Discussion > Insulate Britain - what's the law?
Insulation Extinction are clear that they are deliberately obstructing the highway.- As we've seen some protesters are seemingly proud of being multiple offenders
The criminal offence of obstruction is defined as the wilful obstruction of a highway without lawful excuse.
The problem is enforcement. That the actions are organised opens the door to legal actions to recover the cost of policing from the organisers and civil actions for damages from people who've suffered loss consequent from the organised disruption.
As it stands I suspect that we'll see more actions from people who've been stopped from going about their legitimate business than we will from the police.
tomo
Thanks tomo - do you know what the rights of highway users are? Could they use “reasonable force” or other legal terminology to pass? And if the obstructed highway user decides to use the law against an obstructor, would they pursue the individual obstructors or the organisation “Insulate Britain”? I haven’t checked the law but in both cases I can see difficulties for a member of the public in obtaining and verifying the identities of obstructors. Insulate Britain appear to be an anonymous organisation with only an email address:
https://www.insulatebritain.com/civilresistance
not banned yet
nby
In practical terms it's down to enforcement. If the roads are blocked by eejits - laying a hand on them exposes you to assault charges from the plod - if they're minded to. (Conduct likely to... etc. etc.)
Anybody trying to go through a blockage will be low hanging fruit for point scoring law enforcement .
If it happened to me I'd be minded to physically intervene before the arrival of law enforcement.
The Met in particular are not helping themselves with the way that they are handling this - the perception that they are indulging the twerps has taken hold and if this continues some protestors are going to be injured.
iirc -the tariff on conviction for an individual committing criminal obstruction is Schedule 2 = £1000 max fine.
This might be of some interest
In all, the antics of the woke police are going to trigger people - there will be more events where the twerps will be protected by police and that will annoy people more - and on it goes - not a virtuous circle.
tomo
Until Plod arrives on the scene then as long as you are not violent you are exercising civil arrest or preventing civil unrest by dragging said idiots off the road.
Muppets are us
Thanks tomo - useful link appreciated.
not banned yet
https://twitter.com/clim8resistance/status/1450263058010591234
tomo
Following on from comments about the lack of enforcement against IB, and the caveat of not knowing the full backstory and just having the video and DM article to rely on, I can only say this shows the police as simple bullies rather than public servants:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10112497/Police-Taser-old-shoplifter-twice-leave-face-bloodied-mess.html
If there are any ex or current police officers who read here, I would like to hear your point of view.
not banned yet
If I disagree with a Government policy do I have a legally protected right to stop my fellow countrymen going about their business?
Can I block the path of my neighbour and stop him or her from gettting to (for example) the shops until the Government agree to my demands?
Does my neighbour not have a protected Right of Way on the public highways to be able to pass without intereference or hinderance?
If I do hinder my neighbour from going about their business, what can they do about it? Can they seek relief from my antics through a legal process or are they within their rights to pass me, come what may?
Sorry if all this has already been covered in unthreaded or elsewhere - if possible, I'm asking for legally informed views. TIA.