Protesters take stand outside city police base
MEMBERS of the climate action group Extinction Rebellion gathered outside Newcastle Police station on Tuesday to rally against the Government’s controversial new crime bill which aims to clamp down on disruptive and noisy protesters.
Around 20 demonstrators were spotted outside Forth Banks Police Station with banners just after 7.30pm.
The XR members brought speakers and pots and pans to the evening protest, and were heard chanting “Kill the Bill” and “this is what democracy looks like”.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill (PCSC) is a huge piece of legislation which covers major proposed changes on crime and justice in England and Wales.
Some of the most controversial parts include planned changes to protests – which the Government proposed in response to environmental activists who have blocked roads, glued themselves to trains and stopped printing presses in recent years.
Some of the Bill’s most controversial clauses were stripped out by the House of Lords on Monday night, but demonstrators in Newcastle said they ‘aren’t going away’ as it re-enters the commons.
The House of Lords defeated plans to give police the power to stop and search peaceful protesters without suspicion and make “locking on” an offence, after the Government attempted to add them at a late stage of scrutiny.
A proposed offence for disrupting key national infrastructure, including airports and newspaper printers, was also voted down.
At Tuesday’s protest, environmental campaigner and student Chris Riches, 20, said: “Given the defeat in the Lords, we have won part of our battle terms of the new amendments added. But the bill without the amendments is still an assault on democracy – especially the part clamping down on ‘serious annoyance’. It is a vague term that will be defined after the bill passed, so we need to protest now as it re-enters the commons.”
Another member of XR, bartender Lloyd Mitchell, said he was at the protest “to defend the right to demonstrate” because “our liberties are at risk”. He continued: “Although there have been amendments by the House of Lords, we are tip-toeing towards a police state. And in this fractured political climate, we need to stand together and engage.
“XR believe in civil disobedience because we feel the normal ways of protesting, with placards and marches, can’t bring about change as quickly as it’s needed.”
Andy from Gateshead, another member of the environmental group, said the group had chosen the police station to protest, because they think it’s “important that people recognise that the police are going to be the ones who have to implement these rules, but also that some of these rules came at their request.
“We want the police to understand that we aren’t happy about some of the changes to the law they are requesting, which will give them almost extraordinary powers.”
Responding to the comments made regarding police powers, a spokesperson from the National Police Chiefs Council referred the Chronicle to a comment made by the lead for Policing Protests, Chief Constable Chris Noble. He said: “Policing is not anti-protest, but it is pro-responsibility and for having due regards for the rights of others. The ability to protest peacefully in a democracy is important but it is also important there are consequences for those who break the law and significantly impact on the lives and livelihoods of others.
“Ultimately, of course, the making of the law is a matter for politicians and the interpretation of the law, a matter for the courts.”
Meanwhile, a Home Office spokesperson said: “Freedom to protest is a fundamental right, but current laws to manage highly disruptive protests are out of date and not fit for purpose.”