(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . David Carrick jailed: Protesters urge government to scrap Public Order Bill [1] [] Date: 2023-02 “Mark Rowley [the Metropolitan Police commissioner] is saying he wants the police to be publicly accountable, but the government is giving them more powers to be less accountable. “That’s a direct area of constant conflict and possible confrontation.” Those were the words of Lisa Longstaff from Women Against Rape and Crissie Amiss from Women of Colour Global Women’s Strike, speaking to openDemocracy outside Southwark Crown Court where police officer and serial rapist David Carrick was today jailed for life over 85 offences. Carrick’s conviction less than two years after the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer from the same unit, Wayne Couzens, has piled pressure on Britain’s biggest police force, the Met, which is already in special measures following a string of scandals. Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now But Longstaff and Amiss and their respective groups were at Southwark to draw attention to something else. The Public Order Bill, currently making its way through the House of Lords, will give police officers like Carrick and Couzens even more power to crack down on protests – including protests against the police themselves. Images of cops violently detaining women in Clapham Common during a vigil for Everard in 2021 did little to halt the passage of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act through Parliament, though a series of last-minute additions by home secretary Priti Patel were voted down in the Lords. The Public Order Bill restores the proposals that were stripped from the act, giving police more power to shut down protests, and the courts more power to punish protesters who cause “serious disruption”. Last week, peers in the House of Lords voted 243 to 221 to raise the threshold for what was defined as “serious disruption”. But strong concerns about the planned new law remain. Jurors at Southwark have heard harrowing details of how Carrick used his position as a constable at the Metropolitan Police to carry out a series of brutal attacks, and prevent his victims from leaving or reporting him. Last month the Met announced that 1,633 cases of alleged sexual offences or domestic violence involving 1,071 officers and other staff are being assessed. The force has repeatedly refused to give openDemocracy details of abusive messages shared inside WhatsApp groups, and last month would not say how many officers in its own Sexual Offences Unit had been accused of wrongdoing. For Longstaff and Amiss, new anti-protest laws will make it harder for the public to hold the police to account – which is vital as more victims of police sexual violence continue to come forward. “The more [people’s] voices are out there, they can't just whitewash it or say it’s not happening,” they said. “The fact that the conviction rate for rape has gone to below 1% is really an indication of just how all of this collectively builds up to stop any of us getting the justice that we're entitled to. [We can] speak out and… make the case that this is not just the odd bad apple.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/public-order-bill-metropolitan-police-david-carrick-protest/ Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/