Police will be given powers to arrest protesters who wear face coverings to threaten others and avoid prosecution, as part of a raft of measures announced by James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, in the wake of recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London and other major cities.
Fears over the introduction into the UK of “black bloc” style protest tactics first pioneered by radical anarchist groups in the US have intensified in recent months, with activists intent on causing violence and criminal damage now donning sunglasses, ski masks, sunglasses and motorcycle helmets to hide their identities.
Since Hamas’s 7th October terrorist attack on Israel’s southern kibbutzim, and Israel’s subsequent military response, London and many other major UK cities have regularly been convulsed by pro-Palestine marches, in which a sizeable minority of protesters have clashed with police officers, shouted antisemitic slogans, or brandished antisemitic placards, while wearing face or ski masks, or scarfs, to obscure their faces.
Speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee in December last year, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist described this as “the greatest period of sustained pressure on the Met since the Olympics in 2012”.
“We have more than 800 open hate crimes and over 6,000 hours of officer time will be needed to investigate them all,” he added.
At present, if a Section 60AA (Criminal Justice Act 1994) order is in effect in a specific area, a police officer can demand that any item a person is wearing to conceal their identity is removed. However, the proposed new offence will empower officers to arrest individuals who disregard their orders, with those who flout the rules facing a month behind bars and a £1,000 fine.
Proposals to tackle masks were recommended by the government’s independent advisor on political violence, former Labour MP John Woodcock, now Lord Walney, in a review into countering political violence and disruption that was submitted to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak just before Christmas.
Although the Home Office proposal has in mind recent pro-Palestine protests, campaigners are concerned that its application could extend well beyond them, preventing UK-based citizens of oppressive states protesting against them.
As Freddie Attenborough points out for the Critic, face masks are currently worn at demonstrations outside the Chinese, Iranian and Russian embassies in London, for instance, not because protesters are intent on breaking the law and hope to avoid arrest, but because they need to protect themselves (and their families) from their territorial homeland and its global network of surveillance systems.
Writing about this proposal for the Times, Rod Liddle also gave the example of a teacher who decides to join a march in favour of Brexit, “and if identified would engender the loathing of 92% for his or her colleagues (and especially bosses)”.
Among the other measures introduced last week by James Cleverly is one that will make it a specific public order offence, carrying a 3-month sentence and a £1,000 fine, to climb on war memorials. This follows a series of recent incidents where individuals have broken away from large protests and scaled national monuments – last November, for instance, footage of pro-Palestine protesters climbing on war memorials in London sparked widespread condemnation with the Prime Minister describing it as “an affront to our Armed Forces”.
Alongside these measures, which will be introduced as amendments at the report stage of the Criminal Justice Bill in the House of Commons, the government will also introduce a law to bar protesters from using the right to protest as a reasonable or lawful excuse to commit public order offences such as blocking public highways, locking on to road infrastructure or causing a public nuisance.
The measures announced last week are part of the government’s ongoing crack down on disruptive protests and follow the passage into law of the Public Order Act 2023, and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (PCSC) 2022, both of which give more power to the police, courts and government in relation to protests.
