Friends vow to continue police bill opposition

'We continue to work with others to oppose this bill and other threats to democracy and human rights in the UK.'

Protesting the Police Bill | Photo: courtesy Nigel Norie

Quakers have vowed to keep opposing the policing bill as many ‘dangerous’ proposals are still in place. The government suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords on 17 January over the much-maligned Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. In what campaigners described as a ‘humiliating night for the government’, peers voted down several proposed powers. These included one allowing police officers to stop and search anyone at a protest ‘without suspicion’ for ‘locking-on’ items.

Paul Parker, recording clerk for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), said: ‘Protest is an important way for Quakers to put faith into action… We’re grateful to all the peers who have worked with our coalition to improve this bill. However, it remains a dangerous piece of legislation. Rather than encouraging legitimate protest, it will suppress dissent and weaken government accountability. We continue to work with others to oppose this bill and other threats to democracy and human rights in the UK.’

The Police Bill Alliance, made up of organisations including Liberty, Bond, Quakers in Britain, Friends of the Earth, and Friends, Families and Travellers, said: ‘Peers have rightly rejected some of the most extreme proposals… With the bill set to return to the Commons, we now urge MPs to uphold the changes Peers have made on “noise-based” conditions on protests.

‘Unfortunately many of the measures criminalising protest remain in this bill, meaning you could get ten years in prison for causing “serious annoyance”. The bill also introduces oppressive new measures which criminalise the nomadic way of life for Gypsy and Traveller communities.’

Stephanie Draper, chief executive of Bond, said that, at a time when the right to protest is globally under attack, ‘the UK should be setting a positive example’. Branding the bill an ‘all-out assault on the right to protest’, Martha Spurrier, director of Liberty, said ‘there are still many dangerous new police powers in the bill that will increase discrimination and the danger of police interactions – particularly for Black men’ and Gypsy and Traveller communities.

Sarah Mann, director of Friends, Families and Travellers, thanked peers and allies who ‘stood up for the right to live a nomadic way of life’, but said: ‘It is heartbreaking and infuriating in equal measure that part four passes the Lords with no amendments, on a technicality.

‘Gypsy, Traveller and nomadic people living roadside, with nowhere else to go, will not be afforded such “technicalities” – they will face a law that describes trampled grass as “significant damage”… It would be far more productive for the government to provide more safe stopping places so that families living nomadically can access basic services such as fresh water, sanitation and refuse collection.’

Martha Spurrier, director of Liberty, urged hope: ‘We have shown that with a united front people power can stop the government from changing the rules to suit themselves. Now the fight continues.’

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