(C) OpenDemocracy
This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Republic arrests: Outcry over policing is overdue, say groups targeted for decades [1]

[]

Date: 2023-05

Communities that have been targeted by British police for decades say it is disappointing that it took arrests at the coronation to spark a national outcry – but that solidarity against state violence could topple anti-protest laws.

“One of the real frustrations is seeing people saying, ‘protesting is now illegal’, as though repeated crackdowns on protest have not happened for the last 50 years,” Kevin Blowe of police monitoring group Netpol told openDemocracy in the wake of Saturday’s arrests.

Graham Smith, chief exec of the anti-monarchist group Republic, was among 64 protesters who were arrested on Saturday while preparing for protests against the coronation. There was widespread condemnation of officers’ actions and cops have subsequently apologised.

But Zita Holbourne, a human rights campaigner at African, Caribbean and Asian Lawyers for Justice and national chair of BARAC (Black Activists Rising Against Cuts) UK, told openDemocracy the “heavy handed” and “disproportionate” policing over the weekend was something marginalised communities had warned about for years.

Help us uncover the truth about Covid-19 The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened. Make a donation

“When Black people, for example, speak out about police brutality and how we’re treated, we’re not listened to,” she said. “But the voices of others are treated as if they’re more relevant and more important than ours.

“That’s part of systemic racism more widely, and institutional racism in the police. When we as Black or Brown people are at protests, even if the protest is a broad range of diverse people in terms of ethnicity, gender, et cetera, it’s more likely that Black and Brown people will be singled out by police at those protests.

“We can’t get up in the morning and go out of our doors without having to think about if we encounter the police, how we’re going to deal with them, because of how they treat us, because of racism and brutality towards Black communities.”

For Holbourne, now is the time for allyship from other groups who faced heavy handed policing over the weekend, as well as in recent months following the passing of the Policing Act and Public Order Act. “They can learn a lot from us, because we’ve had that lived experience,” she said. “We have to teach our children, for example, when they get to an age of independence, where they start going out by themselves, of what to do if they’re in danger because they encounter the police. That's an everyday thing we have to deal with, not just at protests.”

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/republic-anti-monarchy-arrests-overpolicing-netpol-police-racist/

Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/