New laws aimed at repressing radical protest and scaring activists into silence are being used to harass environmental, anti-deportation and left-wing political campaigners. And so are many old ones: in fact, jail sentences tend to be for “old” offences. The new laws give the police vast new powers against protest which they are only just starting to use.
In April two Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters were sentenced to long jail terms for “public nuisance” over occupying the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford near London. Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker spent 37 hours on the bridge, disrupting traffic. JSO was demanding the government stops the development of new fossil-fuel projects in the UK.
Trowland was jailed for three years and Decker two years and seven months.
“Public nuisance” has long been a “common law” offence (defined by courts rather than law, with possibly unlimited sentences). It was made a “statutory offence” in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (Police Act 2022). It now carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
JSO commented: “Since the Just Stop Oil campaign began on 1 April 2022, there have been over 2,000 arrests and 138 people have spent time in prison, many without trial. There are currently two Just Stop Oil and five Insulate Britain supporters in prison, serving sentences for actions taken with the campaign.”
JSO, intent on keeping up protest despite the new laws, have re-jigged their tactics, and have protested in London every day since 24 April with “slow-walking” demonstrations.
The government has now pledged legislation to ban slow-walking protests by tweaking the 1986 Public Order Act. Changes to the law will be made through secondary legislation (i.e with minimal parliamentary scrutiny). JSO states that it will continue direct action until the government stops granting new licences for oil, gas and coal.
The Public Order Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 2 May, just in time to be used (for arrests, but apparently not charges) in London on 6 May during the coronation of Charles Windsor.
Labour, having voted against the new law in Parliament, has refused to state that the legislation will be repealed when they are elected. Labour shadow minister, Andrew Gwynne, said the “next Labour government will look very carefully at this piece of legislation.”
This Act further tightens restrictions on protests in England and Wales. In particular, it does the following:
• Sets a low threshold to define disruptive protesting;
• Gives the police new powers to stop environmental protests occurring at transport networks and oil, gas and energy plants;
• Makes “locking on” (attaching yourself to an object or another person, widely used by environmental activists) a criminal offence;
• Extends the use of stop and search powers – including suspicion-less stop and search – to protests;
• Introduces protest banning orders that can prevent individuals from attending protests.
Anyone who blocks roads, airports and railways can be jailed for up to 12 months. Those found guilty of locking-on face a maximum of six months in prison, an unlimited fine, or both. Carrying equipment that could be used to lock on — such as padlocks and superglue — can also bring unlimited fines.
The Met arrested 64 people during the coronation, including a group of JSO activists. Police said JSO was planning to disrupt the event, but JSO believes the police’s real reason was just that they were wearing Just Stop Oil t-shirts.
According to the cops 52 of the arrests were “related to concerns that people were going to disrupt the event”.
One man was arrested for carrying a megaphone which police said “could scare the horses” during the royal procession. Six members of the anti-monarchy campaign, Republic, were arrested for having “locking-on equipment” — in reality, were straps holding bundles of placards together.
The police later apologised and released the Republic activists, but only after the new king had been crowned and the crowds were long gone. Graham Smith from Republic said the arrests were a deliberate act which aimed to “disrupt and diminish” the republican protests. On Sky News Smith went on, “We [now] only have the freedom to protest contingent on the permission of senior police officers and politicians, and it’s my view that those senior police officers were under immense pressure from politicians.”
Two of the coronation protesters were arrested under Section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act, which stops people causing “harassment, alarm and distress” to others. Others were arrested for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”, under the Police Act 2022.
The Police Act 2022 widened police powers to stop protests, increased penalties against activists found to have breached the law and lowered the bar on what the state can consider acceptable levels of disruption and noise.
In April over 100 animal rights activists were arrested for taking direct action at the Grand National horse race. Before the race 150 protesters handed out leaflets and held placards reading, “You bet, [horses] die.”
Three people went on trial from Tuesday 30 May, charged with causing a “public nuisance” for blocking a road outside Brook House Immigration Removal Centre at Gatwick Airport on 9 November 2021. The activists were attempting to prevent 50 people being removed to Jamaica; in the end four people were deported.
Those due to be deported included a 20-year-old woman who had been in the country since she was 13 and has no relatives in Jamaica, and nine people who had been in the UK for 20 years or longer.
Also in May, XR’s co-founder, Gail Bradbrook, was informed by the police that they were dropping a conspiracy case which they had been attempting to build against her. Bradbook’s home was raided at 5.30am on 11 May 2021 and she was removed in handcuffs while her phone and laptop were seized. She was arrested on “suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage to a number of banks,” a charge with a maximum sentence of ten years in jail.
Two years later the police have finally admitted they have not got enough evidence to proceed and dropped the charges.
Bradbook commented, “The police implied I was trying to bring down the financial system, which I found hilarious. I pointed out it was doing a good job of bringing itself down.”
Kevin Blowe from Network for Police Monitoring, commenting on the Bradbrook case, said, “Policing in Britain is never neutral. It exists to protect corporate and business interests.”
Labour must declare it will repeal the new anti-protest laws and others back to, at least, the Public Order Act 1986, which empowered the police to ban any protest with insufficient advance notice or which they think could bring “serious public disorder” or “serious disruption to the life of the community”. It must abolish catch-all offences from old common law like “public nuisance”, and legislate to establish positive rights to protest.
This is a labour movement issue: right now the police are mostly targeting environmental and other radical protesters, but it will only be a matter of time before this legislation is used against trade unions.
