Overzealous policing during lockdown 1 in the UK at London Hyde Park

During the first lockdown we were allowed to go out for 1 hour a day. Initially I believe – in the first week or so there was some confusion about what people were ‘allowed’ to do during this hour.

This became a particular issue between people and the police whose job it was to enforce restrictions and this didn’t go unnoticed in the media. By week 2 or 3 the Government seemed to crack down on the idea of leaving the home for ‘exercise’ only giving police the power to hand out fines and warn people verbally what their ‘behaviour’ should be whilst away from the home.

Which brings me to my story of overzealous policing. Living on my own and initially following the news quite closely I figured my trips out of the house for ‘exercise’ only required a little thought on my part about what attire I should wear? Can I even simply walk? Can I stop? Can I sit on a bench? I decided to wear exercise clothes, trainers, jogging bottoms – that should clear the matter up.

I walked to the parc but when I got there, I could see police vans circling around using a megaphone to loudly tell people not to sit down, not to eat, keep their distance – only to exercise. I started jogging.

I am an asthma sufferer and regularly use an inhaler. It’s a big parc and after a significant amount of time I was tired from jogging and so decided to sit down on an empty wooden bench, with no one around. It was at this point a police officer on a motorbike sped over to me and started shouting “get off the bench” I stood up. As he drew closer, I could hear him yelling at me “What on earth are you doing? You’re meant to be exercising!” Then when the motorbike very quickly reached me, the officer shouted vehemently at me “Go home – people like you are killing people.” Ironically this was the closest person I’d had human contact with in the parc and I swear I could detect sparks of saliva shooting out of his mouth. I argued with him a little and then ‘jogged on’ quite exhausted – pondering the madness of the situation. I didn’t have time to mention or show my inhaler. I think I was in shock. What if I were elderly or disabled? It simply didn’t add up.