Activists battle police over right to protest

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The Fortnum & Mason protest

Anti-cuts campaigners are calling for an end to "political policing" as they launch a new movement backed by MPs, artists and activists to defend the rights of peaceful demonstrators across Britain. 

Defend the Right to Protest, an organisation founded to support students and activists arrested in recent rallies against the government, say police must be challenged over their role in what they are calling "increasingly serious attacks on the right to protest in the UK".

Anger from protest groups against policing tactics was already running high following last year's student demonstrations and the arrests after UK Uncut's occupation of Fortnum and Mason. But tensions have been increased by a string of pre-emptive arrests on the eve of the royal wedding.

"In the past few months the police have been at the forefront of a campaign to criminalise and intimidate protesters," said Hannah Dee, from Defend the Right to Protest. "The police should be facilitating peaceful protest, not preventing it."

The coalition held a rally outside Westminster Magistrates' Court yesterday to show support for the 138 members of UK Uncut who face charges of aggravated trespass after occupying Fortnum & Mason on 26 March. The group, which is planning a further demonstration against Scotland Yard, has received support from MPs such as John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, trade unions and public figures, including Ken Loach, Irvine Welsh, Judith Butler and Billy Bragg.

Many of those who attended yesterday's rally expressed particular concern about the arrests around the royal wedding. A total of 55 people were arrested on the day of the wedding and nearly 25 people were arrested before most planned demonstrations had even taken place. The majority were either detained on conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, or were held under Section 60 stop-and-search rules on the day itself. Almost all of them were released without charge once the events drew to a close. 

Hannah Eiseman-Renyard, 25, from north London, went to Soho on the day of the royal wedding, dressed up as a zombie bride. She was talking to four friends when she was approached by more than a dozen officers and arrested for suspected breach of the peace. 

"I was wearing a bridesmaid dress, and used lipstick to look like blood – I didn't even think I was dissenting," she said. "I think it was part of a PR exercise by the police who are trying to criminalise protest."

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "We support the public's democratic right to peaceful protest. However, officers reserve the right to take appropriate action where there is a real perceived threat of public disorder taking place."

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Right to protest 'being undermined by police'

A coalition of campaign groups says the right to hold demonstrations in Britain is being fatally undermined by hardened police tactics, mass criminal trials and pre-emptive arrests.

Defend the Right to Protest, an umbrella organisation that has been founded to support many of the groups behind recent protests against the Government's cuts, is planning to hold a protest outside Westminster magistrates' court this morning against what it says is "widespread tactics of intimidation" against demonstrators. 

Some of the 145 people arrested and charged after UK Uncut's protest at Fortnum and Mason are expected to travel to the court today for the beginning of a series of hearings. The arrests, which came after protesters occupied the store in March, have outraged free-speech advocates who accuse the police of deliberately targeting the group. 

Tensions between police and protest groups have risen further following the royal wedding, when a number of pre-emptive arrests took place to stop people from holding anti-monarchy demonstrations. Most were arrested on conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, were held for the duration of the wedding celebrations and then released pending further investigation. 

"We believe the Fortnum and Mason arrests are a serious curtailment of the right to protest and must be challenged," said Hannah Dee, a spokeswoman for Defend the Right to Protest. "Since then we have seen scores of people arrested before the wedding simply on suspicion of planning to cause a crime." 

Sarah McSherry, from Christian Khan solicitors, added: "We have seen a number of tactics which infringe the right to protest. In a worrying development, the latest tool appears to be the use of pre-emptive arrests in the context of the royal wedding. There is a concern that this sets a precedent to be relied upon by the police."

9 May 2011