13th May 2023
Draconian police powers protect the ruling class
Liberals may take comfort in the delusion that Britain is not, or could not become, a police state but the evidence of the past week and recent legislation ought to make them think twice.
First up as evidence is the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. Powers under the Act were liberally deployed by the police over the coronation weekend. Three arrests under the powers were of volunteers working for “Night Stars”, an organisation funded by Westminster Council to help stop the sexual harassment of women. The volunteers distribute rape alarms to women who might need them and are clearly identified by their pink tabards adorned with the logo of their Metropolitan Police partners.
Nevertheless, the arrests took place at 2am in the morning before the coronation and were ‘justified’ on the basis that ‘intelligence’ suggested that the rape alarms might be used to frighten the horses that would be part of the parade. The volunteers were held for 14 hours before being released on bail.
The 2022 Act outlaws “serious disruption” and criminalises “intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance”, the interpretation of which is so broad that any number of relatively peaceful protests could come under its definition. Even handing out rape alarms it would seem. With penalties of up to 12 months in prison the Act is clearly designed to deter anyone thinking about public protest.
Second up as evidence is the positively draconian Public Order Act 2023. This is the old ‘sus’ laws, widely used against black working class youths in the past, dressed up and expanded. Anyone can be stopped and searched if the police “reasonably believe” that protests may be about to take place or if they think that someone may be carrying a “prohibited object”. Resisting a search can result in up to a year in prison, being found guilty of engaging in an ‘illegal’ protest can get you up to three years in jail.
A key clause of the Act is the introduction of “serious disruption prevention orders” which give the police powers to prevent certain individuals from attending protests, associating with named others and even going so far as imposing house arrest. Orders can be applied based on a “balance of probabilities” and last for up to two years, renewable for a further two if deemed necessary.
In the build up to the coronation weekend activists from the anti-Monarchy group Republic were in discussions with the police for four months, making clear that their protests would be peaceful, the nature of the action and where they would take place. Nevertheless, six activists, including Republic spokesman, Graham Smith, were arrested while unloading placards from a van at 7am on the morning of the coronation and were not released until 11pm the same night.
Whatever ‘intelligence’ the police were working on to make these arrests you would think could extend to recognising someone they had been negotiating with for four months in less than 16 hours! Apparently not.
All of which points directly towards the arrest of the Republic activists as a planned operation by the police in an attempt to either sabotage any protest or, at the very least, send out a warning message to activists for the future.
The police are the frontline enforcement arm of capitalism. Evidence over decades confirms this, the Miner’s Strike 1984/85 being the most sustained example followed by a phalanx of anti-trade union legislation aimed at constraining strike action. Subsequent protests against poll tax imposition, the protests of animal rights activists, Just Stop Oil campaigners and others campaigning to save the environment, add to the evidence that the capitalist state will do its utmost to suppress dissent.
The most recent report into the Metropolitan Police by Louise Casey, published in March, found the force to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic. This is the latest in a long list of evidence accumulated over many years, through a wide range of inquiries into police activity, that the police are a force for the upholding of ruling class laws, not defenders of local communities.
The actions of the police over the weekend of the coronation will no doubt be applauded by the right wing press as evidence that the new powers are necessary. As capitalism struggles to retain any semblance of credibility, as company profits surge while the real value of wages plummet, there is no doubt that more enforcement of working class communities and those protesting against the injustices of the state will increase.
Active opposition to such draconian measures is an essential first step and any incoming Labour government should, first and foremost, be committed to their repeal.
Avanti Populo 