Anyone who resists being searched could be imprisoned for – you guessed it – up to 51 weeks.Įxisting stop and search powers are used disproportionately against Black and Brown people, who are six times as likely to be stopped as white people. Other new powers would grant police the right to stop and search people without suspicion, if they believe that protest will occur “in that area”. The police would be entitled to stop and search people or vehicles if they suspect they might be carrying any article that could be used in the newly prohibited protests, presumably including placards, flyers and banners. Other amendments would greatly expand police stop and search powers. This looks like an attempt to end meaningful protest against road-building and airport expansion. It would also become a criminal offence to obstruct in any way major transport works from being carried out, again with a maximum sentence of 51 weeks. Not only would they make locking on – a crucial tool of protest the world over – illegal, but they are so loosely drafted that they could apply to anyone holding on to anything, on pain of up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment.
Yet in most of the media there’s a resounding silence.Īmong the new amendments are measures that would ban protesters from attaching themselves to another person, to an object, or to land. It looks like a deliberate ploy to avoid effective parliamentary scrutiny. Priti Patel, the home secretary, shoved 18 extra pages into the bill after it had passed through the Commons, and after the second reading in the House of Lords. The last-minute amendments crowbarred by the government into the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill are a blatant attempt to stifle protest, of the kind you might expect in Russia or Egypt.