Suella Braverman is quietly handing herself new powers to clamp down on the government’s political opponents, civil right advocates have warned.
Leading human rights groups say that the Public Order Bill, which passed a final vote in the Commons yesterday, would align the UK’s anti-protest laws with those in Russia and Belarus.
Police would be given powers to stop and search people or vehicles even if they have no “reasonable grounds” to do so, if a senior officer believes protest offences are likely to take place in an area. Currently, authorities are only supposedly allowed to carry out so-called “suspicionless” stop and search when there is an imminent threat of serious violence.
Read the full article here:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/public-order-bill-suella-braverman-anti-protest/