From the legislative war on sex workers to new rules governing criminal record disclosure, Carl Spender is here with a round-up of the last month’s legal news.
Legal News Digest: Nov-Dec 2020
Tag: policing
Keir Starmer isn’t a sellout.
It may be an odd headline for an anarchist to write about a Labour leader, but hear me out.
Police Killings and the Settler State
In a new article for Freedom written following anti-racist protests which have reverberated around the globe, Peter Gelderloos considers how history acts to inflect today’s racism in the US, UK and settler colonial states worldwide.
Police exploit anti-racist BLM rally to arrest green activists
Three people, including green activists, were arrested by a City of London snatch squad at today’s Black Lives Matter march.
From Minneapolis to London: who polices the police?
Many of us have been following recent events in Minneapolis where a community is resisting police terror following the murder of George Floyd, with outpourings of solidarity from across the world.
Top London mayoral candidates cut liberty for expediency as they back Met facial recognition plans
Despite a deeply mixed public reaction to the idea of the Metropolitan Police introducing intrusive surveillance technology city-wide Labour, the Tories and media darling Rory Stewart have all jumped on the chance to look tough on crime at the expense of civil freedoms.
The eviction of New Hope anti-fracking camp shows the blurry line between policing and private security
In case you missed it: early this morning, a mob of dog-wielding bailiffs stormed the Camp of New Hope at Preston New Road, evicting frontline anti-fracking activists from what, for some, had been their home for 3 years.
How Johnson’s stop and search expansion will hurt BME communities
Earlier this month, Boris Johnson revealed the next string to his crime-fighting bow; a country-wide extension to Stop-and-Search procedures.
Green and Black Cross: Extinction Rebellion’s legal support is inadequate
In a statement released today the longstanding activist court support group is expressing serious concerns about how senior organisers with Extinction Rebellion (XR) are approaching legal observation and policing — and explains why GBC is withdrawing backing for the group.
Activist legal update: Notorious ‘Common Assault’ penalty doubled
From November 19th 2018 an new offence of “Assaulting an Emergency Worker” has been created, which doubles the maximum penalty for Common Assault (Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988).
Recent Articles
Nantes: 4,000 on the streets for Bloquons Tout
French police directed the demonstration with flash grenades and tear gas ~ from Contre Attaque ~ Saturday, 13 September, a rainy day in Nantes.
Facing down the flagshaggers
To resist normalisation, we need enduring groundwork with attacked communities—and spaces for open strategising ~ Blade Runner ~ On Saturday 13 September, between 110,000 and 150,000 turned out in response to Tommy Robinson’s call, a mobilisation framed as a defence of “free speech” but saturated with white nationalist, Islamophobic and anti-migrant rhetoric.
London arms fair disruption: A stark contrast to mass arrests for Palestine
Well-coordinated direct action catches the police off guard, showing the power of secure and strategic organising ~ Kevin Blowe ~ On 9 September, at around 7.30 in the morning, an advance bloc of about 150 protesters, their faces covered, suddenly appeared by London City Hall in east London, near to where Britain’s largest arms fair,
Anarchist prisoner released from Belarus
The regime deported 52 political prisoners in exchange for sanctions relief ~ Nikita Ivansky ~ Anarchist Nikolai (Mikola) Dziadok was among 52 political prisoners released and deported from Belarus to Lithuania on 11 September, following negotiations between dictator Alexander Lukashenko and US envoy John Colae.
