Reactions
Reactions to the raid were mixed. Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman said that they had "no choice but to act" but also apologised for the "disruption and inconvenience" the raid caused. The Muslim Council of Britain welcomed the releases, but hoped "lessons would be learned".
The then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said that he supported the police "101%", adding that "You can only imagine if they fail to take action and something terrible happened what outcry would be then, so they are in an impossible situation." The prime minister also defended police chief Ian Blair, when several papers called on him to resign over the raid. A solicitor for the two men said that they plan to sue the Metropolitan Police, for a figure which lawyers estimate could be as high as £500,000, but at a press conference on 13 June 2006 Abdul Kahar said that suing the police was "not even in our heads", and they were more interested in an apology. As of 21 July 2006, he had not yet returned to the house.
Read more about this topic: 2 June 2006 Forest Gate Raid
Famous quotes containing the word reactions:
“Cuteness in children is totally an adult perspective. The children themselves are unaware that the quality exists, let alone its desirability, until the reactions of grownups inform them.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)
“We have all had the experience of finding that our reactions and perhaps even our deeds have denied beliefs we thought were ours.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books is a quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job. It not only involves praising trash but constantly inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous feeling whatever.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)