Coronavirus: Protests should be allowed during lockdown, say 60 MPs and peers

More than 60 MPs and peers have written to the home secretary calling for a change in Covid-19 legislation to allow protests to happen during lockdown.

The letter, organised by campaign groups Liberty and Big Brother Watch, says there is a human right to protest.

Under England’s current lockdown regulations, protests are not listed as a “reasonable excuse” for leaving home.

It comes as further protests are planned for Saturday by anti-lockdown campaigners.

The Home Office said it was still illegal for people to attend protests at a time when regulations that are in place to prevent wide transmission of Covid require people to stay at home at all times, except for a limited number of exceptions.

Last weekend, police were criticised for arresting women attending a vigil following the killing of Sarah Everard.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has instructed the police watchdog, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), to “conduct a lessons-learned review into the policing of the event”.

A day earlier, campaigners attempted, without success, to persuade the High Court that the vigil should be exempt from the coronavirus regulations.

The judge hearing the case decided not to intervene but did suggest that the human rights of expression and gathering might be considered reasonable excuses in some circumstances.

PM ‘concerned’ by Sarah Everard vigil footage
Hundreds at new Everard vigil despite Patel’s plea
Why police could get the power to limit noisy protests
The letter to Ms Patel was signed by several Conservative MPs — including Steve Baker, and Sir Christopher Chope — as well as Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey and a number of Labour MPs and peers.

It demands that the home secretary issue guidance to police forces on “facilitating” protests to clear up the legal confusion surrounding the issue.

It calls on Ms Patel to act in order to avoid a situation where organisers and the police have to “decipher precisely what is required”.

“The absence of clear guidance on these issues has created an entirely unsatisfactory situation, which has persisted to varying degrees for almost a year now,” the letter says.

“The police have no legal certainty as to their duties and powers, protestors have no legal certainty as to their rights, and there is inconsistent application of the Regulations across the country. This cannot continue,” the letter adds.

In response, the Home Office maintained its position that it would be illegal to to leave home without a reasonable excuse until coronavirus rules change on 29 March.

It added: “While we are still in a pandemic we continue to urge people to avoid mass gatherings, in line with wider coronavirus restrictions.”

Reacting to reports of more protests planned this weekend, the Metropolitan Police said a “significant policing operation” would be in place throughout the day to “engage” with people who are in breach of the regulations.

It added: “Those gathering will be encouraged to return home. If they do not they face necessary and proportionate enforcement action. This could be a fixed penalty notice or arrest.”

What went wrong at the Sarah Everard vigil?
How a woman’s death sparked UK soul-searching
In Pictures: Sarah Everard vigils held across UK
The legal confusion grew following last week’s Court of Appeal case — during which the force appeared to accept that it did not have a policy of blanket bans on protests, because that would breach human rights.

However, when those attending the vigil in memory of the 33-year-old marketing executive surrounded a bandstand on Clapham Common, a decision was taken to attempt to remove them.

There were confrontations with the police and arrests were made.

Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said: “The harrowing scenes of police officers using force against women at Clapham Common recently were avoidable and wrong. Over the past week, many more demonstrators and even legal observers have been arrested or fined.

“This stain on our democracy is a direct consequence of this government’s disrespect for the most basic of British democratic freedoms.”

Sam Grant from Liberty said: “Last week, the police conceded protest is not banned under the lockdown regulations, but used them to threaten then arrest demonstrators anyway.

“The home secretary must immediately issue guidance to all police forces to ensure socially distanced protests can go ahead and create an explicit exemption for protest in the current regulations.”

Boris Johnson has said he is “deeply concerned” by footage showing police officers detaining women at Saturday’s vigil to remember Sarah Everard.

The prime minister will chair a meeting of the crime and justice taskforce later to discuss ways to protect women.

Officers handcuffed women and removed them from the gathering on Clapham Common in London on Saturday.

Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has dismissed calls to resign and defended the force’s actions.

She said she was “more determined” to lead the Met, and hit out at “armchair” critics.

Dame Cressida will join Mr Johnson at the taskforce meeting, which will discuss what further action is needed to make streets safer for women.

Government sources said both Home Secretary Priti Patel and the prime minister had confidence in Dame Cressida.

What went wrong at the Sarah Everard vigil?
Policing bill ‘ignores violence against women’
What are the plans to change the law on protests?

https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/5699722ad1e82038ac4a5a7cd4180f68653b25b3ca668e9607eda6ce0fe4361d
https://dunandcombo.medium.com/covid-france-and-poland-increase-lockdown-measures-as-infections-surge-f58ff6f28963
https://www.thewyco.com/news/covid-france-and-poland-increase-lockdown-measures-as-infections-surge-20-03-2021
https://www.atoallinks.com/2021/covid-france-and-poland-increase-lockdown-measures-as-infections-surge/
https://telegra.ph/Covid-France-and-Poland-increase-lockdown-measures-as-infections-surge-03-20-3
https://minimore.com/b/xgzb8/1
https://steemit.com/news/@maruesea/covid-france-and-poland-increase-lockdown-measures-as-infections-surge

Ms Patel has instructed the police watchdog, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), to “conduct a lessons learned review in to the policing of the event”, the prime minister has said.

