#protest-rights

#protest-rights

I was misidentified by a live facial recognition system while coming home from a community patrol in Croydon. Police officers told me I was a wanted man and demanded my fingerprints even though I'd done nothing wrong. What happened to me was shocking and unfair.

Both Human Rights Watch and the cross-party law reform organisation Justice say recent legislative changes have created a chilling effect on lawful protest and should be repealed. Their reports, simultaneously published on Thursday, also say that proposals for more curbs should be halted. They highlight the arrest of Republic anti-monarchy protesters during King Charles's coronation, charges and arrests of pro-Palestinian demonstrators and long sentences for climate protesters as examples of the crackdown on the right to peaceful dissent.

President Trump's heavily armed and masked immigration troops are turning American cities into battlegrounds - and when they did so in Lower Manhattan, on Tuesday, protesters rushed to the streets, where some were beaten, cuffed and arrested by the federal agents. But where was the NYPD, whose mission is to protect protesters' right to free speech and, equally important, their safety? Answer: nowhere to be found.

This week's case was the start of a fightback by civil society groups determined to defend the democratic right to protest and free speech.

The Muppets and Darth Vader themes were used as the prime minister came in, which is what we always did for Rishi - apparently he's a Star Wars fan, the activist told the court.