Signal
Much of of the public appears to have only just woken up to the reality of aggressive policing of protests with the recent vigil in Clapham Common. Former Liberty Director and Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti rightly expresses grave concerns about yet another repressive piece of legislation heading for the commons.
Given the Met’s brutal treatment of peaceful women, the timing of Priti Patel’s bill to boost policing of protests couldn’t be worse
The Peterloo massacre in 1819, the abuses of the suffragettes in the early 20th century, the killing of Blair Peach in 1979, the recent “spy cops” scandal: there have been many dark moments in Britain’s history of policing and protest. To this long list we must now add the scandalous police response to a public vigil held on Clapham Common, south London, marking the disappearance and death of Sarah Everard. That this brutal reaction to the women who gathered to remember her was presided over by the first female Metropolitan police commissioner and the fourth female home secretary is a bitter feminist irony. It should be a reminder that we need to change how the system works, not just the faces that govern it
Read the piece by Shami Chakrabarti in the Guardian
police powers to tackle “non-violent protests”, are worryingly authoritarian
Chami Chakrabarti
