A new report authored by the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) says the aggressive police use of new anti-protest laws, coupled with a growing portrayal of protesters as alleged threats to democracy rather than a vital part of public participation, has grown so routine and so severe that it now amounts to state repression.
Now, the group has called for urgent action to reverse this trend. The Conservative government vigorously amplified this, but now, Netpol has underscored how this continues unabated under the Labour Party.
Netpol report: policing of protest amounts to state repression
Netpol will be publishing the first-of-its kind damning new report, the ‘State of Protest in 2024’, on Wednesday 19 March. Among its findings on the repressive state response to protest, the new report will highlight:
- The increasing use of harsh prison sentences for climate activism.
- The deeply Islamophobic portrayal of pro-Palestine and British Muslim protesters as either antisemitic or an ‘Islamist threat’ to the safety of MPs, particularly around the General Election in July.
- Campaigners’ experiences of aggressive surveillance, house raids and harassment disguised as curfew checks, all largely hidden from public view and receiving little media coverage.
- How, despite increasing levels of surveillance, the police have repeatedly ignored the risk to the public of far-right groups.
You can read the full report here.
Overall, the first “State of Protest” report looks at events between January and December 2024. This covers the ongoing demonstrations against the government’s policy towards genocidal Israel. It will also explore the jailing of climate campaigners, the culture wars against protest groups in advance of the general election, and the race riots in August last year, the worst public order challenge for the police in over a decade.
Bandying about terrorism offences for pro-Palestine protesters
Crucially, the Netpol report will put all this in the context of the Parliament’s passage of two draconian Acts in recent years. Of course, these are the notorious anti-protest bills – the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act of 2022, and the Public Order Act from 2023.
As such, the report will detail that:
Both have sent a clear message that protest rights were to be restricted. This message has encouraged police use of both their new and existing powers, whilst setting the strategic direction for protest policing.
Key observations from it also revolve around the corporate media’s role. It will explore how:
There has been sustained media and government pressure on police forces to step in more swiftly and decisively where protests pose any risk of “serious disruption”, interpreted as anything that causes “more than minor” hindrance to the public. This is the subject of an on-going legal battle.
On top of this, it unpacks how the police have “grown increasingly willing” to wield counter-terrorism powers against pro-Palestine protesters. Specifically, it has identified that:
Out of 80 arrests for terrorism offences directly related to the war in Gaza, about half relate to protests, while there has been a 7% increase from the previous year in referrals to Prevent, the state’s highly controversial “anti-radicalisation” programme.
‘Tipping over into state repression’ and only set to get worse in 2025
The report’s author and Netpol’s Campaigns Coordinator Kevin Blowe said:
Throughout 2024, every week there was a new and more confrontational restriction on the right to protest, another deeply toxic attack on the legitimacy of protest demands or a renewed attempt to demonise and smear particular protest groups. It felt relentless.
Often before Netpol had time to brief the groups we work with on the latest development, we would hear another story of a further crackdown. Campaigners have told us that these unrelenting attacks on the right to protest left them feeling unsure whether attending a demonstration was too risky or whether they might suddenly face arbitrary arrest.
It wasn’t until we decided to step back, document and analyse everything that happened last year that we were able to understand the scale of measures to deter, disrupt, punish or otherwise control individual protesters, campaign groups and entire social movements.
What we have seen – and what we have heard from protesters and organisers – is the severity of the crackdown on the right to protest finally tipping over into state repression. We urgently call on protest groups and policy campaigners to push back against the drift towards repression before it grows even worse.
Netpol and the Article 11 Trust, which funded the report, plan to produce an annual assessment of the state of protest rights. The Article 11 Trust is a non-profit that provides funding to support the right o freedom of assembly protected by Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
However, the title of their first report – ‘This is Repression’ – reflects the severity of the circumstances campaigners now face. It accuses the government and the police of implementing:
an alarming package of state-supported measures designed to impose social control on protests on a scale reminiscent of the ‘war on terror’ two decades ago.
If all that weren’t bad enough, the report warns that in 2025, state repression of protesters is only likely to get worse. The imminent use of new Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (anti-protest banning orders designed to target key individuals) is likely to lead to even more oppressive and intrusive surveillance of political views that will have an impact far beyond those who the state immediately targets.
Featured image via the Canary
