Serious Disruption Prevention Orders – protest banning orders The possible targeting of Legal Observers will have a disempowering effect on protests and on people’s ability to hold the police and the State to account.ĥ. This treatment of LOs isn’t hard to envisage considering earlier this year Liberty’s lawyers represented Legal Observers whom the police had actually arrested at protests. If they don’t cooperate, they could commit an obstruction offence. Under these new powers, an LO might be stopped and searched, and the police might seize legal advice materials. But this new protest-specific offence is punishable by up to 51 weeks in prison and/or a fine.Ī major concern here is what effect this offence might have on independent Legal Observers who act as witnesses to police behaviour at protests and offer legal advice and support. The existing offence of wilfully obstructing a police officer carries the possibility of one month in prison. Linked to this is another new offence of obstructing a suspicion-less stop and search. These new powers will only make discriminatory policing worse. The latest stats show Black people are 7 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people – and this increases to 14 times for suspicion-less stop and search. This is a huge expansion of stop and search powers which are already used disproportionately against people of colour, and which can have long-lasting, traumatising effects. The police can seize any prohibited item and therefore derail a protest before it even gets going. All protests risk causing public nuisance, so in reality this allows police to whack suspicion-less stop and search measures onto any demonstration.Īnd the list of objects that could be “made, adapted, or intended for use in the course of or in connection with” the listed offences is potentially endless and could even include placards, flyers and banners. Police will also be able to put orders in place allowing for ‘suspicion-less’ stop and search for these items in a specific location for up to 24 hours (and up to 48 hours, if authorised). Police will be able to stop and search a person or vehicle for items intended for use in connection with the offences in the Bill: obstructing the highway, public nuisance, locking on, and obstructing major transport works. The Government’s amendments will also expand stop and search. Examples of such items could include bike locks, zipties – and much more.Īnd what does “in the course of or in connection with” mean? Talk about vague. This offence could capture a lot of people, especially as the item doesn’t have to be related to the protest at all, and it doesn’t need to be used by the person carrying it, but by “any person”. You won’t actually have to ‘lock on’ to commit a crime either, as being equipped to lock on is another new offence where a person has an object with them in a public place with the intention that it will be used “in the course of or in connection with” any person ‘locking on’. Instead, the Home Secretary will get to define and re-define it at will.Īnd what is a reasonable excuse? Will exercising your fundamental right to protest count? We’re not sure – which is a big problem. On top of that, no one knows what “serious disruption” means because it’s not defined in the Bill. Locking on only needs to be “capable” of causing serious disruption to “two or more people”. Could linking arms with other protesters count? Either way, it looks set to criminalise a wide range of acts, from disabled activists linking their wheelchairs to traffic lights – as they did in 2012 – to chaining yourself to a tree.Īnd attaching objects to other objects or the land could make it illegal to use certain props at protests – like balloons that need to be tethered to the ground. There is a defence of reasonable excuse.įirstly, “attach” isn’t defined, so it’s unclear exactly what it means. Locking on will be punishable by up to 51 weeks in prison and/or a fine. The Government wants to make it a crime for a person to attach themselves, another person or an object to any other person or object or to the land, where doing so is capable of causing serious disruption. The amendments introduce two new offences of ‘locking on’ and ‘being equipped to lock on’.
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