Independent Leyton Orient Forum

Scotland Yard is seeking new legal powers to help it stop Extinction Rebellion and other protesters bringing parts of the capital to a standstill.

In a submission to the Home Office, Met chiefs have asked for a change in the law to make it possible to prohibit people freed on bail from immediately returning to a protest to commit new offences by blocking the streets again.

The force also wants extra powers to allow it to stop campaigners bringing items ranging from boats to furniture to protests to use as barriers to traffic.

Both this tactic and the return of arrested protesters were key features of the Extinction Rebellion protests in London in April when environmental campaigners halted traffic for days by setting up a camp around a boat in the middle of Oxford Circus.

The Met also wants ministers to update existing powers under Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act to increase their effectiveness.

The first allows police to impose conditions on public processions. The second allows officers to order protesters to confine demonstration to a particular place, to keep numbers down, and when to end it.

The police request — which is understood to have been received favourably — comes ahead of a planned 10-day protest by Extinction Rebellion in London due to start next week. It aims to block at least 11 sites, including Westminster and Lambeth Bridges and several streets in the area, as part of a campaign to force the Government to take swifter, more extensive action on climate change.

The organisers say they expect “thousands more ordinary citizens” including “parents, builders, footballers, doctors, teachers, musicians, scientists, CEOs, farmers” to take part.

In a statement today the Met said it was liaising with Extinction Rebellion in an attempt to reduce any disruption.

But the force warned that the protest was “co-ordinated, planned, and designed to cause maximum impact on those who live, work and visit London for 24 hours over two weeks” and that it would take robust action against law-breakers.

The Met added: “The policing plan is well resourced and flexible to be able to respond to the activities of this group. We will take action against any individual who engages in criminal activity and this includes seizing any property that forms part of unlawful activity.”

Meanwhile, latest Met statistics show 256 people have already been convicted of offences during the Extinction Rebellion protest in April. Although many received a conditional discharge, police say this is still a criminal conviction that can have a lasting impact, including on travel to countries such as the US.

Beradogs wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2019 1:25 pm What are you doing to support the protests? No longer fly? Do not use energy intensive devices like computers. Do not eat red meat? No thought not. I will see you’re support and raise you a doing nothing but saying you support them means you can moan.

Proposition Joe wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2019 3:15 pm Shut down the streets.

Redcard wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 1:17 pm I think we should outlaw ALL demonstrations whatever the merits of their cause.

Redcard wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 1:17 pm I think we should outlaw ALL demonstrations whatever the merits of their cause. The right of assembly and protest is outmoded and relates to time when that was the only way people could get their message heard. Today you have hundreds of news outlets, radio, television, newspapers, and of course social media.
All these protesters do is make life intolerable for people going about their daily business, blocking roads, and causing people to miss appointments, trains, planes etc.

Redcard wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:37 pm Spenn, you are coming across as very stupid. I said “demonstrations” and later “assembly and protests “. If you think that I was referring to groups of people attending football matches ect then you are misguided.

Redcard wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 3:23 pm Don’t be so ridiculous, you are totally ignoring the fact that to anyone bar you it’s clear that when I state demonstrations I mean exactly that, and likewise when I state “assembly and protest”. At times like this you more closely resemble the village idiot than a lawyer.

Redcard wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 3:23 pm Don’t be so ridiculous, you are totally ignoring the fact that to anyone bar you it’s clear that when I state demonstrations I mean exactly that, and likewise when I state “assembly and protest”. At times like this you more closely resemble the village idiot than a lawyer.

Redcard wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 4:25 pm Spen, give it a rest , you are digging yourself into a bottomless pit, trying to equate massive disruptive protests with a few people complaining is ludicrous.

Redcard wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 5:16 pm Perhaps you have never been affected by the disruption caused by tens, if not hundreds of thousands of protesters.
I have no real objection to mass protests provided it’s not at the expense of the general public, preventing people from conducting their day to day business. An acceptable compromise would be for the protesters to conduct their activity within one of our parks and not on public thoroughfare, that way anybody who was interested in hearing them could attend while the rest of us could get on with our lives.