Thursday 6th July 2023
Against expert legal advice, police evicted dozens of people from a shelter in east London on 1 June, after reportedly soliciting noise complaints from locals.
Read more: Did the Met Police fabricate noise complaints?“It wasn’t a dangerous or anti-social squat. It was a positive thing that provided housing support to those in need.”
Calum Macdonald, resident near Shadwell
A Novara Media report last month detailed the Metropolitan Police’s full-scale eviction of 40 people from a popular convent-turned-shelter in Shadwell, east London, by around 100 Metropolitan Police Territorial Support Group Officers, who wore helmets and body armour and carried riot shields and batons.
The Met cited “a growing number of complaints and concerns reported […] by local residents,” but residents told Novara officers had actively solicited noise complaints in the weeks leading up to the eviction and said the building was quiet enough to be virtually unnoticeable.
