\n<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan police have been using powers they no longer have to crack down on pro-Palestine protests, according to legal experts.<\/p>\n
Based on evidence obtained by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates, legal experts said officers had imposed restrictions on at least two protests based on their \u201ccumulative disruption\u201d since their power to do so was quashed by the court of appeal in May.<\/p>\n
The Home Office and the Met have insisted officers still have the power to take cumulative disruption into account when imposing restrictions on protests, despite all reference to it being removed from the relevant legislation. But several legal experts disagreed.<\/p>\n
Raj Chada, a partner at Hodge, Jones & Allen and a leading criminal lawyer with expertise in human rights and protest, said: \u201cThere is no reference to cumulative disruption in the original [legislation]. The regulations that introduced this concept were quashed in May 2025, so I fail to see how this can still be the approach taken by police. There is no legal basis for this whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) said the revelations showed the \u201congoing crackdown on protest\u201d had reached an \u201calarming point\u201d whereby the Met allegedly appeared not to care if it was acting within the law.<\/p>\n
Campaigns coordinator Kevin Blowe said: \u201cThe problem is zero police accountability and transparency in the use of their powers to restrict or limit protests.\u201d<\/p>\n
In October, the home secretary announced plans to reintroduce the power to consider cumulative impact in toughened form, through the crime and policing bill currently passing through parliament.<\/p>\n
Nick Glynn, a retired senior officer who spent more than 30 years with Leicestershire police, said: \u201cThe police have too many protest powers already and they definitely don\u2019t need any more. If they are provided with them they not only use them [but] as in this case, they stretch them. They go beyond what was intended.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe right to protest is sacrosanct and more stifling of protest makes democracy worth less.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regulations to put curbs on protests if their \u201ccumulative\u201d impact met the threshold of causing \u201cserious disruption to the life of the community\u201d were quashed on 2 May 2025, after a legal challenge by the human rights group Liberty.<\/p>\n
Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show that on 7 May, five days after the regulations were quashed, the Met police banned a Jewish pro-Palestine group from holding its weekly protest in Swiss Cottage, north London, citing the cumulative impact on the local Jewish community. Lawyers for the group, known as the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), say the ban has been renewed every week since then.<\/p>\n
In November, the Met forced the Palestine Coalition to change the route of its march at three days\u2019 notice, citing the cumulative impact on businesses during the Black Friday retail weekend. This happened even though the route had not been used for more than a year, according to the organisers.<\/p>\n
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, recalled being told by the deputy assistant commissioner Alison Heydari that her decision on whether to impose conditions, shifting the starting point by about half a mile, \u201cwill be purely around the cumulative effect of your protests\u201d.<\/p>\n
She reportedly said: \u201cThis is not just about Saturday\u2019s protest but it\u2019s a combination of all the impacts of all the processions so far,\u201d referencing \u201cserious disruption\u201d to the business community.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve used this route in November 2024, and you\u2019ve used it a few times before then as well,\u201d she reportedly added. \u201cSo there is an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jamal said the Met\u2019s repeated imposition of conditions caused \u201cimmense disruption\u201d and was a \u201cdemobiliser\u201d, creating confusion over starting points which \u201chad led to people being harassed\u201d by officers who accused them of breaching protest conditions.<\/p>\n
A Met spokesperson said: \u201cThe outcome of the judicial review does not prevent senior officers from considering the cumulative impact of protest on the life of communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo determine the extent of disruption that may result from a particular protest, it is of course important to consider the circumstances in which that protest is to be held, including any existing disruption an affected community is already experiencing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognise the importance of the right to protest. We also recognise our responsibility to use our powers to ensure that protest does not result in serious disorder or serious disruption. We use those powers lawfully and will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Home Office said \u201cthe discretion to consider cumulative disruption\u201d was implied within the Public Order Act 1986 and that its forthcoming amendment would make it an \u201cexplicit requirement\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Metropolitan police have been using powers they no longer have to crack down on pro-Palestine protests, according to legal experts. Based on evidence obtained by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates, legal experts said officers had imposed restrictions on at least two protests based on their \u201ccumulative disruption\u201d since their power to do so was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[320,324,8835,15300,16622,1551,4476,8366,494],"class_list":{"0":"post-38408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-experts","9":"tag-legal","10":"tag-met","11":"tag-metropolitan","12":"tag-outdated","13":"tag-police","14":"tag-powers","15":"tag-propalestine","16":"tag-protests"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}