BlackNews.Uk Opinion: The proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill being sponsored through parliament by Home...

BlackNews.Uk Opinion: The proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill being sponsored through parliament by Home Secretary Priti Patel and the Home Office, purports to address many of the crime issues that impact our everyday lives but when looked at closely, we have to question what agenda is really being addressed here. BlackNews.Uk recognises the Criminal Justice system requires reform. That in itself isn’t news to anyone from the Black community who already face... racial disparities, (criminalisation, stop and search, sentencing and lack of representation at senior levels) in relation to criminal justice, however there are real concerns around the restrictions being proposed on free speech particularly from a community that regularly experiences transgressions against its civil liberties by those who are employed to uphold the right to peacefully protest. At present, the police need to prove protesters knew they had been told to move on, before they can be said to have broken the law. But under the new proposals, It will also become a crime to fail to follow restrictions the protesters "ought" to have known about, even if they have not received a direct order from an officer. The proposed law includes an offence of "intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance". Blacknews.uk believes this is designed to stop people occupying public spaces, hanging off bridges, gluing themselves to windows, or employing other protest tactics to make themselves both seen and heard. Think about the many injustices perpetrated against the black community by the police and how protesting have bought these injustices to the attention of a wider audience. Without the BLM protest in response to the George Floyd murder, would there be a global awareness of the systematic brutalisation of the black community? These incidences have been perpetrated for decades but with the current proposals of the bill, a single protester with a placard seeking to highlight an incident can be criminalised and silenced. Blacknews.uk also learns that one proposed measure is that damage to memorials could lead to up to 10 years in prison. This follows the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol. Who’s agenda does that serve? Blacknews.uk perceives that the police have worked together with the Home Office on the proposals covering protests as people such as Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, have been frustrated they could not do more to lessen the impact of Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in 2019 and the BLM protests in 2020. Mass occupations of roads and bridges in London and elsewhere stretched the police to the limit but also grabbed international attention to causes that would only receive lip service to otherwise. And for all its 300 odd pages, you’d think that it would address the very real issue of increasing violence against women and girls in society but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said there was nothing "meaningful" in the bill to protect women and he called for a "pause" so parties across the House could work together to improve it. The Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the bill was "shocking" and "offensive anti-democratic proposals" As is usual with the current government, this bill appears to be short sighted and not reflective of the needs of the most vulnerable of our communities. It appears another knee jerk reaction pandering to vocal hordes on social media by a government who regularly hurriedly reacts rather than responds with consideration of emergent consequences of their policies. Blacknews.uk supports the Kill The Bill movement!