Met police chief criticises Green party leader over post on Golders Green attack

The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, thoughtlessly undermined the confidence of officers to deal with dangerous people by sharing a critical social media post after the Golders Green stabbings, according to the head of the Metropolitan police. Officers were filmed detaining the suspect after two Jewish people were stabbed in the north-west London suburb on Wednesday. Polanski retweeted, without comment, a post on X alleging that officers “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head” when he was already incapacitated by a stun gun. In a letter to Polanski , the Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, described the claim as “inaccurate and misinformed commentary”. He praised the officers as “nothing short of extraordinary”, adding: “Without their efforts to stop him, I dread to think what the outcome could have been.” Speaking on Friday morning, Rowley told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the letter was not an “intervention to politics” and expanded on his criticism of Polanski. He said: “I’m simply dealing with operational policing and defending my officers because I want them to have confidence to protect Londoners … Officers need confidence in confronting these dangerous people, and if an eminent person thoughtlessly steps into that and undermines that, then I’m going to deal with that.” He added: “Of course there will always be inaccuracies, eccentricities and nonsense online. …