Essex police have rebutted an X post that claims they called migrant protesters fascists. The video making the rounds on X shows a protest crowd walking with police in Epping, Essex, UK. The man filming says he heard the officer telling police to look out for "fascists", and shared his video on X. Later that day, Essex Police disputed his claim in a post on X, saying the order was to be alert to "flashes".
The post from the official X account of the Essex Police (@EssexPoliceUK) was made on August 5, 2025 (archived here). The post reads:
Quite an important correction on this clip doing the rounds. The video shows officers policing recent protests in Epping. The officer actually says: "If you see any FLASHES, left or right, you deal". Officers often talk about being alert to 'flashes/flashpoints' at protests!
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
There have been ongoing protests and counter-protests in Epping, Essex, at the Bell Hotel, where single male asylum seekers have been housed for years. The BBC reported the protests were sparked when an asylum seeker from Ethiopia was arrested and charged with sexual assault in mid-July.
The post from Essex Police contains a link to a video that is no longer available that was offered as proof that the officer said "flashes" and not "fascists". To clarify what video they were addressing, Essex Police made a followup post (archived here) a few hours later which includes the video filmed and posted by Wesley Winter (archived here). The second post reads:
Well, we had shared the footage posted by
@GBPolitcs
to correct the record... But they seem to have deleted their post!
Here is the original footage.
To repeat, the officer is actually saying: "If you see any FLASHES, left or right, you deal" - (in the context of flashpoints)
Wesley Winter's post is embedded below. The moment in question occurs at the 0:07 second timestamp. After the officer who is offscreen to the left speaks, Winter immediately begins to question him, saying:
Who is the fascist, officer?
Did you say, "If you see any fascists?'
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