my opinion
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2011-07-21 13:08.Although many will be delighted that a police operation on this scale has been mounted in the Queen's Crescent area some will be questioning the timing of the operation.
A similar operation that had been "months in planning" also took place this week in Hackney.
See http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/police_arrest_20_in_dalston_junctio...
That both these operations took place in the week that Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates resigned seems more than a coincidence.
The briefing given to police in Queen's Crescent that I saw yesterday included a section attributed to Mr Godwin (presumably Tim Godwin Deputy Commissioner). It was a rallying call to staff to "walk tall" during these "tricky" "challenging "upsetting" times. It refers specifically to the resignation of Sir Paul and Mr Yates.
I can't help but see this operation serving two purposes. One is to fight crime - something that we all want. The second is to boost police morale and to create positive propaganda in a bad news week for the Met.