'Ban face coverings'

[Leonid Brozhnev]

After the terrific scenes on Saturday, the UK Government plans on cracking down on people who cover their faces at demonstrations banning face coverings outright.


The home secretary has "utterly condemned" the behaviour of thugs who attacked police officers and smashed property in London on Saturday.

Theresa May told the Commons she expected the number of people charged, currently 149, to increase.

She said she had asked the police whether they needed more powers.

A ban on known hooligans at marches was one option, she said, and she would review police powers to remove scarves masking protesters' faces.

In the unrest which broke out alongside a peaceful anti-spending cuts protest, a mob attacked police officers, smashed windows and daubed banks and shops with paint.

A total of 201 arrests were made, most of them after a campaign group staged a sit-in at luxury store Fortnum and Mason on Piccadilly, in central London.

Balaclavas
Mrs May said that since the student demonstrations in December, the Metropolitan police have been learning lessons and the tactics deployed on Saturday reflected that learning.

"But there is more that can be done," she said. "I have asked the police whether they feel they need further powers to prevent violence before it occurs.

"I am willing to consider powers which would ban known hooligans from attending rallies and marches, and I will look into the powers the police already have to force the removal of face coverings and balaclavas.

"If the police need more help to do their work I will not hesitate in granting it to them.

"We will always back the police when they do their important work and we will back them as they do their job to bring these mindless thugs to justice," Mrs May said.

"The message to those who carry out violence is 'You will be caught and you will be punished'."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12881734


I laughed at the Boris Johnson part at the bottom


Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson said it appeared the only plan Mr Miliband had for solving the country's fiscal problems was to "get a load of aggressive crusties and Lefties" to cause "argy-bargy" in London.

Other than that, this seems like an unworkable joke. Are police going to break their lines just to pull a mask off your face? Search every last protester for a spare piece of cloth you might wrap around your head? Just a lot of useless words from somebody who wants to look like their doing something about what happened on Saturday but in reality can't do shit short of pulling a Gadaffi.

[PhoenixAsh]

This is already the case and plan in Holland...brought under the guise of anti-burka debate.

They are going to do it and get away with it....just wait and see.

[Lunatic Concept]

I love this government calling protestors violent thugs while waging two totally illegal wars that have killed hundreds of thousands :lol:

[Leonid Brozhnev]

Funnily enough, that's exactly what I thought of first 'They going to ban people wearing Burka's too?'... have no idea how many people wear burka's at demo's, probably not that many. Anarchists can say they wear facemasks for religious reasons.:lol:

[Princess Luna]

Good luck trying to enforce it

[Luís Henrique]

Other than that, this seems like an unworkable joke. Are police going to break their lines just to pull a mask off your face? Search every last protester for a spare piece of cloth you might wrap around your head?

More likely, it means that if you are actually arrested during a demonstration, the fact that you are wearing a mask will give them a case to prosecute you, even thought they have no evidence of any actual violence on your part.

Luís Henrique

[Rooster]

What are they going to do? They can't really make a criminal case of wearing a mask with intent to cause damage. It wouldn't stand up in court. They have a law in Scotland where they can arrest for potentionally being a disturbance to the public but that only gives them an excuse to get you off the street and hold you. What are they going to do when 2,000 people turn up in the street wearing masks? It's fine arresting 200 but 2,000? 20,000?

[Amphictyonis]

I'll put on my Niqab and see what happens :) But seriously, next demonstration every single person must wear masks. Like some sort of Alan Moore film (V). Art imitating life or life imitating art?

[Ligeia]

There are actual several countries where such a ban is in place. (http://translate.google.com.mx/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FVermummun gsverbot)

[Luís Henrique]

What are they going to do? They can't really make a criminal case of wearing a mask with intent to cause damage. It wouldn't stand up in court. They have a law in Scotland where they can arrest for potentionally being a disturbance to the public but that only gives them an excuse to get you off the street and hold you. What are they going to do when 2,000 people turn up in the street wearing masks? It's fine arresting 200 but 2,000? 20,000?

