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with officers by holding £50 notes up to the windows, taunting the destitute
and impoverished into violent retaliatory action. As we drove homeward, I
remember feeling saddened by the callous actions of these people who I felt
disgraced our uniform. On returning to the area a few weeks later, we were
not surprised to learn that these same officers had been investigated by the
local force for theft and disorderly conduct allegations.

Thankfully, these were a very small rogue minority among a vast majority of
humane and compassionate officers who daily restored our faith and pride in
our service.

Murder of Yvonne Fletcher, a Metropolitan Police
Tuesday 17/04/84 officer

The murder of This occurred at 10:18 am on 17 April 1984, when
Yvonne Fletcher the officer was fatally wounded by a shot fired
from the Libyan embassy on St James's Square,
London.

On 17 April 1984, I was back on my beat in between Mutual Aid Miners
th
Dispute assignments. At around 10:00am I was called in to man the front
office at Kingstanding so the regular office PC could take his refreshments. At
around 10:30am I got a call telling me to switch on the portable tv we kept in
the office. It was then I saw the terrible news that a WPC had been murdered
in London.

It began with what should have been a peaceful
demonstration watched by benevolent London
bobbies on 17 April 1984.

Outside a building which Colonel Gaddafi insisted on
calling the Libyan People’s Bureau, in St James’s
Square off Pall Mall, a little group of Libyan exiles had
gathered to protest at the hanging of two Tripoli
University students.

The police did not expect the protesters to cause any
trouble, and what should have eased their task was
Figure 52 Murdered WPC Yvonne
Fletcher that it was a holiday in Libya, so most of the staff of the
embassy, or People’s Bureau, were not at work that
day. Neither the police nor the demonstrators reckoned on the fanaticism of
some of the Gaddafi loyalists who were inside the building, staring resentfully
out at their fellow countrymen shouting slogans against their leader.
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