Ahead of the Coronation on 6 May, the Metropolitan Police warned that ‘Our tolerance for any disruption, whether through protest or otherwise, will be low’. The Public Order Act 2023, rushed onto the statute books just three days ahead of the ceremony, allowed the Met to flex its new powers on the day by arresting dozens of peaceful protesters. These included six members of the anti-monarchy group Republic, who had naively believed months of cooperation and discussion with the police would protect them; three members of the night-safety campaign group, Night Stars, who had been handing out rape alarms to vulnerable women in central London, were also arrested. The ensuing furore forced the police to apologise to Republic, and a ‘review’ by MPs is promised. But this draconian legislation has achieved its aim of handing the police sweeping powers to criminalise all forms of meaningful protest. The ruling class is preparing to crush the working class resistance it knows will inevitably emerge as the crisis of capitalism deepens.
Gutting the right to protest
Crucially, the new legislation dramatically lowers the threshold at which police are empowered to prevent protests going ahead, to one where any disruption to the daily business of individuals or organisations which is ‘more than minor’ becomes a crime. It is the police who get to decide what constitutes such disruption. In April, the government amended the existing Public Order Act 1986 to define the same low threshold. This enabled police to force Just Stop Oil protesters off the streets of central London on 9 May and onto the pavements, or risk arrest. In addition, the new legislation provides for sentences of up to 12 months in prison for protesters who block roads, airports or railways; a six-month sentence or unlimited fine for those who carry out the heinous crime of ‘locking on’; the right to stop and search anyone suspected of planning to cause ‘disruption’ and the criminalisation of ‘slow marching’. It is difficult to see what form of effective protest remains that does not in some way infringe the law. And this is the point: not just to legislate against protest, but to intimidate all those who might consider taking such a step.
New police powers, same old racism
It’s only a few months since the Casey Review found the Metropolitan Police to be institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic. Just days later, a report by the Children’s Commissioner, Rachel de Souza, revealed that police across the country had strip-searched 2,847 children – including some as young as eight – between 2018 and 2022. Black children were six times as likely to be subjected to the humiliating procedure as non-Black children and in the majority of cases police illegally carried out the searches without an appropriate adult present; some searches were carried out in ‘inappropriate venues’ including amusement parks, fast food outlets, police cars and schools. The report – prompted by the shocking case of 15-year-old Child Q, who was revealed in 2022 to have been strip-searched at school by Met officers while on her period and without an appropriate adult present – also seems to have sunk without trace. There is little concern that more than 800 Met police officers are still under investigation for sexual and domestic abuse allegations, or that the Met itself has been in special measures for over a year over its complete failure to record more than 70,000 crimes. In April, yet another serving Met police officer was convicted of rape, having also abused his position to search a police database for a restricted report on his victim. As we go to press, another police officer is on trial for three counts of rape committed while on duty. In early May, it was revealed that Scotland Yard had withheld nearly a hundred pages of documents relating to an inquiry into the murder of private detective Daniel Morgan in 1987 and police corruption in that case. The inquiry itself, which reported in 2021, had already found the Metropolitan Police to be ‘institutionally corrupt’. No police officer has ever been tried or convicted in the Morgan case.
Liberals may wring their hands over the perceived failures of the police, arguing that the force is ‘not fit for purpose’ and must be reformed. The reality is that it is completely fit for purpose – the purpose of ruthlessly controlling, repressing and brutalising the working class. No matter what toxic details emerge, the ruling class will, through the main political parties, continue to hand it ever more repressive powers to perform that role. Following the Coronation, the majority of Conservative MPs queued up to praise the ‘splendid’ role played by the police in ensuring the feudal pageantry of monarchy played out unbesmirched. Labour was not far behind; following the 6 May arrests, it was anxious not to be seen to criticise the police. Shadow Cabinet member Lisa Nandy, sensing the growing public outrage at the arrest of anti-monarchy protesters, by 8 May had conceded ‘mistakes’ might have been made but stressed that it was not clear if the problem lay with the legislation itself or with the police operation. Keir Starmer has ruled out repealing the new law should Labour be elected, saying the legislation has not had time to ‘bed in’. Republic is one of the organisations which Constituency Labour Parties have been proscribed from affiliating to.
As we wrote in FRFI 291 (December 2022/January 2023): ‘Like every one of the repressive measures being brought in by the Conservative government, the Public Order Bill does not stand alone. Together with the PCSC Act, the Nationality and Borders Act, the forthcoming National Security Act, and a raft of other draconian legislation, it makes up an increasingly vicious policing machinery, designed to control and oppress not just one group of direct action climate protesters, but anyone who steps out of line.’ We have no choice but to continue to organise against repressive state legislation, to defend by all means necessary the right to protest and to resist police repression.
Cat Wiener
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 294, June/July 2023
