Report claims police are restricting the right to protest

The Network for Police Monitoring (NetPol) has published a new report, which claims that police forces across the UK are adopting a hard line 'total policing' approach to handling protests, which is restricting the right to protest.

The report also claims that the use of police tactics such as 'kettling', stop and search and pre-emptive arrests have effectively prohibited most forms of popular street protests.

Val Swain, commenting on the report’s launch on behalf of NetPol, said:

“The evidence we have gathered has been published just as news emerges of further pre-emptive arrests and other restrictions on the freedom to protest taking place in advance of this summer’s London Olympics. With an apparent willingness by the courts to defend any actions by the police against protesters, we fear that dissenting voices face an even harsher clamp-down in the weeks to come.”