Police officers do a very difficult job—I am very appreciative of that and understand the problems—and most do it well. But when someone abuses that role, the damage is much greater for public trust. It is wider than any single case. Trust in policing depends on people believing that no one is above the law. At the moment the rule of law is not for us all, as exemplified by the way we treat police in some cases. Continue reading “Crime and Policing Bill Committee Stage Day 12”
The Lords has defeated the government a total of six times during the Public Order Report Stage.
The Lords have the ability to stop the government’s “pre-crime” laws in a vote on Monday. The government has proposed late amendments to the Public Order Bill that give the police power to ban protests, or a series of protests, ahead of them being held. It doesn’t matter if the organisers have never been convicted of a crime and what’s planned is non violent, the intention is enough for the police to judge it as illegal, if they feel it will ‘seriously disrupt’ somone’s life.
Baroness Jenny Jones, issued this statement in response to the conviction of Elite Metropolitan police officer David Carrick, as a serial rapist.
Continue reading “A failing police service given draconian powers”
The government has pushed through more and more draconian powers for the police to use against peaceful protestors. Yet trust in police integrity, standards and culture has never been lower. There are now six police services (including the Metropolitan Police) who are in special measures. Plus the government has launched their own review after numerous scandals have exposed issues with police recruitment and attitudes:
Continue reading “Police review on slow track as draconian powers accelerate”
Much of the legislation we were expecting to be dealing with this Autumn disappeared with the departure of Johnson’s government, but sadly not the Public Order Bill which arrives in the Lords tomorrow. We are yet to see the full implications of the Police Act’s expansion of police powers and the Public Order Bill is full of rehashed versions of provisions already rejected by the House of Lords. You can sign Liberty’s petition opposing the Public Order Bill here.
Much of the legislation we were expecting to be dealing with this Autumn disappeared with the departure of Johnson’s government, but sadly not the Public Order Bill which arrives in the Lords tomorrow. We are yet to see the full implications of the Police Act’s expansion of police powers and the Public Order Bill is full of rehashed versions of provisions already rejected by the House of Lords. You can sign Liberty’s petition opposing the Public Order Bill here.
In response to the Met Police request for the Sue Gray report to ‘minimise’ references to parties at Number 10, Baroness Jenny Jones said:
“The Met Police need to explain why they want key details of the Sue Gray report to be censored, unless they have an expectation that there will be a jury trial as a result of the investigation and it would be prejudicial. The failure of the Met Police to start their investigation weeks ago raIsed suspicions that they were shielding the Prime Minister. By launching an investigation just before Sue Gray’s report is due out and then requesting she delete the majority of the references to the parties at Number 10, they are compounding those suspicions. Unless the Met Police can provide a clear reason why the detailed information should not be made public then I think the report should be published in full, or it will be seen as partial and incomplete.”
Since the last General Election gave the Conservative Party an 80+ seat majority of MPs in the Commons, they have pushed through some bad legislation. When these Bills come to the Lords, it’s our job to look at them line by line and try to improve them by carefully considered amendments. Which mostly the Tory-dominated Commons immediately throw out*.
Pages of new amendments to the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill have been submitted by the government as the legislation is half way through the Lords Committee stage. The new laws target “locking-on” and other forms of nonviolent protest, as well as giving police officers the ability to stop and search without suspicion.
Continue reading “Government by-pass MPs on new policing laws”
I asked the government about the connection between drugs, organised crime and climate chaos because it is often over looked in big debates about international agreements, like COP26
Continue reading “Drugs, organised crime and the climate crisis”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 