The New Dark Age

On 24 March, we took our campaign to London City Hall. What we witnessed there was, quite frankly, an embarrassment.

The idea that a public body like MOPAC, supposedly responsible for scrutiny and accountability, might challenge senior police officers to explain how or why these decisions were made seemed entirely alien.

It is also obvious that no-one in Parliament or in the London Assembly is coming to save us, or in many instances even accepts human rights are under attack.

State institutions are proven serially incapable of holding the police to account. Resisting the crackdown on protest rights is firmly down to campaigners and the decisions and actions we take ourselves.

Netpol has seen statements describing how police targeted a legal observer who was wearing a mask.

The legal observer is advised to wear a mask by doctors because of her cancer treatment. Police wilfully ignored evidence that the legal observer was undergoing treatment for cancer.

Police proceeded to arrest the legal observer.

This is not the exception.

Netpol hears stories of abuse of police power against protesters every week.

What is exceptional is this legal observer’s ability to stand strong in the face of police targeting and intimidation, and her determination to tell her story.