‘This is a Protest’ is a new installation, created in the shape of a homeless persons tent. With headline grabbing soundbites of “invasion”, “serious disruption” and “hate marches”, crafting common culture and motivating action, legislation was sanctioned to prevent and arrest, obstructions which caused “more than minor hindrance to day-to-day activities”. We must Protect our Right to Peaceful Protest.
The Criminal Justice / Policing Bill, with its hidden agenda has vague, far reaching police powers, criminalising; begging and rough sleeping, portraying it as a “lifestyle choice”, various forms of peaceful protest, expanded stop-and-search powers, the creation of protest banning orders and serious disruption prevention orders, including pre-emptive protester arrests. The police can impose conditions on protests, backed by prison sentences, in order to prevent “serious disruption”, defined as an obstruction causing “more than minor hindrance to day-to-day activities”
Large-scale, non-violent ‘political’ protests against war, combating climate change and highlighting environmental issues, were targeted by the then Home Secretary, applying pressure on the police to ban these protests, characterising them as “hate marches”. This clamping down on the freedom to protest is in clear contrast to the mayhem on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) where extreme right right and fascist rhetoric flooding people newsfeeds.
