Police blast spectators who shouted abuse and filmed Bedford arrest in Facebook post

They gave a sarcastic “massive shout out” to “our supportive public” who gathered in Bedford town centre during the arrest yesterday (Tuesday).

The post said the crowd interfered, filmed the arrest and shouted abuse at officers “while we detained a particularly vile regular female shoplifter earlier today, who had just tried to steal hundreds of pounds worth of goods as well as threatening the staff at the shop.”

It went on to say: “It’s AMAZING to know that despite NONE of you being witness to the incident, not knowing any information about what had happened, not knowing the facts, you still behaved like you you knew it all.

“It’s amazing that you all appeared to know the powers that police officers and PCSOs have to deal with offenders better that those officers themselves, that you took time out of your busy day to hang around and video the unfolding events of us all trying to deal with somebody who has a massive impact on the community with her daily offending and who was spewing vile abuse towards me and my colleagues as well as being very aggressive to us all.”

Before adding: “So to our crowd of haters that contributed nothing but negativity to what we were doing, sorry to tell you but we are going to continue to robustly deal with these individuals who are contributing greatly to the downfall of our town centre and sadly you are playing your own parts in it too with your own behaviour.

“Long story short…one arrested for theft.”