Responding to news that the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police will arrest individuals for certain protest placards and chants such as those referencing “intifada”, director of Big Brother Watch Silkie Carlo said:
“No community should live in fear and the police rightly have robust powers to protect all of us from threats of violence. Equally the police have a duty to ensure that we can all express ourselves freely.
“In a democracy, members of the public should have the broadest possible space to speak freely across the left, right and centre of politics without the threat of arrest.
“At a time when police are frequently arresting people for non-violent speech, we should be extremely cautious about broad police threats to arrest yet more people for what they say.
“It is wrong for the police to commit to always arrest people for speech which has contested meaning and is context dependent, as the Met police’s own guidance on such chants states.
“It is highly likely to have a chilling effect on thousands of people with all sorts of views who want to lawfully and peacefully express themselves.”
ENDS