S59 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021 proposes to make it an offence to 'cause serious harm to the public or a section of the public' with serious harm including 'serious distress, serious annoyance, serious inconvenience or serious loss of amenity.' 
Of course, protests are inherently designed to cause inconvenience. This bill will dangerously curtail the right to protest in the UK. It will hand yet more power to a police force wh have clearly shown they cannot be trusted to exercise the powers they have in a thoughtful way.
As lawyers, we are taught to be wary of broad drafting such as this. This offence could capture a far-reaching range of conduct, much of which we would current consider to be legitimate political activity.
I hope colleagues will join me in drawing attention to this dangerous legislation. Which only makes future events akin to those which happened on Clapham Common tonight more likely. Solidarity to all facing police violence.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
