The unfreedom of the open road (2)

The BBC reported yesterday, on Ceefax, that:

"Derbyshire Police are requesting extra powers to deal with protesters at the G8 summit being held in the county." ("Police request G8 protest powers", BBC News, 14/3/05)

What extra powers could they possibly need? With the latest "anti-terror" (believe that and you'll believe owt) law rushed through parliament, preceded not long before by an act which allows cops to disallow any direct protest (ostensibly aimed at "animal rights terrorists"), and with all the previous authoritarian laws against peaceful protest passed by this and previous regimes [1], not to mention the various 'criminal justice' acts which give the cops considerable 'discretionary powers' (aka 'they can do what the fuck they want, to whom they want so long as it's not anyone important/rich/powerful'), you'd have thought that the cops wouldn't need any "extra powers". But no, in this case they want to be able to block off all roads leading to the G8 mini-meet so that no nasty hairy-arsed anti-capitalists can spoil the Big Cheese Beano:

"Police want to try to stop protesters travelling between the city centre and Breadsall where the event takes place. They want them to gather at an agreed central meeting place. Derby City Council has agreed to pass on the police request to the home secretary."

And is the Home Secretary Charles Clarke, aka Big Scrotum [2], likely to challenge this request? Is the Pope a presbyterian? Is Ian Paisley a Trappist? So cops will be setting up road blocks on open roads and presumably interrogating anyone wanting to travel anywhere vaguely near the mini-meet and forcibly turning them back, or worse arresting them, if they look or sound a bit dodgy or subversive.

Shades of the miners strike, this. Back then, cops routinely set up road blocks, on motorways and A-roads, not piddly little country roads, and stopped anyone they thought was a miner or a miners supporter. Anyone whose face didn't fit was turned back, if lucky, or given a beating, if unlucky. Under what law? None that I know of - unless it was the it was the NAIDLYFUATWOIKYHIJ Act of 1984 - or that anyone then knew of, but since when have laws been an impediment to the cops when "national security" is at stake?

So, if you fancy a wee drive or cycle around the Derbyshire countryside these next few days, forget it, unless you fancy coming face to face with armed police and, if you're really unlucky, getting landed with a 'control order' and put under house arrest. But what the hey, you have to sacrifice some freedoms to have your freedoms protected, doncha know? Freedom is Slavery, and don't you forget it. Careful how you go now.

[1] See George Monbiot, "Protest as Harassment", 22/2/05, for an excellent rundown of these laws and their use against peaceful protests.

[2] Thank you, Steve Bell!