Wales Party Leader Criticises Polanski Over Golders Green Row

Zack Polanski has been chided by the Green Party’s leader in Wales after he caused a row by sharing a tweet about the Golders Green terror attack.

Shilome Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were left seriously injured in what police have described as a terrorist incident in Golders Green, north west London, on Wednesday.

Polanski, who is the Green Party leader in England and Wales, retweeted a post on X on Thursday questioning the way in which officers responded to the suspect.

The post read: “So essentially [Met commissioner Mark Rowley’s] officers were repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by taser.”

Polanski, who is himself Jewish, was then criticised by Labour MPs and the head of the Metropolitan Police, commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, for his “inaccurate and misinformed commentary”.

Asked to respond to the row, the Greens’ leader in Wales Anthony Slaughter said Polanski’s retweet was “inappropriate”.

Speaking to LBC, Slaughter said: “I was made aware of this on the way here, just shortly beforehand. I haven’t seen the tweet. I understand, as you say, Zack retweeted a tweet that it does seem, from what I’ve read, was inappropriate to retweet.

“I know that Zack and his other colleagues in the London Assembly do work closely with the Met Police, so there will be discussions afterwards to see what went wrong and how this can be better handled in future”.

Responding to Rowley’s letter, a Green Party spokesman said: “Zack has seen the video like everyone else, and doesn’t know the full picture and knows it was a very difficult situation for the authorities, but we do need to understand more about the response.”

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