Protest crackdown
Amid racial-justice protests in the United States, a largely peaceful movement is being met with heavy-handed policing that has left at least two people dead. Those tactics include the use of less-lethal weapons like pepper spray and foam-projectile launchers, and they are being employed in cities across the country. In one instance, a homeless man in a wheelchair was hit in the face with a projectile launched by a police officer.
At the same time, many protesters have been targeted with smear campaigns and false allegations that they are anti-Semitic or support terrorism. In fact, there are many reasons why police should have avoided the use of force to break up the demonstrations.
Amnesty International said that arresting people who were peacefully sitting down was not the job of the police and could breach their human rights. The charity called on the home secretary to carry out a review of existing protest laws, ensuring that the power for police to ban events is sufficient and that it’s being used consistently by forces.
Earlier, the government announced that senior officers will be allowed to take into account the cumulative impact of repeated protests on communities in their area when considering whether a demonstration should go ahead. This means they can instruct organisers to hold their event elsewhere if it has been held at the same site multiple times. It’s a significant change to current law, where to ban an event altogether there needs to be a risk of serious public disorder.
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