30th October 2009
Doth the People Protest Too Much?
Mark Hanson
During the past week the Guardian newspaper carried a series of articles on the policing of protest.
They made disturbing reading. In fact, one had to double check which nation they were reporting on. Iran? China?
The reports showed how protesters in the UK have now been labelled “domestic extremists” by the police, and that an intricate nationwide surveillance operation had been launched to monitor UK citizens opposed to Government policy. The operations mounted against protesters included using “harassment laws” to gain injunctions preventing protests, filming and recording of the words and movements of those involved, and databases to track those who play a part in the political landscape of Britain.
These revelations are of deep concern. The ability of the State, in the hands of unaccountable police officers, to separate the “legitimate” political activities of mainstream political parties and the “domestic extremism” of environmental groups and anti-war protestors, smacks, not of free speech, liberty and democracy, but of Stalinism. It should not be tolerated.
Reports included testimonies of some of those who had been labelled domestic extremists, and recorded how automatic number plate readers were tracking their every move, enabling the police to harass them at will. The testimonies included reference to an increased number of encounters with police officers.
This might well be expected of those committing crime or engaged in terrorism. But no crime had been committed in these cases. The “crime” was taking part in a long-standing and hard-fought for principle in British law: freedom of expression.
The Government needs to urgently take action to restore basic human rights in the UK. Sitting on the Human Rights Act whilst it is blatantly ignored is not an option.
The Information Commissioner has, indeed, been swift to take action, calling on the police to justify their holding of data on ordinary citizens that are active in politics. Yet the Government has been profoundly silent, except to say that they play no part in police operational matters. If the police are not accountable to government, and they are not accountable to the people, just who are they accountable to?
