffering from chest pains was assisted by police officers before our colleagues from South Central Ambulance Service provided treatment.”
On Monday, two men died attempting a small boat crossing of the English Channel. French authorities said the men, one thought to be in his 30s and the other in his 40s, died after leaving the coast at Berck on Sunday night, PA reported. Three other people among the 90 on board the vessel also needed treatment after prolonged contact with fuel in the boat, the local maritime prefecture said.
According to a translation of the prefecture’s statement, a separate incident on Sunday morning saw a boat containing around 80 migrants run aground at Camiers. Most of the migrants waded back to the beach but 11 people were rescued suffering from hypothermia.
