The Met Police dealt with the Palestine Action protest admirably
The weekend's protest in front of parliament resulted in a total of 522 arrests for offences against one of our most punitive pieces of legislation. Many commentators, including the front organisation for the mass civil disobedience group 'Defend our Juries', had prophesied the collapse of the Metropolitan police, overwhelmed by sheer numbers of defiant activists.
This isn't quite what transpired – but the admission from the Met that it faced an entirely 'unrealistic challenge' to police a few hundred retired teachers and clerics was oddly defeatist. London's finest were augmented by officers from other forces across England and Wales. They were there in numbers and the approach was proportionate to all the other public order challenges it faces every weekend, as well as the basic requirement to keep neighbourhoods not in the slightest bit interested in events thousands of miles away safe.
Those offered 'street bail' after arrest to conserve police numbers around Parliament Square and stop custody suites from collapsing should take no comfort in later defying any conditions attached to their freedom by rejoining the protest, even without placards. The Met will no doubt have deployed huge evidence-gathering resources and long after the transgressive glee has worn off, the knock on the door will come as a shock for many.
We are also yet to see how the judiciary will act as these cases drift along our bunged-up criminal justice system. The decision to prosecute is likely not to be straightforward, as it will surely involve Attorney General Lord Hermer, whose 'militant' activism on the side of the human rights industry is well known. The decision to proscribe PA in the first place has his fingerprints all over it. The least anyone can routinely expect on conviction for this offence is a high-level community order including a curfew, unpaid work and rehabilitation activity. There is some wiggle room for 'exceptional circumstances' to reduce even that penalty but it has to be justified by the court. All eyes on the judiciary then, magistrates in particular.
It's a pity that anyone protesting who is not in possession of a public sector pension or ancestral grandeur will not have been aware of the information now emerging about the decision to proscribe PA. It may have given some of them at least pause for thought.
The government has been woefully uncoordinated when it comes to this point, continually sheltering behind the idea of 'national security' and a need-to-know basis. While the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has alluded to PA's directly anti-Semitic behaviour and links to malign foreign states, these were only made more explicit this morning when justice minister Alex Davies-Jones spelt out the risk of people with perfectly legitimate anger at the plight of Palestinians being manipulated.
It is significant that 'Defend our Juries' aren't committing to facilitating actions similar to last weekend in the future, preferring to say that they will organise protests against the curtailment of freedom of expression. I hope they do because protesting the power of the state is a precious right in a liberal democracy, one that is in fact a bulwark against extremism. The Met, the subject of relentless criticism around under- or overreacting to public order, played the hand they were dealt with well this weekend gone. Ministers must now ensure that ordinary citizens with the most to lose understand the malign nature of the organisation they want to sacrifice their life chances for.
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Some 18 people deny charges including criminal damage, assault causing actual bodily harm, violent disorder and aggravated incident prompted national security officials and the police to look at whether a terrorism ban on PAG could be justified, after having previously concluded that the vast majority of its highly disruptive activities amounted to minor criminal damage. Documents disclosed to the BBC in the High Court show how the thinking on a ban had evolved. Palestine Action was becoming more militant, said officials. It had allegedly produced an "underground manual" that it was claimed detailed how to plan a "break-in", referring to face masks, burner phones and fake car number plates."With an efficient sledgehammer in your hand, you can cause quite a bit of damage," the manual read, before than detailing how to do this is where the UK's wide definition of terrorism comes in. It includes not just the threat or use of violence to advance a cause - but also the use of serious criminal because in the 1990s the IRA began causing economic damage through bombs, without taking when Cooper banned PAG, her decision was largely informed by what the Home Office has described as millions of pounds of criminal damage, not an assessment that it was a group of murderous militants."Proscription is about one narrow group that has been involved in violent attacks including injuries, including weapons, smoke bombs causing panic among innocent people, major criminal damage," the home secretary said following last Saturday's arrests."There may be people who are objecting to proscription who don't know the full nature of this organisation due to court restrictions on reporting while serious prosecutions are under way but it's really important that no one is in any doubt that this is not a non-violent organisation." 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As for the group itself, it may feel emboldened - but would know that it could still be banned again if its actions cross the terrorism laws the ban stands, then the advantage will be with the government - and arrests and charges will is the counter-terrorism policing way: slowly but surely, step by step, seek to contain and, ultimately, crush the threat.
