Update: Anti-social Behaviour Bill
Burning bu$h | 19.11.2003 00:45
I recently obtained a Legal Defence & Monitoring Group Update that has information which will be of interest to people on this list.
The so-called Anti-social Behaviour Bill currently going through Parliament will drastically revise the 1986 Public Order Act by reducing the number of people that consititute an 'assembly' from 20 to 2.
The so-called Anti-social Behaviour Bill currently going through Parliament will drastically revise the 1986 Public Order Act by reducing the number of people that consititute an 'assembly' from 20 to 2.
Under the present situation the police have no power to impose conditions on groups of less than 20 people (though they sometimes try anyway).
Once the new law is passed any assembly of 2 or more people will be subject to Public Order law, so we can expect there to be far more police intimidation of demos.
The same legislation will also remove the words 'open air' from the offence of aggravated trespess, so that you could be charged with this in the future for going into a building.
Elsewhere the Bill reduces the numbers required for a rave from 100 to a mere 20.
Also of importance to activists is the result of a judicial review brought by protesters who were arrested at the recent Arms Trade fair in London called DSEi.
A number of people were stopped and searched that day under Anti-Terrorism legislation that gives police sweeping powers to detain and search anybody they suspect of terrorist activity. In fact I think the police also searched people who weren't even protesters!
The judgement was that the police were acting lawfully, despite the fact that the people targeted obviously weren't 'terrorists' by any stretch of the imagination.
What is interesting is that the legislation concerned is the Act passed in 2000 - ie before September 11th - and the authorities admitted the regulation authorising its use in London had been in existence since early 2001 without the public being aware of it.
This judgement will no doubt be seen as a green light for the state to use anti-terrorism legislation in routine policing of demonstrations,etc.
It will be interesting to see whether it gets used this week during the anti-Bush activities in London.
What all these current and proposed laws will mean in practice is, I think, that the policing of marches and demos in the future will be even more coercive than it is now. People who wish to participate in legitimate protest will feel intimidated and criminalised. This process has, in fact, been underway for some years now and must have contributed to the decline in activists who go on Animal Rights demos.
LDMG can be contacted on
ldmgmail@yahoo.co.uk
Once the new law is passed any assembly of 2 or more people will be subject to Public Order law, so we can expect there to be far more police intimidation of demos.
The same legislation will also remove the words 'open air' from the offence of aggravated trespess, so that you could be charged with this in the future for going into a building.
Elsewhere the Bill reduces the numbers required for a rave from 100 to a mere 20.
Also of importance to activists is the result of a judicial review brought by protesters who were arrested at the recent Arms Trade fair in London called DSEi.
A number of people were stopped and searched that day under Anti-Terrorism legislation that gives police sweeping powers to detain and search anybody they suspect of terrorist activity. In fact I think the police also searched people who weren't even protesters!
The judgement was that the police were acting lawfully, despite the fact that the people targeted obviously weren't 'terrorists' by any stretch of the imagination.
What is interesting is that the legislation concerned is the Act passed in 2000 - ie before September 11th - and the authorities admitted the regulation authorising its use in London had been in existence since early 2001 without the public being aware of it.
This judgement will no doubt be seen as a green light for the state to use anti-terrorism legislation in routine policing of demonstrations,etc.
It will be interesting to see whether it gets used this week during the anti-Bush activities in London.
What all these current and proposed laws will mean in practice is, I think, that the policing of marches and demos in the future will be even more coercive than it is now. People who wish to participate in legitimate protest will feel intimidated and criminalised. This process has, in fact, been underway for some years now and must have contributed to the decline in activists who go on Animal Rights demos.
LDMG can be contacted on
ldmgmail@yahoo.co.uk
Burning bu$h
e-mail:
ldmgmail@yahoo.co.uk