They will arrest three or four and prosecute them, and hope that this will scare the other 1,996 out of it.

Luís Henrique

[Luís Henrique]

I'll put on my Niqab and see what happens :) But seriously, next demonstration every single person must wear masks. Like some sort of Alan Moore film (V). Art imitating life or life imitating art?

Yes, if this is done they will probably give it up.

Luís Henrique

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

What would they count as covering one's face?

I often cover half my face with a Keffiyeh-type scarf (just because i'm radical like that...). It's my non-superstitious superstitious thing to do whilst protesting. They gonna come take my scarf, man?:lol:

[Delenda Carthago]

after the riots in December 08, we have that law in Greece.doesnt really stop anyone to cover his face, but if you get caught its an extra thing you have to deal with.

[Rooster]

They will arrest three or four and prosecute them, and hope that this will scare the other 1,996 out of it.

Luís Henrique

Being arrested and being charged are two different things. They can use it as an excuse to arrest you (not that they needed it) but what will they charge you with? Intent to cause destruction? There's no way to prove that unless they search you and find crow bars and hammers, yet again, it would be very hard to prove intent.

"Your honour, the defendant has been accused of wearing a scarf with intent to cause destruction of private property!"

And besides, I think this sort of thing is counter-productive. We really should be focusing on hitting them where it really hurts with mass industrial action, occupations and the reclamation of private property, you know, proper civil disobedience. I don't think smashing up a couple of banks is going to harm the capitalist class much.

[Luís Henrique]

Being arrested and being charged are two different things. They can use it as an excuse to arrest you (not that they needed it) but what will they charge you with?

If they actually put in the laws that it is forbidden to cover your face during a demonstration, they will charge you with covering your face during a demonstration.


And besides, I think this sort of thing is counter-productive. We really should be focusing on hitting them where it really hurts with mass industrial action, occupations and the reclamation of private property, you know, proper civil disobedience.

Certainly, but it may take some more time, some more experience, and some more outrage before we get there.


I don't think smashing up a couple of banks is going to harm the capitalist class much.

Actually smashing a couple of banks would be great, but this was not what was done - it was just smashing a few windows and things like that. Insurance companies were probably more affected by this than the banks itself...

Luís Henrique

[PhoenixAsh]

This is how it went in Holland.

Because of the non-discrimination principle you can't make laws which affect only a specific portion of the population. So when they wanted to ban burka's they needed to make that a general law because otherwise they would single out a specific group of people and discrimnate against them incidentally violating the constitution. Which meant that the law had to apply to everybody...which therefore meant that it had to state that it forbids every form of face masking in the public space. This includes scarfs (when its cold), ski masks, party masks and burka's and niqabs or motor helmets when not driving etc.

People who violate this law can be arrested and can be fined.

So...that means that if you mask your face at protests you can either be arrested or you can be fined. Which means they have to get you out of the crowd, get your identification and then they fine you. If you do not identify (won't or can't) they are allowed to arrest you (and give you another fine.)

So what they have now is an open excuse to arrest you, detain you and pick you out of a crowd while you have done nothing else than wear face covering...and get your perosnal info and rob you of your money.

Fines can be protested but require several months and appeals will be swiftly dealt with. Either you wore the mask or you didn't.

And all that for 200 burka's in Holland.

[Sasha]

Hey, that law didn't pass yet, and even when it will there is a good chane it won't stand in the supreme court. Not that it really matters for us as its perfectly normal for mayors to declare an emergeny order before or during protests and often these include an temp ban on face covering too.
The Hague even has an local law banning masking during protest already for years. And while they sometimes ***** about it during radical protest the primary victims are offcourse not that militant squatters demo with a thousand participants but the small picket of the embassy of some brutal dictatorship where the picket people need to wear them to protect themselves and their family's at home from the secretpolice of said dictatorship.
I really once saw the cops forcing people at such an protest to unmask in front of an embasy employee with an camera.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

I'll stop covering my face when the police stop covering theirs.

[RATM-Eubie]

Can i still wear face paint? :confused:

[Delenda Carthago]

Can i still wear face paint? :confused:
nope