LONDON (Sputnik) – Extinction Rebellion UK Relationship Coordinator Anneka Sutcliffe told Sputnik on Tuesday that Sunday’s protest in Bristol against a bill that would give the police power to silence peaceful rallies was not organised by the environmental movement.
Sutcliffe argued that the violence that erupted was “symptomatic” of the government’s attempt to violate human rights.
Extinction Rebellion, whose protests in demand of more government action to tackle climate change have brought London and other UK cities to a standstill in the past, “does not condone violence” and is firmly nonviolent in its strategy and principles, Sutcliffe pointed out.
Several hundred people gathered in central Bristol on Sunday, protesting against the expansion of police powers at demonstrations. Protesters sprayed paint and threw objects at law enforcement officers, and set fire to police vehicles and broke the windows of a police station.
About 20 police officers were injured during the riots and two of them were hospitalised with fractures. At least seven participants in the clashes were detained, while the police said it had begun a large-scale investigation.
According to the environmental group PR officer, several crises are now converging, with people grieving death because of the COVID-19 pandemic, looking to a bleak future of climate breakdown and having their human rights challenged by the policing bill amidst economic collapse and rising poverty levels and social injustices.
Asked whether the Bristol riots would give the Conservative government more grounds to pass the bill, Sutcliffe said that the police already have powers to curtail violent protests, noting that the controversial proposal, which has already passed its first reading in parliament, is now aimed at cracking down peaceful, nonviolent demonstrations.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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