Mr Johnson said he was “deeply concerned” by the scenes on Clapham Common on Saturday night and that Dame Cressida had “committed to reviewing how this was handled”.

“The death of Sarah Everard must unite us in determination to drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to protect and defend them,” he added.

Dame Cressida said she agreed on the need for a “sober review” and defended how officers responded to the “really big crowd”.

“They have to make these really difficult calls and I don’t think anybody should be sitting back in an armchair and saying ‘well that was done badly’ or ‘I would have done it differently’ without actually understanding what was going through their minds,” she said.

She added that what happened to Ms Everard made her “more determined” to lead the organisation.

Four people were arrested for public order and coronavirus regulation breaches, the Met said.

Hundreds gathered at the bandstand in Clapham Common, south London, on Saturday evening for a vigil for Ms Everard, who went missing while walking home from a friend’s house on 3 March.

Her remains were later found in woodland in Kent and Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with the 33-year-old’s kidnap and murder.

https://kukukurucut.cookpad-blog.jp/articles/581414
http://www.4mark.net/story/3359726/covid-france-and-poland-increase-lockdown-measures-as-infections-surge-atoallinks
https://vasvava39f.substack.com/p/akeh
https://www.mydigoo.com/forums-topicdetail-246021.html
https://blog.goo.ne.jp/geuramaneh/e/a974577949876cd8e5164a252c772b52
https://www.posts123.com/post/1391135/covid-france-and-poland-increase-lockdown-measures-as-infections-surge-by-dunandcombo-news-mar-2021-medium
https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=846953
http://www.easymarks.org/link/242177/tv-series-on-the-weekend
http://beterhbo.ning.com/profiles/blogs/aad
http://divasunlimited.ning.com/profiles/blogs/eebs
http://korsika.ning.com/profiles/blogs/vebw
https://www.peeranswer.com/question/6055bfabf4078bb60de97732
http://millionairex3.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ffw
http://network-marketing.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fsf
https://webhitlist.com/forum/topics/cintaku
https://www.onfeetnation.com/profiles/blogs/jet
https://caribbeanfever.com/photo/albums/sayang
https://dcm.shivtr.com/forum_threads/3339453
http://recampus.ning.com/profiles/blogs/hoow
http://notes.io/Btri
https://paiza.io/projects/4cycLeXIdLTKqhnYLSQs7A?language=bash
https://onlinegdb.com/rkcxNHQEO
https://ideone.com/VU8sOW

Town centre searches in Everard murder case
How many attacks on women are there?
How a woman’s death sparked UK soul-searching
Louise McLoughlin was one of those at the bandstand on Saturday. She told BBC Breakfast it was “a really lovely scene” when she arrived at around 18:00 GMT, but “it started to get a bit more riled” around half an hour later.

“The decision was obviously made for [the police] to move in and take over the area,” she said.

“At that point, it became a bit of a push and pull and there were a few scuffles and all of the candles and glass and the signs and the flowers that would have been put down for Sarah, you could just hear the breaking of glass now and again as these things were trampled on.”

‘We were silenced’
One of the women arrested, Dania Al’Obeid, said she knew the vigil had been cancelled but she “needed to go and pay my respects”.

She told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think that is where the frustration was, the bigger picture here was lost — we felt like we were silenced.”

Another of those arrested, Patsy Stevenson, whose photograph featured on many newspaper front pages, told Sky News: “I’ve been thrown into the public eye and the only way I can make this not in vain is to not make it political, not against the police, it’s just about the safety of women and we need to talk about it.”

Asked whether police could have used their discretion as they did when taking the knee with Black Lives Matter protesters or dancing with Extinction Rebellion, Martin Hewitt — chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council — told Today that the investigation into the Met’s actions “will look at all elements” of the event.

Sir Peter Fahy, former chief constable for Greater Manchester Police, said HMIC had previously criticised the police for not intervening enough in Black Lives Matter protests and that many officers felt they were “damned if they do and damned if they don’t”.

He added that current techniques for removing people from events safely “means that they normally have about five officers — one on each limb and one holding the head”.

“The trouble is, when you photograph that, it then looks very heavy-handed,” he said.

The force’s action at the vigil have drawn widespread criticism, with images and footage showing officers forcibly detaining women.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan described the police’s actions as “unacceptable”, adding he was “not satisfied” with the explanation provided by Dame Cressida and the deputy commissioner when he spoke to them.

He said he wanted HMIC to investigate the events and for the Independent Office for Police Conduct to investigate the actions of police officers.

https://www.thewyco.com/news/coronavirus-protests-should-be-allowed-during-lockdown-say-60-mps-and-peers-20-03-2021

https://dunandcombo.medium.com/coronavirus-protests-should-be-allowed-during-lockdown-say-60-mps-and-peers-f6eb0c87e86d

Blog Post

Coronavirus: Protests should be allowed during lockdown, say 60 MPs and peers

komomaneh