Actual Police State

[Dis86]

Well...I was dismissive in another thread recently of a guy who claimed we were living in a police state. I may have to change my tune following the actions of the met...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50051279

http://news.met.police.uk/news/arrests-in-connection-with-extinction-rebellion-protests-383815

Banning any right to peaceful protest is going too far and reminds me of such fine diplomacys as China, Burma and Iran.

By all means arrest those breaking laws but don't start blanket bans or...the next step...changing laws.

 

[Hotwired]

So you don't think the police have given suitable justification?

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said the ban had been imposed due to breaches of the Public Order Act and "ongoing serious disruption to the community."

“These conditions have been imposed due to the continued breaches of the section 14 condition previously implemented, and ongoing serious disruption to the community."

https://www.rmt.org.uk/member-benef...eps/marches-assemblies-and-notice-of-protest/

Section 14 of the Public Order Act: - Public Assemblies
As with Section 12, the senior officer may impose conditions on public assemblies, which he considers are reasonably necessary to prevent serious public disorder etc. Unlike Section 12, the conditions he may reasonably impose are in this case limited to specifying:
a) the numbers of people who may take part,
b) the location of the assembly, and
c) its maximum duration.

Breaches of conditions:
Anyone who organises or takes part in a demonstration and knowingly fails to comply with a condition as set out under section 12 or 14 of the Public Order Act will be guilty of an offence, and this can be grounds for arrest. It is also an offence to incite another to commit these offences.

And a police state would be the police being ordered to do this by the government.

If the police are acting independently that isn't a police state. However there could be an argument regarding how much disruption they should allow to happen to an area. The area being disrupted also has a complaint if the police do nothing to protect their activities.

 

[Nasher]

The laws for dealing with disruption to the public have been around a long time.

You dont see many people complaining about it, because most people want them gone...

 

[Efour]

Closing down bridges and whole parts of a city will kinda demand Draconian measures.

I don't think this is what a police state is, seeing as the can just move say to parliament Square and mingle with the Brexit chaps.

 

[Dis86]

Spot the guys that haven't actually read the proposals...

The point is the police are banning ANY protests by the group whether disruptive or not. They are denying the right to free speech and public assembly.
You'd have to also be very blinkered to believe there's no political insistence behind the decision.

 

[Randomface74]

They've been disrupting infrastructure. What did they expect.

 

[Dolph]

Shouldn't the polic protect the rights of the many from the actions of the few?

 

[Hades]

I do see both sides. I think something needs to be done to keep London moving. But equally we do see increasingly draconian measures introduced over the years. I recall reading a philosopher many years ago saying that governments will have to become very restrictive as population increases in order to keep control.

One thing that does make me smile is the names of many of the arrested protestors

Roman, Rosemary, Isabel, Ophelia, Jyoti, Godfrey, Tannah, Massimo, Iolanda, Sotitis... Nice working class average peoples names there!

 

[Nasher]

Spot the guys that haven't actually read the proposals...

The point is the police are banning ANY protests by the group whether disruptive or not. They are denying the right to free speech and public assembly.
You'd have to also be very blinkered to believe there's no political insistence behind the decision.

The public are demanding action against a bunch of hipsters interrupting their lives.

Its not the police acting by themselves, people are asking them to. These protesters dont seem to understand that they dont have public support.

 

[Dis86]

The public are demanding action against a bunch of hipsters interrupting their lives.

Its not the police acting by themselves, people are asking them to. These protesters dont seem to understand that they dont have public support.

It's irrelevant whether they do or not. Their right to protest is enshrined in law.

 

[Dolph]

It's irrelevant whether they do or not. Their right to protest is enshrined in law.

Not as an absolute it isn't.

 

[Sankari]

This is what a real police state looks like:

 

[Thecaferacer]

As is the case with many protest groups who caused widescale problems, EDL, Father 4 Justice, animal rights in Cambridge etc, they aren't being banned altogether but will have to get pre-approved protest events in the future.

If you can't abide by the rules of peaceful protest then expect to have your protests curtailed in some way.

 

[Nasher]

As is the case with many protest groups who caused widescale problems, EDL, Father 4 Justice, animal rights in Cambridge etc, they aren't being banned altogether but will have to get pre-approved protest events in the future.

If you can't abide by the rules of peaceful protest then expect to have your protests curtailed in some way.

Exactly, when they started vandalising stuff and being a public menace that right to protest was lost.

 

[Dugganator]

I wonder if this will drive extinct or XR to become more extreme. Or will they simply move to the next biggest target city outside of London.

 

[ttaskmaster]

NVM

 

[Lord-Jaffa]

Exactly, when they started vandalising stuff and being a public menace that right to protest was lost.

These elements exist in almost every protest I've ever seen.

 

[mmj_uk]

This is what a real police state looks like:

A similar thing will come to this country but will be brought in through private corporations, you can already see it with companies banding together to de-platform people (refuse services) because they've broken T&C's even though nothing they have done is illegal.

 

[Lord-Jaffa]

Spot the guys that haven't actually read the proposals...

The point is the police are banning ANY protests by the group whether disruptive or not. They are denying the right to free speech and public assembly.
You'd have to also be very blinkered to believe there's no political insistence behind the decision.

We dont have the right to free speech in the UK, this maybe where you are going wrong here.

There are plenty of anti speech laws though!

 

[glenimp617]

Surely the entire point of these protests is to cause disruption. Who's going to listen to a few people holding up placards.