Thread by @netpol

🧵 A short thread on the proposed new public order bill that the government will include in the Queen's Speech next Monday:

These new police powers were floated before by Boris Johnson in October 2021 as a knee-jerk reaction to what he called “illegitimate protests” involving civil disobedience against government inaction on the climate crisis

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1444678486464077827

Rejecting the legitimacy of climate campaigners’ demands, whilst seeking an expansion of blanket stop and search powers, will lead to the relentless harassment of protesters by the police, simply for travelling to a protest whilst having an association with an “illegal” movement

What was found unlawful by the courts when used by Kent Police at the Kingsnorth power station in 2008 will become far easier for the police to try and justify bbc.co.uk/news/10290456

The proposed new 'Serious Disruption Prevention Orders' are a particularly dangerous escalation in the government’s efforts to suppress dissenting voices. When the government proposed these severe restrictions on individuals before, they did not even require a conviction

Instead, the courts would simply need to ‘reasonably believe’ a campaigner had carried out protest activities resulting in, or likely to result in, 'serious disruption'. Anyone who has organised with a direct action group or participated in a large-scale protest could be at risk.

Defining essential “national infrastructure” to include the special interests of the government’s friends in the press, but continuing to ignore the corporate destruction of our rivers and our countryside says everything about the priorities driving this proposed new legislation.

New powers and stiffer sentences may, unfortunately, intimidate some from choosing to exercise their rights to demonstrate but as long as the climate crisis - the biggest challenge the world faces - is ignored by governments then protests will inevitably continue.

The more the government seeks to criminalise dissent, the more important it becomes to stand together and resist these draconian new powers.

It's time to get organised netpol.org/defend-dissent/ #DefendDissent