Zack Polanski Apologises For Criticising Police Action In Golders Green

Zack Polanski has apologised for sharing an online post criticising the police response to 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 north west London, on Wednesday.

The Green Party leader shared a post the following day on X which accused police officers of “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser”.

The repost triggered major backlash, including from the usually impartial head of the Metropolitan police, commissioner Sir Mark Rowley who said Polanski’s words were “inaccurate and misinformed”.

In a statement on Friday, Polanski apologised for “sharing a tweet in haste” saying that social media was not the “appropriate channel” for commenting on police action.

His statement read: “Everyone in leadership has a responsibility for lowering the temperature at a time of such tension, and I apologise for sharing a tweet in haste.

“Police responses to emergency situations such as these do need later reflection in the right forums, but I accept that social media is not the appropriate channel for doing so.

“I have invited Mark Rowley to meet with me to discuss the police response and the wider issues raised in his letter.”

Speaking to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, prime minister Keir Starmer also hit out at Polanski’s “disgraceful” remarks while expressing sympathy for the officers involved.

Recalling his conversation with the officers who were on the scene, Starmer said: “I won’t put words into their mouth, but I want everybody just to imagine what it might be like.

“You’re trying to arrest someone who has already attacked two people and has no regard for life. We know that tasers were fired. I know from my own experience with the police, that there are only two shots in a taser, and once you’ve shot them, there’s nothing left.

“There’s a guy on the ground, he’s got a rucksack on. And I don’t know what was going through the mind of those officers, but if I was there, I’d be thinking, he’s going to detonate something. He’s going to blow me up and everybody around here.

“In those circumstances, I think you can quite see why what could have gone through their mind is, we need to do whatever we can to disable this guy.”

Starmer said: “Now, when I then see Zack Polanski come out and retweet or support a criticism of that, I think it’s disgraceful… He’s not fit to lead any political party.”

The PM’s full interview can be heard on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC Sounds from Saturday, at 8.10am.

Polanski was criticised by the Green Party’s leader in Wales, Anthony Slaughter, on Thursday, too.

Speaking to LBC prior to Polanski’s apology, 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”.

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