This Government is trying to push through a dangerous new Policing Bill that would destroy the right to protest as we know it. It specifically targets the tactics employed by climate activists and the Black Lives Matter movement but it will affect everyone’s civil liberties. Join groups across the UK speaking out to protect our right to free speech and to protest before it’s too late.
Dear Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Justice
We call on you to scrap damaging proposals in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill including those which:
-
Threaten the freedom of expression and assembly
-
Increase sentences and police powers aimed at restricting protestors
-
Criminalise the way of life of the Gypsy and Traveller communities and limit access to the countryside
Read the full open letter
Dear Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Justice,
We write to share our profound concern and alarm over the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill published last week. Not only does this Bill contain numerous threats to the right to peaceful protest and access to the countryside, criminalise Gypsy and Traveller communities’ way of life, as well as a whole host of expansive policing powers, but it is being rushed through parliament during a pandemic and before civil society and the public have been able to fully understand its profound implications.
Contained within this 307-page bill are plans to:
- Introduce draconian new police powers to decide where, when and how citizens are allowed to protest and have their voices heard by those in power;
- Increase penalties for those breaching police conditions on protests and the ease with which they can be found to have done so;
- Create a new trespass offence that criminalises the way of life of nomadic Gypsy and Traveller communities, while the government manifestly fails to provide adequate sites and permitted stopping places, and has implications for the public’s right to protest, access to the countryside and people experiencing homelessness.
This is a huge bill, both in length and in potential consequences – for young people calling for social change facing greater criminalisation by the state, for Gypsy and Traveller communities facing threats to their way of life, and for anyone who values freedom of expression and the right to make yourself heard against the powerful.
This in itself is enough to cause alarm, but the government is also trying to rush this Bill through parliament, with less than a week between publication and second reading. This is deeply inadequate and provides no time for MPs and their staff, let alone the communities it stands to affect so profoundly, to understand what the consequences of this wide-ranging Bill may be.
For a country that so often prides itself on civil liberties, this Bill represents an attack on some of the most fundamental rights of citizens, in particular those from marginalised communities, and is being driven through at a time and in a way where those who will be subject to its provisions are least able to respond.
We urge the government to fundamentally rethink its approach.
Yours sincerely,
See list of signatories so far
You can see a full list of signatories so far here.
Several organisations are collecting signatures on this open letter and we will deliver all signatures jointly to the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Justice.
Are you a member of a local campaign group or community organisation? Consider talking to your group about the implications of this Bill for your rights to free assembly, your right to speak out and your right to peaceful protest. You can sign on behalf of a group or organisation below.
NB: We’ll protect your data. By signing up, you consent to receive further communications from Tipping Point about our work and how you can get involved locally and nationally. You can unsubscribe from emails at any time.