The law has spread its tentacles over protest, effectively making all of it illegal | Letters

Your communicative rightly highlights the troubling authorities harassment of peaceful protesters, but the absorption connected the appropriateness of policing misses a deeper problem: the instrumentality itself (Why did 30 Met officers footwear the doorway down astatine a teenage beverage and biscuits gathering successful a Quaker house?, 10 May).

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 defines nationalist nuisance arsenic recklessly oregon intentionally causing superior harm to the public, but redefines “serious harm” to see “serious annoyance oregon inconvenience”. This linguistic nonsense efficaciously renders each protestation unlawful, for the point of protests is typically to gully attraction by causing annoyance oregon inconvenience.

If superior harm includes superior annoyance, presumably superior annoyance could see superior indifference, which could see superior amusement? While we’re astatine it, let’s redefine “serious wounding” to see “serious tickling”.

The communicative quotes a young pistillate progressive who describes the gathering arsenic “six young women successful a room, successful a spot that we hired, that we publically advertised … I don’t truly spot immoderate conspiracy successful that.” Yet contempt the word’s mean connotations, “conspiracy” successful instrumentality conscionable means two oregon much radical agreeing to transportation retired a crime, whether secretly oregon not.

These young women look understandably shocked that the instrumentality could specify what they were suspected of doing arsenic a superior crime, but the bittersweet information is that the constabulary could person had grounds for suspicion, simply due to the fact that the offence of conspiracy to origin nationalist nuisance is truthful broad. Policing aside, we’ve allowed the transgression instrumentality itself to dispersed its tentacles implicit astir each conceivable protest-related enactment – redefining sincere, democratically engaged citizens arsenic unsafe enemies of nine who beryllium down bars. This is serious.
Dr Craig Reeves
Birkbeck, University of London