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Fencing Off Parliament Square Crushes Protest Rights; Occupy Democracy Threaten Legal Action
Other | Monday 5th January 2015 | Izaradz
Lawyers of Occupy Democracy are threatening Boris Johnson and authorities with legal action after the so-called unlawful erection of a fence around Parliament Square at the time of the protests. A metal fence lined Parliament Square, shutting out crowds of peaceful protests on various occassions, notably the Occupy Democracy protests in November last year. The protesters insist that the square should be returned to its original function, as a "place for public meetings, focusing particularly on issues that they believe are being ignored by MPs".
Rosie Brighouse, the legal officer for a human rights group Liberty , told The Observer that, "Peaceful protest in the UK has a long, proud history. Many of the freedoms we enjoy were won because people were prepared to demonstrate. Parliament Square is not the mayor's private back garden".
There have been conflicting reports on whether the Occupy Democracy protests were 'legal'. The GLA (Greater London Authority) argues that they had not contacted the City Hall and therefore were not authorised to take place. The "Tarpaulin Revolution" (as the movement has named itself) has had a long and expected history of clashes with the authorities and the mayor. In 2011 when the protesters 'occupied' the area outside St.Paul's cathedral, the mayor enraged the crowd, calling them "crusties" partaking in a "thoroughly maddening protest against capitalism".
Nevertheless, a spokesman for the GLA has stated that "The mayor supports the right to peaceful protest, but it must be done within the law". Indeed, it is hard to imagine our ever entertaining Tory friend with erratic, whispy, white hair deliberately squashing our rights to protest, particularly in the name of such a noble cause that is democracy.
That being said, it is hard to interpret the towering, grey fence that "imprisoned" the Mandela statue as being errected to simply "protect the square's assets". Besides, if movements such as Occupy Democracy must always seek permission from the GLA, a body that they partially target in their motions, and the continuation of their movement after a denial of this request is deemed as "unauthorised, the whole concept of illegal protesting is quite laughable. Essentially, the only protests allowed to go ahead are ones approved by the government. Apparently if we do not comply by these rules, protests will quite literally be shut out.
Follow the conversation at @occupydemocracy
Iza Radwanska Zhang
