Thread by @netpol

As 2021 draws to a close, it's time to reflect back on what, for Netpol, has been an enormously busy - and worrying - twelve months

Having predicted new anti-protest legislation last year, we were ready in March 2021 to resist the government's alarming Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Our response was the launch of a new Charter for Freedom of Assembly Rights netpol.org/2021/03/09/pro…

At the same time (and somewhat overshadowed by the bill), we also highlighted the release of a thematic review on “how effectively the police deal with protests” by @HMICFRS, which called for a huge increase in surveillance on protesters netpol.org/2021/03/11/are…

While this was breaking, we continued to raise concerns about the police's extraordinary interpretation of coronavirus rules, particularly the treatment of students in Manchester netpol.org/2021/03/12/cop…

By mid March the petition we launched in support of the Charter for Freedom of Assembly Rights had gathered over 100,000 signatures. It didn't take much longer for it to pass 200,000 netpol.org/2021/03/15/tho…

When the Met decided to cracked down on the vigils for Sarah Everard in London, we highlighted how it was the National Police Chiefs’ Council, not the High Court, that had told police forces they could not waive lockdown guidance netpol.org/2021/03/18/day…

In April we also reported on how police in South Wales were continuing to use covid rules to target Black Lives Matter protesters - a story that would become even more sinister later in the year netpol.org/2021/04/12/sou…

Challenging significant media misreporting, we also highlighted how at least 62 people had been injured by police violence during protests in Bristol in late March netpol.org/2021/04/14/fig…

Bristol was not the only city where the police response to #KillTheBill protesters was violent. The same was true in Manchester netpol.org/2021/05/17/pol…

... and in Newcastle netpol.org/2021/05/27/cro…

In advance of June 2021's G7 Summit in Cornwall, we raised our concerns that senior police commanders were offering deeply contradictory messages about obligations to protect freedom to protest the they seemed not to understand netpol.org/2021/06/07/g7-…

Inevitably, the result was officers from Devon & Cornwall Police deliberately targeting anyone associated with one group, @RebelsAnimal, for harassment, searches, and arrests netpol.org/2021/06/16/cli…

In June we also gave evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the #PolicingBill. Its legislative scrutiny report later that month said the bill was "inconsistent with our human rights and… deeply concerning." netpol.org/2021/06/22/new…

And in July an Inquiry report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and the Constitution, which had taken evidence from Netpol, was scathing about "revenge policing" against protesters in Bristol netpol.org/2021/07/01/inq…

In September there was further condemnation of increasingly hostile policing towards protesters, this time over the Metropolitan Police’s handling of protests at the DSEI arms fair in east London netpol.org/2021/09/29/met…

In October we tried to explain how the government was trying to make the already draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill even worse netpol.org/2021/10/05/exp…

The same month we were finally able to help expose the unsuccessful attempt by South Wales Police to recruit @_lowridavies, one of the co-founders of the Swansea Black Lives Matter group, as a police informant. netpol.org/2021/10/26/bre…

Throughout November we were busy monitoring the policing of #COP26 in Glasgow. With @article11trust, we published comprehensive evidence that @PoliceScotland claims of a “human rights-based approach” to the policing of protests were deeply misleading netpol.org/2021/12/16/res…

Netpol has been emergency-mode for almost all of 2021 - and 2022 looks like it will involve just as many challenges. We are a small organisation so if you are able to make a small donation to support our work, the details are here netpol.org/about/donation…