Our director @silkiecarlo said: “Our common goal is to emerge from lockdown – healthy, safe and free. But we won’t arrive at freedom through exclusion” /1
“Covid passes would be the first attempt at segregation in Britain for many decades, dividing communities without reducing the risks.
“We are in real danger of becoming a check-point society where anyone from bouncers to bosses could demand to see our papers.” /2
“We cannot let this Government create a two-tier nation of division, discrimination and injustice.” /3
📣 THREAD | MPs will vote on the second reading of the #PoliceCrackdownBill TODAY
A vote for the Bill will place protest rights in a permanent lockdown.
⚠️When @theresa_may voices concern that the government's plans might be too authoritarian... something must be up!
And IT IS.
This #PoliceCrackdownBill is a serious threat to our right to protest. The protest restrictions must be opposed.
🪧 'Does she not see that handing over more draconian powers to the police when they have so badly misjudged this situation would be both foolish and dangerous?'
The #PolicingBill in Parliament today is disastrous for protest rights.
It also contains clauses on digital extraction that could roll back our win against digital strip searches - meaning victims face intrusive, unnecessary, full phone downloads again.
Faced with the reality of the state’s brutal silencing of expression and dissent over recent days and months, MPs are now voicing defence for free speech, liberty and democratic rights.
But for this to be meaningful & honest, those same politicians must oppose the #PolicingBill
A vote for the #PolicingBill is a vote for the shameful force seen at Clapham Common last night.
A vote for the #PolicingBill is a vote to keep protest rights in lockdown permanently.
Because the powers in this Bill are extreme, excessive and undemocratic to the core.
The 307 page Bill would criminalise a spectrum of dissent - from 1 person demonstrations, to the risk(!) of causing annoyance.
The Government can only go back to the drawing board. There are already excessive public order offences that heavily criminalise protest activities.
🎉This is a fantastic judgment in a case brought by a Big Brother Watch supporter that could help many, many others wrongly prosecuted during the lockdowns.
It confirms it's *not* an offence to refuse to give your personal details to police for a suspected covid regs breach.
We cannot thank @jpormerod enough, who has provided fantastic legal support to people in need like Mr Neale throughout the pandemic, and who gives us excellent advice. No doubt there are more successes to come! Thanks again to Patrick, @BindmansLLP@wainwright_tom@gardencourtlaw
Mr Neale called us after he was arrested during the first lockdown simply for being outside, alone, posing a risk to no one. He was homeless and therefore exempt from the requirement to stay at home. The police treated him aggressively and held him in a police cell.
Today, the Prime Minister will announce the roadmap out of lockdown 3, nearly 2 MONTHS after it came into force.
This long wait is unacceptable. The public shouldn’t be left in limbo, waiting on the discretion of Ministers as to when our liberties will be restored.
This lockdown was introduced without Parliamentary approval.
And throughout, Parliament and the public haven't been permitted to see the legally required reviews of the effectiveness of lockdown restrictions. How can Parliament make decisions without them? Do they even exist?
The Govt's emphasis on criminalising people & ever-increasing enforcement powers has caused a wave of injustice at a time of great hardship for many.
We want to see a public health, not criminal law, approach to the pandemic.