The Burden of Endless Protest Laws
On Friday, new laws came into force that will further degrade the right to protest in this country.
Serious Disruption Prevention Orders can now be used against those who repeatedly cause serious disruption at protests.
Anyone who becomes subject to the new orders can have restraints imposed on them, including preventing them from being in a particular place or area, participating in disruptive activities and being with protest groups at given times. They can also stop individuals from using the internet to encourage protest-related offences.
Those who breach a Serious Disruption Prevention Order imposed by a court may be subject to 6 months in prison and/or an unlimited fine.
Speaking about the new powers, the Home Secretary, James Cleverly, said:
"The public has a democratic right to protest and this government will always uphold that.
"However, recent months have shown certain individuals are just dedicated to wreaking havoc and causing severe disruption to the everyday lives of the public.
"This is why we have introduced these new powers to ensure that anyone who ignores warnings from our law enforcement cannot continue to cause turmoil unpunished."
Ignoring the fact that it might be Conservative Party policies (including the funding and arming of genocide by Israel) that is causing the increase in disruptive protests, the government's claim that it is upholding the right to protest is not supported by its actions.
Recent reforms including the banning of face masks worn during protests have only made the exercising of the right more prescriptive. Meanwhile, proposed reforms in the Criminal Justice Bill will seek to prohibit using the right to protest as a defence during criminal prosecutions.
The inherent problem is that the plans all seek to make protests less disruptive when the inherent feature of a protest is that they do cause disruption. Yes, protests in a town centre on a Saturday morning might make it more difficult for you to do your shopping, but it gives protests the visibility that they need in order to be effective.
Of course this does not mean that protesters are given a licence to commit unlawful criminal activity, but where there is a fine line to draw, the government is attempting to scribble all over it in permanent marker.
The policy and campaigns officer for Liberty, a human rights organisation, responded to the new law by saying:
“These measures are a shameless attempt to prevent people from being able to make their voices heard on the issues that matter most to them.”
“In recent years, the government has repeatedly introduced new laws which have reduced our right to protest.”
“Many of these laws are so broad and vague, including locking-on offences, that when combined with these new measures, it could lead to people being banned from protesting entirely due to something as simple as having previously linked arms with other protesters.”
When it comes to new laws and powers, less is often more. Trusting the police to manage protests give them the flexibility to do so in a way that is lawful and respects the right to freedom of expression.
Unfortunately, the number of prescriptive rules that the government comes up with because it doesn’t like people protesting their own policies, only makes that job much harder and undermines our democracy at the same time.
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Marcus