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Retired senior police officers are urging climate change activists to hit the streets in a protest that could see thousands arrested.

On October 7, six months after they paralysed large tracts of London, Extinction Rebellion (XR) demonstrators will return to the city.

And a group of ex-police officers will be joining them.

Tens of thousands of climate change activists are planning to target at least 11 key roads and bridges across the capital.

One of the former officers in XR's ranks is John Curran, a 49-year-old retired detective sergeant who spent more than a decade tracking violent criminals in Nottingham.

In April he found himself on the other end of the long arm of the law when he got arrested.

He had refused to follow a Metropolitan Police officer’s orders to get off Waterloo Bridge, was hauled into a van and taken to custody, where he spent nine hours locked in a cell.

“It was a very emotional and strange experience,” said DS Curran, who is awaiting a court date after being arrested for obstructing a highway and breaking a public order act.

“I went to London with the intention of getting arrested because I felt powerless as a normal person, and getting arrested is one of the few weapons that we have to show the government how we feel about their inaction.”

Part of the reason DS Curran plans on getting arrested for a second time next week is the encouragement he got from active police officers.

“When the tapes were turned off in the station one of the police officers said to me ‘you and the people like you will considered heroes one day’," he said.

“He was a young man and had children of his own.”

Children and the bleak environmental future they face are central to why Paul Stephens, a former detective living in Brent, North London, also joined the movement.

“I spent years safeguarding the public and children in particular, and the effects of climate change are a real safeguarding issue,” said the 55-year-old, who kept tabs on sex offenders across two London boroughs during his 34-year career.

Inspired by the movement's demands, he decided to sign up.

DS Stephens said: “My job in April was to help protesters who had been sent to court. None of the people I met had a criminal history.

"I have dealt with a lot of criminals in my time, but none of these people seemed dodgy.

“This time around my job is to liaise with police and to make sure that the protest happens safely.

“It is quite ironic me volunteering for the movement, especially because I am receiving a police pension.”

The most senior retired officer in XR’s rank of former coppers is Rob Cooper, who was responsible for all police across Cornwall at the time of his retirement 10 years ago.

The 60-year-old commander believes active emergency service workers and climate change protesters have reason to be united behind the cause.

“My concern is for serving officers,” he said.

“We have already witnessed lots of extreme weather events in this country, and emergency service personal are increasingly putting themselves in danger to rescue members of the public.”

Ch Supt Cooper is motivated not just by fear of crop shortages and flash flooding, but by what he sees as inaction on behalf of the government.

“I find it deeply ironic that Boris Johnson stood in front of the breaking Wavley Bridge dam, while a heatwave was going on in Europe, and didn’t realise he was looking at the effects of climate change,” he said.

“There is a climate emergency and we need to listen to the scientists.

“I like people that take to the streets. I see them as messengers more than protesters.”

Richard Ecclestone is another former member of the force who recently found himself bunched up with the law breakers for the first time.

Along with his wife Karen, he took part in a pretend funeral outside parliament and marched with the protesters in April.

As he was during his 13 years in the Devon and Cornwall police force and five years in the second royal tank regiment, Inspector Ecclestone is motivated by a sense of duty.

“We spent our lives in public service,” he said.

“The motto of where I did my training was serve to lead. It’s that concept of service that’s imbedded in us, and is what motivates me to protest.”

Although Insp Ecclestone believes it is “absurd” that protesters find themselves on the wrong side of the law, he has confidence in Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick - his one time teacher at the College of Policing.

“I trust that she understands that this has to remain very, very sensitively managed from a policing perspective, whatever instruction she has from the Home Office,” he said of the October protests.

“Nobody wants any violence, on either side.”

For Insp Ecclestone, whatever happens during Extinction Rebellion’s next action will be worth it if their message properly sinks in.

“Me and my wife work with children now as forest school leaders,” he said.

“Seeing them happy in the woodland, interacting with nature, just having a laugh, it breaks my heart thinking what their future would be like if we don’t grip this emergency.

“I’m coming at this crisis, not just as a police officer and solider, but someone who works with the next generation, more than anything that’s my motivation.

“I feel it’s our last throw of the dice. If we don’t succeed this time we have so little time left.”