Policing Minorities Means Policing Everyone

When every day feels catastrophic, it can be easy for some bad news stories to be overshadowed and pass by everyone unnoticed. As we focus so intently on the grand tragedy unfolding because of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the terrible failings of government in tackling it, whole books could be filled with the stories that we have missed, or which have not received the attention they deserve, both at home and abroad. One such story is the furor that erupted over the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, a piece of legislation that passed its second reading in Westminster last week. Broadly speaking, this bill is designed to give the English police more powers when dealing with groups of people. It is the latest in a series of steps towards authoritarianism taking place in a series of Western nations over the last few years, with serious implications for the natural right to protest, as well as the almost total criminalisation of the culture of England’s population of Irish Travellers and Roma. Aside from the fact, as the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. once said, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, why should we care about a policing bill in another country? I will argue that all of the conditions necessary for Westminster to make this power grab over the natural rights and freedoms of the English people are right here in Ireland. Indeed, some of the provisions of the bill are already in place, in one way or another, under the aegis of the twenty-six county government, as well as the political situation in the North.  

Concerns had been raised about this bill among Traveller groups in England for some time, as it effectively criminalises nomadism. The bill empowers the English police to remove unauthorised Traveller encampments. As there is a chronic shortage of halting sites in England, the majority of Travellers and Roma who practice nomadism there are forced on to these unauthorised encampments. As it is the policy of Westminster to deliberately maintain this shortage of official halting sites, the practice of nomadism among Travellers and Roma in England will essentially be outlawed, leading to even more policing and criminalisation of a community long persecuted by the authorities. It is a source of great shame for me personally that I must conclude that the English took inspiration from Leinster House in the crafting of this part of the Policing Bill. The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 2002, brought in by the Fianna Fáil government of the time, established the exact same provisions in this part of our nation. It established the current relationship between Irish Travellers and the government: commitments to providing appropriate sites, with absolutely no intention of actually doing so, funding for Traveller accommodation that is never spent, and the criminalisation of a whole people for their natural right to travel and live in their own country. It is a neat way for the government to pretend that they want to resolve this issue, while doing everything in their power to perpetuate it. This is what awaits Travellers and Roma in England, and I grieve for the people who will suffer, in the same way that the nomadic peoples of Ireland have suffered. 

The English policing Bill, however, does not just criminalise Travellers. It also empowers the police to restrict the right to protest. This, for me, is an especially sinister development, as it demonstrates very clearly that when a state provides itself with mechanisms to oppress minority groups, there is nothing to stop these mechanisms from being turned against the population as a whole. Any restriction on the right to protest, particularly because of concerns of ‘disruption’ or ‘public nuisance’, reasons for which the police will now be able to break up a protest, are an affront to our natural rights, repugnant to liberal democratic values, and a gross injustice on the part of the state. The BBC and the Home Office have banded together to assure the people of England that these new restrictions will not, in fact, infringe upon their right to protest, which is a convenient position for a government department and state-owned media to take. The brutal tactics used by police against peaceful protestors in England in the last fortnight shows that the English people now only have a nominal right to protest, not one that actually exists. Protests cannot inconvenience the oppressive organs of state, they cannot name injustice for what it is, and must be, in every way, in accordance with the status quo. 

Questions of freedom and rights can seem far removed from people’s everyday lives, particularly during our current crisis. However, the seeds of oppression are here on this island, from the anti-busking bylaws that sterilised Galway’s once lively atmosphere, to the more extreme instances of targeted policing of protests in the north of the island. Restrictions on protests have been proposed by different authorities on this island throughout the years, such as the event management bylaw proposed by Dublin Corporation at the turn of the millennium. The current public health crisis aside, any attempt to restrict the rights of protestors must be firmly rejected. An unjust law is no law at all, as articulated by St. Augustine. We must purge any and all unjust laws that are poisoning the tree of the Irish nation. However, it is important that we acknowledge that we cannot have a situation where there are rights for me, but not for thee. The criminalisation and targeted policing of minorities on this island must end. Friedrich Hayek claimed that laws must be general, equal and certain. Whatever about Hayek’s other political views, he was absolutely correct on this point. Our laws must be just, ensure equality for all, and cannot be used to target segments of the population, no matter what the sentiment. In order to achieve an Ireland in which we are all guaranteed our rights, our laws are just, and our people equal, we must dismantle any structures which allows the state to target Travellers and any other minority groups. Because if it can be used against us, it can be used against you. But most importantly, because it is the right thing to do.

Stephen Moriarty

Traveller Officer, Ógra Shinn Féin