Zack Polanski has hit back at Sir Mark Rowley after the Metropolitan Police chief wrote an open letter criticising him for retweeting a post about the Golders Green attack.
Sir Mark Rowley slammed the Green Party leader for “intervening in operational policing” over his “misinformed” criticism of the arrest made following the horror double stabbing in Golders Green.
Mr Polanski was criticised for sharing a post on social media suggesting that the police used excessive force when detaining the suspect during the north London terror attack.
Two Jewish men, Nachman Moshe ben Chaya Sarah and Moshe Ben Baila, were stabbed near a bus stop just after 11.15am on Wednesday.
After footage of the suspect’s arrest was shared online, Mr Polanski reposted a tweet that referred to Sir Mark Rowley, which read: “So essentially his officers were repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by a Taser.”
Mr Polanski has since apologised for the repost but said the police should not be above scrutiny.
He told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “I think you can both recognise the bravery of officers who run towards incidents that most of us, including myself, would certainly want to run away from, and find the appropriate forum to say that no one, especially the police, should be above scrutiny.
“The reason why I’ve apologised is I accept that wasn’t the appropriate forum.
“Open letters aren’t an appropriate way to do politics either in a local election,” he said of Sir Mark’s letter.”
“But I accept all of that, and I’ll be having that conversation with the commissioner.”
Mr Polanski also faced questions about whether the phrase “globalise the intifada” was appropriate at Gaza marches after the Prime Minister said protesters have a responsibility to call out such chants.
He discouraged people from using the controversial phrase, but added he is “not interested” in policing language.
He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “It’s not a phrase I would use personally and that’s because I think if there’s other phrases you can use or other ways to do things then why not just do them.
“I want people to be more effective so I wouldn’t encourage people to use it because actually I think you can make your point a lot more effectively and not get into this conversation about language.
“Words matter, but the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered, the people in Lebanon who have been killed, these people matter too, and I think if people want to protest, that it’s important we defend their right to protest.
“Yes I do discourage, to give you a more direct answer, the use of the phrase but I’m not interested in trying to police people’s language.”
