Despite a police ban on the protests issued on Monday, activists from Extinction Rebellion are continuing to demonstrate.

The Metropolitan Police have banned Extinction Rebellion from continuing their 2 weeklong ‘Autumn Uprising’ anywhere in London, as they moved in on Monday evening without warning to clear the movement’s base in Trafalgar Square.

A revised section 14 order was issued by the Metropolitan Police on Monday evening which said: “any assembly linked to the Extinction Rebellion ‘Autumn Uprising’ must now case their protests within London by 9 pm.”

Until Monday, the police had said that Trafalgar Square was the only legitimate site where Extinction Rebellion would be allowed to continue protesting, but by Monday evening were demanding protestors remove their tents.

Police allowed protesters to move their tents and possessions themselves and for the most part watched over people doing that without interfering, according to an Extinction Rebellion spokesperson who was at the scene.

Extinction Rebellion’s Twitter feed condemned the police actions as contravening UK law, which allows people to protest. Kevin Blowe from the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) agreed.

He told the Guardian “Take a look at what section 14 says: it’s about restricting a number of people for a particular duration of time. My feeling is that this has to be open to some form of potential legal challenge.”

Police Say They are Acting Proportionally 

But the Metropolitan Police defended their decision. Deputy assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor said, “these conditions have been imposed due to the continued breaches of the section 14 condition previously implemented and ongoing serious disruption to the community.”

“After nine days of disruption we felt it was entirely proportionate and reasonable to impose this condition because of the cumulative impact of these protests,” he added.

A few activists chained themselves in place to slow down the police but by Tuesday all had moved to an alternative camp at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.

Extinction Rebellion insisted in a statement that despite the police ban “normal activities have been resumed” and on Tuesday morning activists targeted the Department for Transport.

The group’s co-founder Gail Bradbrook glued herself onto the Department of Transport building and was later removed by police who say the area is now clear.

Police have said the ban only applies to the Extinction Rebellion ‘Autumn Uprising’ and does not apply to people protesting in London in general.

The law in the UK states that the organiser of a protest, demonstration or public march must inform the police at least six days before it is due to take place with its date, time, route and the names and addresses of its organisers.

The police have the power to change or limit the route of the march, limit how long it lasts and stop any sit-down protests if they block traffic or public walkways. 

However, the police’s renewed zeal in clearing Extinction Rebellion protests from the capital may be in response to the Home Office, who admitted last week it was reviewing police powers in response to recent demonstrations which have brought considerable disruption to the capital. 

Photo from the Guardian

Edward Cowley
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