The British government's move to lower the threshold of when police can restrict peaceful protests was ruled unlawful in the High Court on Tuesday.
It came after Liberty, a civil rights group, challenged the move by the government to introduce a statutory instrument that lowered the threshold for what is considered "serious disruption" from "significant" and "prolonged" to "more than minor." It also allowed police to take into account "any relevant cumulative disruption" of repeated protests.An attempt by the UK government to lower the threshold of when police can restrict peaceful protests was ruled unlawful in London's High Court on Tuesday.
The right to process is a vital part of democracy. However, we have seen on too many occasions that the actions of certain extremists go beyond what can be defined as peaceful protest, and police havebeen restricted by insufficient powers to respond. These measures are intended to protect our democratic processes from disruption and intimidation.
The court's ruling to quash the government's attempt to introduce more police powers to crackdown on protests through the backdoor is a win for democracy and greatly welcomed. The government should listen to the complaints of protestors rather than seek to have them shut down and arrested.