Thread by @SteB777

This is the direct, suppression of free speech, with the police acting as an oppressive state arm, to silence what people are saying, to stop government embarrassment.

The only legitimate reason to arrest a protestor, is if they are threatening harm or violence, to others.
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https://twitter.com/SteB777/status/1954316232460804301

This has always been the role of the police, to prevent, protest turning into violent disorder, where the safety of others is threatened.

So if someone is threatening to, or encouraging others to set fire to an asylum seeker's hostel, and this is a credible threat, intervene.
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This is because in the example I have described above, these protestors were actually trying to set fire to buildings where asylum seekers lived, and were trying to physically intimidate them, or physically assault them. It was an actual threat, not just a perceived threat.
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But if someone says "free Palestine", "stop the genocide", they are not credibly threatening to take that action itself, and it is clearly just an appeal for peace and humane action, not a threat to anyone.

The police and the government have totally lost their moral compass.
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Professional liars, keep saying things like they are supporting Hamas, Hamas are terrorists. Whereas very few to none of these protestors, have ever offered any support for Hamas, and have actually condemned the Hamas 7 Oct attack.
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If these protestors were making credible calls for violent action against Israel, and what they were saying, was being credibly converted into word, this would be different. However, this is not the case. Hence, massive police overreach.
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This is even clearer, when climate activists are calling for action to prevent climate catastrophe, because this is the other instance, where the police are engaging in massive overreach, to silence peaceful protestors, by arresting them.
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Bizarrely, the police rarely if ever use the powers, given to them, under this new protest legislation, to silence and arrest right wing protestors, who are clearly threatening actual violence and arson, against asylum seekers.
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Take the right's, cause célèbre, Lucy Connolly. She was actually charged under the 1986 Public Order Act, for calling for arson attacks on asylum seeker's hostels, which was actually happening, so a credible threat, not an imagined one.

9/judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl…

It is a genuine reason for the police to intervene in threatened violence, which is a credible threat to other people, and is actually happening.

Whereas, arresting people for simply holding a placard, threatens no one.
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The organization named on these placards, only crime was to spray paint planes, that threatened the lives of no one. No life was threatened by this. Therefore, proscribing this group as a terrorist organization was a total perversion of what terrorism actually is.
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Again, I contrast this with riots threatening asylum seekers. If the police had not intervened, the rioters would have succeeded in setting fire to asylum seekers' hostels, because the rioters were actually attempting to do this, and lives would have been lost.
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What we are seeing here, from this authoritarian government, is a complete perversion and inversion, of the normal instances where the police intervene and arrest people in protests. Those being arrested are not threatening violence to anyone.
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Rather, these protestors, are actually calling for action, to prevent harm and violence to others, and are being arrested on government orders, because they are saying things the government, don't want the public to hear, which embarrasses them.

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https://x.com/SteB777/status/1954316235627516356

It is actually the UK government, which is facilitating violence to others, by effectively supporting a government engaged in war crimes, where the PM of that country has an international arrest warrant out on them, for perpetrating war crimes.

15/icc-cpi.int/defendant/neta…

This is how perverted and inverted, the oppressive behaviour of the police towards peaceful protestors, instigated by the UK government, is. They are trying to silence peaceful protestors, for simply trying to draw attention to a humanitarian crisis.
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They have used multiple perverted justifications for this oppressive behaviour, such as proscribing an organization, as a terrorist organization, even though it only engaged in peaceful, non-violent, direct action, which threatened the lives of no one.
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As I say, these powers have also been used against, peaceful climate activists, merely asking for action, to prevent a catastrophe, that could collapse our civilization, and result in the deaths by starvation of billions.

18/theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

However, we can see the inconsistency, when the government and the police, do not use these powers against violent rioters, actually threatening the lives of other people. Clearly illustrating how perverse and selective this is application is.
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These powers, never stated, they were only to be used against climate activists, and those protesting against the crisis in Gaza. However, the way they've been so selectively applied, demonstrates the government only passed this legislation, to silence particular protestors.
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The motivation for this oppressive anti-democratic behaviour, is nothing to do with public safety, and the usual reasons for arresting protestors. But rather to stop the protestors, embarrassing the government, engaged in harmful behaviour.
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Governments should not be using oppressive police behaviour to silence protestors, simply embarrassing the government, by exposing its amoral and immoral behaviour, resulting in mass starvation, and threatening global mass starvation.
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This oppressive and anti-democratic behaviour is being facilitated by sophistry, and the total perversion of normal principles of justice and fairness. These dishonest contrivances, are condemned by moral scholars.

23/theguardian.com/world/2025/aug…

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