In last week’s special newsletter for subscribers I wrote about how the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would severely curtail the right to protest in the UK. Unfortunately the proposed legislation would only represent the formalisation of what has been government policy for a long time already. Whereas in other countries the Black Lives Matter movement led to a period of self-reflection on racial injustice and police tactics, in the UK it only led to the police cracking down harder and the government starting a culture war as a distraction from substantive issues.

This failure to understand the importance of protest as a fundamental human right1 has been seen again this past week as the plan to hold a vigil for Sarah Everard was cancelled. As we discuss this it is important to recognise, first of all, that we are still in the grips of a pandemic and so the right to protest has to be balanced against legitimate public health concerns. The problem is that there is still very little legal clarity on this subject.

Reclaim These Streets (a campaign group) asked a High Court judge to make an interim declaration on a couple of basic points:

1. That any ban on outdoor gatherings resulting from the coronavirus regulations should be subject to the right to protest.
2. That the policy of the police to issue a blanket ban on all protests is unlawful.

The judge, Mr Justice Holgate, declined to intervene because the law had already been clarified by the Court of Appeal but he also made clear that this was not the end of the matter. It was still open for the police and Reclaim These Streets to come to an agreement.

How did those negotiations go? Well as Anna Birley from the group said on the BBC:

“The inability of Scotland Yard to constructively engage with us means we can’t be confident they’re going to police the event in a way that’s Covid safe.”

Yes, instead of understanding the purpose of the legislation and therefore seeking to facilitate a lawful protest while also helping to reduce infection rates, the Metropolitan Police would rather just try to shut down the vigil altogether.

The result was that many people did nevertheless gather at Clapham Common to commemorate the life of Sarah. As night came, the police seized the opportunity to attack the crowd and make arrests. Those harrowing scenes have now been seen the world over yet they could easily have been avoided.

In response to the tragic death of Sarah Everard, the Home Secretary wrote a column for a tabloid newspaper saying “I’ll do all I can to protect women and girls”. The sad fact is that this is plainly not true. It is the government’s attitude to protests that directly led to officers aggressively manhandling mourners, meanwhile the legislative agenda seeks to curtail this right even further instead of doing something to try and make sure that Sarah Everard is the last woman to meet such a terrible fate.

Public street harassment is now a criminal offence in France, Belgium and Portugal but the UK lags behind as women are continually harassed and abused every single day for doing nothing more than walking in public and trying to mind their own business.

If you agree with me and think that this behaviour should be criminalised then please consider signing the petition:

https://www.change.org/p/make-public-sexual-harassment-a-criminal-offence-in-the-uk

Protesting in the streets may be under threat but we can do our best to make our voices heard online.