The force is with them
Police were accused of brutality, but they were only obeying the law — and the laws are the problem, says Liberty
THE BEHAVIOUR of the police towards demonstrators and journalists is only a symptom of a creeping crackdown on freedom of expression. This is the warning from Liberty, Britain’s civil liberties pressure group.
It is legislation brought in over the last ten years that is the foundation of the tough new approach, says Isabella Sankey, Liberty’s policy director and number two to director Shami Chakrabarti.
“Governments naturally seek to accumulate more powers, just in case,” she says, “but there has been hyperactivity under New Labour, with five terrorism-related Acts and thousands of new criminal offences. The government’s war on terror has had some disastrous results for freedom of expression generally, and freedom of the press in particular.”
Isabella Sankey says “the passing of unnecessary and over-broad legislation has been a hallmark of the government’s response to the terrorism threat. In practice this means that in many areas, government and parliament have delegated their role in setting parameters — leaving the police in a difficult position.
“The broadening of police powers necessarily means increasingly discretion-based policing ... The power to exercise truckloads of discretion is not necessarily a boon for police. As a result of the nature of their role police officers will use any broad powers they have at their disposal.”
Since 2001, she says, many “lower order” terrorism offences have been added to the statute book. “Liberty takes issue with broadly drafted laws that scoop up the innocent with the guilty”.