KILL THE BILL: PROTESTERS RALLY ACROSS ENGLAND AND WALES AGAINST NEW POLICE BILL

Sat 03 April 2021:

Hundreds of protesters have descended on Central London for another day of action against a controversial policing bill which seeks to grant more powers to officers to curb protests.

Protesters are rallying in central London and 24 other towns and cities in England and Wales on Saturday against a crime bill that critics say will severely restrict the right to protest.

Three protests have been planned in the capital this afternoon (Saturday, April 3) against the the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill – one in Trafalgar Square and the other at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park.

The rally is peaceful, with participants behaving politely and calmly. The organizers are monitoring compliance with COVID-19 restrictions. Some demonstrators are chanting “no justice, no peace, no racist police”

A variety of organisations have pledged their involvement including climate-change activists Extinction Rebellion, United Black Lives UK and Sisters Uncut, which led the Sarah Everard vigil in Clapham Common.

Protesters are also concerned about the rights of marginalised groups, particularly the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, as the bill would criminalise ‘residing on land or in a vehicle without consent’.

Demonstrators have clashed with police during a ‘Kill The Bill’ protest in Parliament Square in central London.

Sky’s @EmmaBirchley has the latest.

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🔴LIVE: Brawls with Police continue
Kill the Bill Protest | London
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#KillTheBill #London Respect :

KILL The Bill demonstration in London pic.twitter.com/rBhQjOQ0KB

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Jeremy Corbyn : London Kill The Bill #killthebill #JeremyCorbyn #Corbyn #London pic.twitter.com/lgvpp5YgUN

— Jerry Hicks (@JerryHicksUnite) April 3, 2021

The coalition of groups have said that they are protesting against the bill because of its power to ‘effectively neuter the power of peaceful protest in this country’.

Among the speakers, there are people of different views, including anti-vaccinators.

Together with apparently unaligned individuals, representatives from the spectrum of leftwing political groups were present, including anarchists, hunt saboteurs, young communists flying the red flag and anti-lockdown protesters.

The Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy was among the speakers who addressed the crowd in the park. She said: “The police, crime, sentencing and courts bill should come as no surprise: it’s part of an authoritarian drive from this government. We can see it in everything they have been doing recently, from voter ID registration to anti union laws and now anti-protest laws. They want to strip away our hard-fought, hard-won democratic rights and we must stop them.”

Other speakers are expected to include the Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Apsana Begum, Clive Lewis and Zarah Sultana, and the civil rights campaigners Peter Tatchell and Lee Jasper.

The first “Kill the Bill” protest took place in Bristol on March 21 with some 3,000 demonstrators. The march turned into violent clashes, with protesters throwing bottles and rocks at officers. They also set police vehicles on fire and smashed windows of a police station.

Twenty-one officers were injured during the riot, two of them seriously, and 25 people were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.

The next rallies in Bristol and across England have been mostly peaceful and less numerous.

What are the Kill the Bill protests for?

The new policing bill, which has passed its second reading, would give police chiefs the power to impose a start and finish time on demonstrations, set noise limits and apply the rules to just one person.

This means an individual holding a placard with a megaphone could be fined up to £2,500 if they refuse police direction.

Additionally, criminal damage to statues and memorials, like those witnessed during the Black Lives Matter protests last year, would be punishable by up to 10 years in prison.