Protesters hold banners outside the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A pensioner faces up to two years in prison for holding a sign outside a court reminding jurors of their right to acquit defendants. For hanging a Just Stop Oil banner on a bridge, an engineer received a three-year sentence. Just for walking slowly down the street, dozens of people have been arrested.
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They are among hundreds of environmental activists arrested over peaceful demonstrations in the UK, where strict new laws restrict the right to protest.
The Conservative government says the laws prevent extremist activists from damaging the economy and disrupting daily life. Critics say the arrests mark a worrying change.
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“The government has made their intention very clear, which is to basically suppress what is a legitimate and legal protest,” said Jonathon Porritt, an environmentalist and former director of Friends of the Earth.
Britain is one of the world’s oldest democracies, home to Magna Carta, a centuries-old Parliament and an independent judiciary. That system is supported by an “unwritten constitution”: a set of laws, rules, conventions and judicial decisions accumulated over the years.
Police arrest protesters from the climate activist group Just Stop Oil in London, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2019. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
The result is that “we rely on the self-restraint of governments,” said Andrew Blick, author of “Democratic Turbulence in the United Kingdom” and a political scientist at King’s College London. “You expect people in power to behave.”
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But what if they don’t? During three scandal-marred years in office, Boris Johnson pushed the prime minister’s power to the limit. More recently, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked Parliament to overturn the UK Supreme Court’s decision, which blocked a plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Critics say cracks have appeared in Britain’s democratic foundations.
As former Conservative justice minister David Lidington put it: “The ‘good guy’ theory of checks and balances has now been tested to destruction.”
The canaries in the coal mine are environmental activists who blocked roads and bridges, stuck themselves to trains, splashed artwork with paint, sprayed buildings with fake blood, and doused athletes with orange powder to draw attention to climate change.
Anti-Brexit protesters sing music on a traffic island in front of the Houses of Parliament, in London, Wednesday, June 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
Groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain argue that civil disobedience is justified, but Sunak has called them “ideological fanatics”.
In 2022, the legal crime of “public disturbance” was created, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The Public Order Act 2023 expanded the definition of disruptive protest, increased police search powers and imposed sentences of up to 12 months in prison on protesters who block roads or other “key infrastructure”.
In May, six anti-monarchy activists were arrested before the coronation of King Charles III, before they had even raised a banner reading “Not my king.” All were released without charge.
In recent months, hundreds of Just Stop Oil activists have been detained under a new rule that criminalizes slow-moving protests. Some protesters have received prison sentences that have been described as unduly punitive.
Structural engineer Morgan Trowland was one of two activists who scaled a bridge over the River Thames in October 2022, forcing police to close the road for 40 hours. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
A protester holds a banner outside the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, in London, Monday, Dec. 1, 2019. Dec. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
He was released early on December 13 after 14 months in custody.
Ian Fry, the United Nations rapporteur on climate change and human rights, called the British anti-protest law a “direct attack on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”
The Conservative government has rejected the criticism. “Those who break the law should feel its full force,” Sunak said.
Even more troubling, some legal experts say, is the “lottery of justice.” Half of the environmentalists tried by juries have been acquitted after explaining their motivations. But in other trials, judges prohibited defendants from mentioning climate change or their reasons for protesting. Several defendants who defied the orders were jailed for contempt of court.
Tim Crosland, a former government lawyer turned environmental activist, said the silencing of the accused “looks like something that happens in Russia or China, not here.”
Protesters hold banners reading “Not my king” before Britain’s King Charles III arrives to attend the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in London, Monday, March 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
To highlight the concern, retired social worker Trudi Warner sat outside a London court in March holding a sign that read “Juries: You have the absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience.” She is now being prosecuted.
Many legal and constitutional experts say the treatment of protesters is a symptom of an increasingly reckless attitude toward Britain’s democratic structures that has been fueled by Brexit.
The 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union was won by a populist “leave” campaign that promised to restore the sovereignty of Parliament (and, by extension, the public).
The divorce brought Boris Johnson to power, who tested Britain’s unwritten constitution. When lawmakers blocked his attempts to leave the EU without a deal, he suspended Parliament, until the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that was illegal. He later proposed violating international law by breaching the UK’s exit treaty from the bloc.
He was ousted from office by his own fed-up lawmakers in 2022 after a series of personal scandals.
Police arrest protesters from the climate activist group Just Stop Oil in London, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2019. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
“People were elevated to senior positions (by Brexit) and then behaved in ways that were difficult to reconcile with maintaining a stable democracy,” said Blick, the King’s College professor.
The populist instinct, if not personal extravagance, has continued. In November, the UK Supreme Court ruled that a plan by Sunak to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was illegal because the country is not safe for refugees. The government said it would pass a law that would declare Rwanda safe, regardless of the court.
Former Attorney General Edward Garnier compared the plan to lawmakers’ decision “that all dogs are cats.”
But that doesn’t mean it won’t become law. Blick said that in Britain’s unwritten constitution, “nothing can be considered clearly unconstitutional.”
Remedies for Britain’s democratic deficit have been proposed, including citizens’ assemblies, a new body to oversee the constitution and a higher bar for changing key laws. But none of that is on the horizon.
Activists from the Just Stop Oil group block a road in London on Thursday, October 11, 2019. January 27, 2022 demanding to stop the progress of future oil and gas projects. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Meanwhile, protesters say they are fighting for both democracy and the environment.
Sue Parfitt, 81, is an Anglican priest who has been repeatedly arrested as part of the Christian Climate Action group. She has no plans to stop.
“It is worth doing to keep the right to protest alive, regardless of climate change,” he said. “It would be difficult for me to go to prison at 81 years old. But I’m ready to go.”
(with information from AP)
2023-12-26 12:30:38
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