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by makomk
1707 days ago
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Blocking motorways is probably illegal - the trouble is, the police arrest people and then they just go ahead and do it again. (Also, I think the Supreme Court decided that the law on blocking highways didn't apply to people doing it in the name of protest so it's far from clear that those people could be convicted - the court has shown activist tendencies in general, something that some pundits predicted would happen as soon as the UK created one.) One of the things the final law is expected to include is more provisions allowing the police to take action to stop people form doing this. |
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“if a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence” (Highways Act, 1980, s.137).
They ruled that, under some circumstances, 'proportionately' exercising the right to protest could qualify as a lawful excuse. In the case in point, the protesters had blocked one of multiple entrances to an arms fair, in circumstances when only arms fair traffic was likely to even notice the protest (it was an entryway to the Excel centre). Also, the protest was of short duration.
The consequence of the decision is that the question of lawfulness is now case-by-case, as it is with other highway obstructions. There is essentially no chance that protesters blocking motorways are going to escape a conviction on the basis of this decision. They're also likely to be given post-conviction orders making repetition imprisonable.
FWIW I pretty strongly support the campaign's expressed aims, but reckon that this is some of the shittest praxis I've seen from protest group. Like the previous stunt by a bunch of XR-aligned people of gluing themselves to public transport, it's got a tenuous link with the aim pursued and is going to cost their cause vastly more public support than it can hope to gain.
[see https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/offences-during-protes...]