'Exhausting and expensive': The price of policing Epping's anti-migrant protests

With anti-migrant protests dragging on for three months in Epping – the epicentre of this year's summer of discontent, ITV News Correspondent John Ray spoke to police officers facing challenging conditions and barrages of abuse

In our disunited kingdom, nowhere are the fault lines more on show than in Epping and the hotel that is home to around 150 asylum seekers, on the edge of this neat Essex town.

The protests in Epping formed part of a broader wave of demonstrations that were catalysed, in part, by the case of Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat and was later convicted of sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl in the area.

Twice a week, almost every week, since mid-July, protesters waving flags and bearing placards with anti-migrant slogans have gathered outside.

For some, this is the place where British people have finally taken a stand.

For others, the protests have served to spread fear and hatred.

But for the police, they are an exhausting and expensive series of exercises in crowd control and sometimes, ugly confrontation.

"I personally have been told by protesters that they hope my children get raped because I’m here protecting the Bell Hotel," one senior officer tells us. "The misogyny against the female officers has been especially nasty."

While many police officers accept 'some forms of abuse' as part of the job, Essex Police's Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper says 'totally unacceptable' taunts by protesters were 'really disturbing'

Essex’s Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper calls the vilification "totally unacceptable".

The abuse has become routine and often, though not always, comes from those who claim to be upholding the best of British values.

"My officers are here to do a job to protect our communities, they're part of our community and they'll be out there today and it's just not right," Hooper said.

It is proving tough to hold the centre-ground in such a charged and politically polarised environment.

Over the past weeks, anti-migrant protesters have accused the police of "bussing in" counter-demonstrators and of placing unfair restrictions on their freedom of speech.

"We're here to police without fear or favour and to make sure that people can go about their democratic right...to peacefully protest," Hooper added.

"And it's that fine line that we're trying to kind of balance on a daily basis and make sure that we can protect everyone in our communities."

Last Sunday, ahead of the 23rd scheduled protest, Essex Police invited ITV News along to see their operation.

We watched dozens of officers kit up in protective gear and at the pre-protest briefing, there was an acknowledgment of ‘protest fatigue’ among the team.

Self-evident is the strain on police resources. The cost so far is £1.6 million and rising, with no end to the protests in sight.

Outside the Bell Hotel, we watched a small group of protesters gather; many dressed in the national colours and flying the flags of Britain and England.

Face coverings are banned. So too (after complaints from local residents) is any amplification for speeches, slogans, or music apparent at previous protests.

And they are confined to a steel pen on the opposite side of the road from the hotel, which is surrounded by barriers.

All this, according to the protesters, is evidence of bias against them.

In the crowd, we find Orla Minihane, one of the campaign’s organisers, who denies there is an intention to provoke or intimidate the police. She is also the vice-chair of the local Reform Party branch.

"Online abuse you can’t take seriously," she told us. "We’re all keyboard warriors. But in person, there is nothing that anyone here has done to intimidate anyone."

But another protester told us: ‘’We must keep the pressure on the police so that the government can see what's happening and hopefully come to their senses and stop the (migrant) boats."

By no means everyone here agrees. Earlier, an organisation calling itself "Epping for Everyone’" marched past the Bell; timed to avoid a clash.

Some of the counter-protesters were wary of talking to us.

"There’s a toxic atmosphere," said one.

Another complains of getting online abuse after speaking out.

Paul was born and brought up in London and witnessed the racism of the eighties and nineties in Britain.

He fears history is repeating itself and says he and his wife have even considered moving away, worried about the kind of future their daughter might face in Epping.

"Instead of picking on black people, or Indian, they’re just picking on a new group…and that’s migrants," he told us.

By the end of the day, in all, it has taken 75 police officers to control a crowd of little more than twice that number.

These protests come at a price.

And we are all counting the cost, but in more ways than one.

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