A serious threat to the right to protest happened in Liverpool on Saturday. Many Liverpool activists, including members of Left Unity Liverpool, gathered to counter a possible fascist demonstration in Liverpool city centre. This mobilisation had been arranged even though it was not certain the fascists would appear. There is a real need to take fascists seriously here in Liverpool. There is an unpleasant history in Liverpool of obnoxious fascists attempting now and then to appear in our streets posing as nationalists or “patriots”. Many anti fascists and those who merely play music for anti-fascist gigs have been hurt . Several fasc have spent time in prison for this. One fascist candidate stood in the mayoral election One of their previous attempts was when Lee Rigby was killed by right wing fundamentalists. We leafleted those “EDL” demos and were given great support by the public in opposing them. In recent weeks many other lively and peaceful political protests have happened in the city including the campaign to defend the libraries, campaigns against Workfare, TTIP and opposing NHS privatisation, campaigns around Palestine and against fur being sold in local shops. Street campaigning is becoming popular once more in Liverpool. Anti-fascist activists from many organisations gathered at the bottom of Bold street. They were met by police in some numbers, with photographers, video cameras and the now ubiquitous ‘Police Liaison’. After a period of idle banter and intelligence gathering, the officer in charge announced that she had a dispersal order in place under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, agreed by the Mayor Joe Anderson, covering most of the City Centre between 6.00 a.m. and 9.00 p.m. and instructed the activists to disperse or face arrest. When this was met by refusal, officers issued formal written notices and began pressurising individuals. Given the ‘no show’ on the part of the fascists, the gathering slowly broke up. The police used a new piece of legislation, ostensibly designed to oppose anti-social behaviour, the “Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014”, or more specifically its Section 34 and recent amendments to its Section 35. These give them the power to designate areas, and subject to certain conditions, tell people to disperse and not return to the designated area for a specified time period (in this case 48 hours). The designated area in this instance extended from the top of Bold Street (St Lukes), down Church Street to the start of Liverpool 1 (which of course is private property), and for some distance around. The conditions required for operation of this dispersal area are (Section 35, Directions excluding a person from an area, subsections 1 to 3): (1) If the conditions in subsections (2) and (3) are met and an authorisation is in force under section 34, a constable in uniform may direct a person who is in a public place in the locality specified in the authorisation— (a) to leave the locality (or part of the locality), and (b) not to return to the locality (or part of the locality) for the period specified in the direction (“the exclusion period”). (2) The first condition is that the constable has reasonable grounds to suspect that the behaviour of the person in the locality has contributed or is likely to contribute to— (a) members of the public in the locality being harassed, alarmed or distressed, or (b) the occurrence in the locality of crime or disorder. (3) The second condition is that the constable considers that giving a direction to the person is necessary for the purpose of removing or reducing the likelihood of the events mentioned in subsection (2) (a) or (b). People asked what grounds the police had to fear anti-social behaviour or the causing of distress, harassment or alarm from our people, and were asked what laws they had broken or they were going to be broken, but no sensible answers were given. Since the only reasonable grounds for removal of any individuals is their existing behaviour, prior to the order being issued, and since the behaviour of everybody concerned was entirely peaceful, the police had no grounds whatsoever for issuing anyone with a dispersal order. We believe that this was a case of the Police abusing a power to ‘test the water’. We are asking that supporters write to the Chief Constable, the Police Commissioner, and Joe Anderson the Mayor, who had to agree to this order being issues to complain at this flagrant disregard for our right to assemble and protest. Please copy your letter to Left Unity Liverpool (leftunityliverpool@gmail).
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 22:50:06 +0000
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