AN MP has told protestors who gathered outside his office last week that they have “misunderstood” a bill that will change the powers police have.
Earlier this week, a protest, organised by Darlington Green Party leader Matthew Snedker, took place outside the office of the town’s MP Peter Gibson.
Cllr Snedker described the controversial bill as a “killer blow to the rights of citizens to hold their government to account”.
But Mr Gibson said the right to protest is “not being stopped, rather the rights of people to not have their lives disrupted, and emergency services blocked is being protected”.
Read more: Protesters stage campaign outside Darlington MP Peter Gibson's office
It comes as Labour members in the House of Lords are set to oppose last-minute amendments to the police and crime bill, which human rights activists have described as “a dangerous power grab”, in a move that could kill the proposals entirely.
In a low-key announcement on the LabourLordsUK Twitter account on Friday, the party said it would be “opposing protest clauses added late” to the bill, a reference to 18 pages of amendments introduced by the government in November.
Unlike the rest of the bill, however, where the lords can merely send amendments back to the Commons to be reconsidered, because the latest amendments were introduced in the Lords they will fall if peers vote against them.
Read more: Why dozens of people staged a protest outside Darlington MP's office yesterday
Mr Gibson said: “It was clear that the protesters misunderstood the intent and objective of this important Bill. The right to protest is not being stopped, rather the rights of people to not have their lives disrupted, and emergency services blocked is being protected.
“It is disappointing that elected Green Party councillors would waste their time fighting this important Bill, delivering on our manifesto, which seeks to protect law abiding citizens from the ridiculous performance of people gluing themselves to roads and the like. Right minded people must ask themselves if these councillors really are one their side.”
Cllr Snedker said: “At the heart of the Police Bill is a killer blow to the rights of citizens to hold their government to account. For the five years between elections, the power of people to call for change will be eroded and weakened almost out of existence.
“Have no doubt, this is a very badly worded piece of legislation, the wording is deliberately vague and will give unnecessarily broad powers which are not clearly defined.
“We challenge anyone who supports this bill to provide a clear and unambiguous definition of the phrases used to expand police powers. Further restrictions are threatened in this bill as people who may potentially cause too much noise will face prosecution. The prospect of criminal offences carrying a 10 year prison term being committed on the basis of putting someone at risk of ‘serious annoyance’ is both absurd and frightening.
“Protests are a vital part of a functioning democracy, to force a government to listen to truths that they find uncomfortable or inconvenient. Protests are not a past-time or leisure activity. They are an important safety-valve in a free country and by their very nature they must contain a degree of disruption and inconvenience because the people protesting will have been unable to gain the ear of decision makers who are refusing to right the wrongs and injustices of past decisions.
“Our right to vote was won through disruptive protest. Chartists and Suffragettes would not be tolerated by today’s Conservative government who are embarking in voter suppression via other legislation.
“People of privilege and power will always see protest as unnecessary and unwanted because they are used to getting what they want and the status quo benefits them in holding onto the reins of power.
“The freedoms that we proudly tell the world are British values were won through protest and making successive governments uncomfortable with denying citizens their rights.
“18 pages of amendments were slipped into the bill by Priti Patel after the second reading in the House of Commons deliberately to sidestep the close scrutiny that a Bill of such power deserves.
“The protests that followed the murder of Sarah Everard were the right response to shock this government into action. The Police Bill would expose those people expressing their rage to a prison sentence of 51 weeks.”
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