Met Police officers have called for a shisha lounge in Ilford, east London, to have its licence revoked after a group of around 100 people were allegedly caught “celebrating the death” of PS Matt Ratana, as reported my MyLondon.
PS Ratana was shot and killed in Sept at the Croydon Custody Suite as he checked on the welfare of a prisoner.
The hugely respected and well-liked rugby coach was only weeks away from retiring having served his community for almost 30 years.
The revellers were caught attending an event at The Basement Lounge, in Goodmayes Road, Ilford on September 26.
It has been reported that the crowd became “hostile” to officers when they tried to shut it down.
A number of the crowd allegedly told officers that they were “celebrating the murder of Matt Ratana”.
The Metropolitan Police have now called on Redbridge Council to launch a licensing review of the venue.
In a document seen by MyLondon and published on the Redbridge Council website, PC Matt Brown said police were tipped off that a private party had overrun past the 10 pm curfew on September 26.
Officers were sent to the scene but were “blocked on the stairwell by a number of large males who refused to let them inside the venue”.
The officers were “forced out the door onto the street” by guests and decided to call for backup.
PC Brown added: “The door was slammed shut and the males barricaded themselves inside the venue.
“Police attempted to regain entry but were sprayed with fire extinguishers.”
As additional units arrived on the scene, officers decided to “tactically withdraw” to allow several females to leave the party.
“Up to 100 patrons came out of this small venue and a significant number were hostile to police,” PC Brown added.
“Some of these patrons said they were celebrating the murder of Matt Ratanta, the police custody sergeant who was shot dead in Croydon.
“One male was arrested for assault on police.”
Redbridge Council are due to review the license of The Basement Lounge on Wednesday, December 16.
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What should have happened was that the officers should have contained the building and then got the heavy squad to have assaulted it and arrested all those inside.
While I do not have a problem with partying after 10 pm, because this is a completely random time that makes not sense whatsoever, I have a huge problem with people celebrating the murder of anybody. What an appalling thing to do.
By walking away, we are once more signalling that such behaviour, while not much liked, is tolerated. It is intolerable and obstructing the police in the course of their duties is an abomination. With some 100 people involved, this was never going to be easy, but the riot squad should have broken down the door and if assaulted with fire extinguishers, which if filled with foam or dry powder, are hazardous to health, should have responded with Tasers and batons.
The whole lot should have been chained up in the station car park and dealt with in slow time. Not everybody was resisting, so once processed, could be allowed on their way while the hard cases could be isolated and locked up.
Meanwhile, a 76 year old woman is tossed into the back of a van outside Westminster. There is a bit of a mismatch here.
As an ex-police officer I am afraid to admit there seems to be a great deal of softening in the way people such as these are dealt with, if you are going to carry on being so soft on these criminals (for that is what they are) then you may as well go home and hang up your ‘cuffs
If your breaking the law then you should be prepared to suffer the consequences
This whole story is an complete lie no one was celebrating the death of no officer I attempted this event we was there to watch boxing and unfortunately for the venue it did go on past 10 it was no later then 11pm when the police came the owners of the venue was trying to get ppl to leave but struggled I have no idea where this story about celebrating the death of an officer came from but whoever came up with this story is sick
I think that you might need to read the story again. Officers were told by some of the individuals leaving that they were there to ‘celebrate’ the brave officer’s death. This fact was duly reported by officers who were at the scene and who were attacked, both verbally and physically, by individuals who were asked to disperse from the area. These are the facts as reported in the article and as given in evidence by the officers who responded to the venue.