Priti Patel’s Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill is an assault on our rights to peaceful protest, and access to the countryside.
Politicians and police will be able to dictate where, when and how people are allowed to protest. Just think of the chilling effect these new rules will have, if they pass.
It’ll be a gift to rotten corporations too who’ll be able to silence protestors with one call to the cops complaining of ‘noise’ or ‘nuisance’.
The proposed new laws are already causing a huge backlash from across society that could force a government rethink. Will you add your name so that we’ll be free to protest in future?
Please add your name so that we’ll be free to protest in future.
The proposals, also create a new trespass offence that criminalises the way of life of nomadic Gypsy and Traveller communities despite the continued inadequate provision of sites.
The right to protest and express yourself is enshrined in the Human Rights Act -- something the government is trying to claim it respects by saying protests can go ahead as long as they are not ‘noisy’ or ‘causing a nuisance’.
But the Bill gives the home secretary powers to create laws to define “serious disruption” which police can then rely on to impose conditions on protests -- making it easy for the government of the day to clamp down on protests it doesn’t like.
Imagine telling the suffragettes to be quiet, the poll tax protesters not to be a nuisance, or civil rights marchers that they can’t stop traffic.
And more recently, the ability to set up protest camps has been instrumental for communities to push back against -- and defeat -- the fracking industry. The new law of trespass that the government wants to create would make such camps impossible.
Organisations from across civil society have come together to send an open letter to the government. All you have to do is sign this petition, and we’ll send it on your behalf too.
Call on the government to protect the right of peaceful protest, so we can continue to challenge those in power to care for people and the planet.
We’ve all watched in horror at scenes of police attacking, manhandling and arresting people simply calling for a better world.
This Bill could make those scenes more common -- or stifle any attempt at dissent at all.
And the consequences of that are huge -- for young people calling for social change facing greater criminalisation by the state, for Gypsy and Traveller communities facing threats to their way of life, and for all of us who value freedom of expression and the right to make ourselves heard against the powerful.
More information
Two thirds of public concerned by plans to ‘criminalise protest’, polling shows
The Independent. 28 June 2021.
The Independent. 28 June 2021.
New anti-protest bill raises profound concern and alarm, human rights groups say
The Guardian. 15 March 2021.
The Guardian. 15 March 2021.
Silencing Black Lives Matter: Priti Patel’s anti-protest law
Politics.co.uk. 11 March 2021.
Politics.co.uk. 11 March 2021.