LONDON: Scotland Yard said on Thursday that a police officer who was filmed intimidating an Al Jazeera news crew covering a suspected antisemitic hate crime in north London has been referred to the force’s professional standards team for assessment.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that the man in the footage was David Soffer, 34, a special constable who was off duty at the time of the incident.
He was identified by the investigative journalism organization Declassified UK on Thursday.
The Al Jazeera crew had been covering an arson attack on four ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish community-run volunteer service, in the Golders Green neighborhood on Monday.
When they arrived, they were surrounded by a crowd who accused them of making terrorist propaganda and told them to go home.
