People protesting the Police & Crime Bill in Cardiff. Photo, Tom Davies
“THROUGHOUT HISTORY, MOVEMENTS FROM THE SUFFRAGETTES TO THE TRADE UNIONS HAVE USED PROTEST AS AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR SECURING VITAL POLITICAL CHANGE. SO MANY OF THE RIGHTS WE ENJOY TODAY WERE HARD FOUGHT FOR THROUGH DISRUPTIVE AND NOISY PROTESTS.”
This month saw protests across the country against the Government’s proposed Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill. Across Wales – from Wrexham and Bangor to Swansea and Cardiff – people took part in demonstrations against the Bill, which contains measures that would restrict the right to protest.
The weekend before the Bill arrived in Parliament, there were nationwide vigils for Sarah Everard organised primarily by Sisters’ Uncut. In Cardiff and Newport, these were peaceful affairs, but it was a very different story in London. The actions of the police in London led to a change of mood in the country and in particular the position of the Parliamentary Labour Party in relation to this Bill.
Excessive police force is nothing new. In my constituency of Cynon Valley, the miners’ strike is still part of living memory. Every mining community across the country saw and felt the massive and disproportionate violence shown towards demonstrators at Orgreave and elsewhere.
The proposals in the PCSC Bill to restrict protest represent a coordinated political attack on our civil liberties. It is my understanding that this Bill contravenes the Human Rights Act which protects the right to peaceful protest. This Bill attempts to clamp down on dissent and protest, rather than addressing the injustices which give rise to those protests.
Another deeply concerning element of the Bill is the new criminal offences for people living in temporary encampments, which is believed to specifically target the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT)community, who already experience some of the starkest inequalities of any ethnic group in the UK. Having worked with people in this community I can bear witness to the inequalities and hardships they already suffer daily.
The Bill would give the police new powers to destroy Traveller property and arrest Travellers for trespass. Rather than these measures, what is needed is the provision of additional legal sites for encampments and, more widely, a strategy to tackle the inequalities that exist.
“ANOTHER DEEPLY CONCERNING ELEMENT OF THE BILL IS THE NEW CRIMINAL OFFENCES FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN TEMPORARY ENCAMPMENTS, WHICH IS BELIEVED TO SPECIFICALLY TARGET THE GYPSY, ROMA AND TRAVELLER (GRT)COMMUNITY, WHO ALREADY EXPERIENCE SOME OF THE STARKEST INEQUALITIES OF ANY ETHNIC GROUP IN THE UK.”
The Bill also includes provisions for significantly longer sentences, which will cost more than £700 million over the next decade. I fear these changes will not lead to fewer victims of crime. In order to assist victims of crime, we must invest in reforming our court system, so victims are not left waiting years for their day in court. A further proposal in the Bill would see the creation of a database for knife crime and the expansion of stop and search powers. This is likely to further criminalise young black men, who are already disproportionately targeted by stop and search.
There is a growing problem in this country of gangs targeting young boys. Measures like this would further stigmatise these boys and make it harder for them to extract themselves from the gangs and rebuild their lives.
This PCSC Bill takes completely the wrong approach to policing and justice. We need to be speaking the language of early intervention, rehabilitation and community-based solutions, not criminalisation. We must break the school-to-prison pipeline and engage with young offenders, helping them to get back onto the right track. The crisis in our police and justice system has been created by a decade of cuts and failed Tory ideology. This Bill fails to address this at the same time as it curtails our civil liberties.
These proposals are part of a wider set of policies and statements made by this Government that attack essential rights such as the rights to protest. The Home Secretary has referred to the Black Lives Matter protests against structural racial injustice as “dreadful” and commented that the Extinction Rebellion protestors against Government inaction on climate change were “eco-crusaders turned criminals”.
This Bill would make the BLM protesters in Bristol, who tore down a statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader, and threw it in the river, liable for ten years in prison. And any “noisy” protests can be shut down, with the decision about what constitutes “noisy” left in Government hands.
Throughout history, movements from the suffragettes to the trade unions have used protest as an essential tool for securing vital political change. So many of the rights we enjoy today were hard fought for through disruptive and noisy protests.
I voted against this Bill when it was first brought to Parliament and will continue to stand up against it. I’ve been enthused by the strength of public feeling in opposition to this Bill. Across the country people protested, signed petitions and wrote to their MPs. Their actions put an enormous pressure on the Government, which shows that despite the Tory’s majority in Westminster, we can still make our voices heard. Even with their massive majority, they can’t ignore people power.
But, this Bill isn’t going away – this Government I have no doubt, is preparing for the coming unrest as people realise the effects of Tory Government policies on benefits, austerity and the cuts in services, growing unemployment and poor investment in a green economy. It is therefore more important than ever that we continue to voice our opposition loudly to the PCSC Bill and other infringements of our civil liberties.
The writer is the Labour Member of Parliament for Cynon Valley
* A fresh ‘Kill the Bill’ protest has been called in Cardiff on Saturday, 17th April, Bute Park Stone Circle at 2.00pm.
