Double standards in policing must not be the new normal

The latest example of the Metropolitan Police apparently applying a different standard to crimes against Jews will come as a surprise to nobody.

According to the Met, there is apparently nothing untoward about an Imam leading a prayer for Allah to “ruin their houses and destroy their homes”, following his incantation to “curse the Jews and the children of Israel”.

The Met’s position is at least consistent. For over a year, the Jewish community in Britain has had to put up with regular marches featuring antisemitic chants and calls for the destruction of Israel while police officers have often looked on as if there was nothing remotely untoward going on.

There has been much controversy in recent days about Essex Police’s investigation into a social media post by the writer Allison Pearson and the allegations of two-tier policing it has produced. Predictably, the coverage has since descended into ugly political point scoring.

Lost in all this, however, is the real impact of the hate being regularly directed at Britain’s Jews. Imagine how it must feel to be Jewish knowing that a local Imam is leading such prayers and that the police, having considered the matter, have decided that they are not interested.

Many Jewish people are able to relate to this, of course, because we have much the same feeling when we see the Met tying itself in knots about the definition of “jihad” or treating antisemitic intimidation as if it is no big deal.

As ubiquitous as this attitude now seems, we must not accept it as the new normal.