A victory for the Scottish Green Party MSPs and anti-fracking protesters across Scotland
On 24 September, Scottish Green Party MSPs received some good news. It came after Police Scotland confirmed it no longer planned to label anti-fracking protesters as “domestic extremists”. The Ferret reported on 16 September that Police Scotland had previously included those who peacefully oppose fracking “alongside banned neo-Nazi terrorist groups, Scottish Dawn and National Action”.
However, Scottish Green Party co-convenor and MSP Partick Harvie raised the concern at Scottish First Ministers Questions (FMQs) on 20 September.
Heroes
Harvie said, both in an article and in the Scottish parliament: “anti-fracking campaigners who exercise their democratic right to protest are heroes”:
.@patrickharvie asks the First Minister about the rights of fracking campaigners, who have been labelled “domestic extremists” by Police Scotland@NicolaSturgeon says she will always respect the right of people making peaceful protests #FMQs pic.twitter.com/I4EWSlm3M2
— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) September 20, 2018
Read on...
Support us and go ad-freeScottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon agreed, saying that she defended the rights of peaceful campaigners.
Police Scotland and Green MSPs
As The National reports, a senior Police Scotland official has now written to the Scottish Parliament’s justice sub-committee on policing. He did so to clarify the labelling of anti-fracking protesters. Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry Mclean wrote:
The Police Scotland Annual Police Plan for 2017/18 did contain the following commentary: ‘There continues to be protests around shale oil and gas extraction and unconventional oil and gas extraction, and unconventional oil and gas extraction, both commonly referred to as ‘fracking’.’
This paragraph was contained within a wider and diverse section of the annual police plan under the heading of Domestic Extremism.
He went on to say:
Police Scotland does not consider any form of lawful and peaceful protest to constitute domestic extremism; however, we accept that from a presentational perspective a misinterpretation of this position may have been given from the way this small section of the annual police plan was worded and presented.
No such reference is contained in the current Annual Police Plan for 2018/19
Scottish Green Party MSP and justice sub-committee on policing convener John Finnie welcomed the actions of Police Scotland:
The right to lawful and peaceful protest is an integral part of our society.
Law-abiding citizens who wish to protest peacefully should not have to be concerned about the threat – perceived or real – of being labelled a domestic extremist.
Good news
Finnie took to Twitter to share the developments:
On 19th I wrote Police Scotland https://t.co/HeeTarhbqc re their branding of protesters 'Domestic Extremists'. Their explanation https://t.co/9wVR9ERojC and removal of that offensive language is welcome. #peacefulprotest
— John Finnie MSP ? (@JohnFinnieHI) September 24, 2018
Pressure group Frackfree_EU also tweeted, sharing the “good news from Scotland”:
Good news from Scotland following last week's #FMQs on this issue!
Green MSP John Finnie, the sub-committee convener, welcomed the clarification:
"Changing the wording in the Annual Police Plan to remove this inference is exactly the right thing to do.”https://t.co/kxVBKbSUg5— frackfree_eu (@frackfree_eu) September 24, 2018
So it’s a victory for anti-fracking protesters across Scotland and for the Scottish Green Party MSPs. Furthermore, let’s hope Police Scotland has set a precedent for other police forces across the UK.
Get Involved!
– Join The Canary, so we can keep holding the powerful to account.
Featured Image via BBC Scotland News/Twitter
Support us and go ad-freeWe know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support
The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.
The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.
So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.
