Latest news with #nonviolentprotest
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Police arrested autistic activist in supported housing as part of Quaker raid operation
The Met police operation in which officers raided a Quakers meeting house also resulted in the arrest of an autistic climate activist at his supported accommodation, the Guardian can reveal. Joe Booth, 23, had been in bed when seven police officers arrived at the flats for vulnerable adults in New Barnet, north London, to arrest him on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. The arrest appeared to be linked to his attendance at weekly meetings of Youth Demand, an off-shoot of Just Stop Oil, that describes itself as a nonviolent protest movement. The evening before his arrest, up to 30 Met officers broke down the front door of a Quaker meeting house to arrest six female members of the group in what appears to be a linked raid. It is thought to be the first time that police had forced their way into a place of worship used by the pacifist Quakers movement. The raid has been heavily criticised by politicians, campaigners and religious groups. Booth, who has never been involved in disruptive protest and who had previously attended one peaceful Youth Demand march on Downing Street, said the arrest has left him with post-traumatic stress disorder. He said the officers who arrested him appeared to be surprised that he lived in supported accommodation for vulnerable adults. After a support worker let the police into his flat, an officer had grabbed his arm, he claimed, and asked whether 'I need to put you in handcuffs' before reading him his rights. 'They did not know until they turned up that I lived in supported accommodation,' claimed Booth, who is a cleaner on the London Underground. 'When they arrested me, they said to me: 'Joe, is this supported accommodation?' They didn't know. You would think there would be a system in place when they are going to an address to say this is a care setting.' Booth had been in his pyjamas when the police arrived. They searched his bedroom and seized his work phone. He was then taken on a two-hour drive to Kingston police station where he was questioned and held for more than seven hours. He was released on police bail with conditions that included a ban on him entering Westminster. Booth, whose brother was allowed to attend the police interview as an 'appropriate adult' due to his vulnerability, said: 'They showed me pictures of protests that I wasn't even in. They showed me pictures of [information about] upcoming events, only a few of which were actually protests, the other which were just meetings and free food events. So they didn't tell me at any point what evidence they had on me and why they got me and how they even knew my face.' He had previously attended Youth Demand meetings at the Quaker meeting hall on St Martin's Lane in London where attenders enjoyed a spread of jasmine tea, ginger biscuits and a selection of vegan cheese straws. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Youth Demand had been planning a series of 10-minute protests in London and Booth had handed out leaflets promoting the group's plans to oppose arms sales to Israel and a lack of action on fossil-fuel harm, he said. Booth, whose father is John Leach, the assistant general secretary of the RMT union, added: 'I was only planning to spread news of the events. I'm not at a stage in my life where I'm ready to risk going to prison. 'Like all autistic people, I can often struggle to understand certain messages that are told to me, which is why I often need staff with me when I receive letters, because I interpret things differently and I also can't survive without structure and routine. So when that gets disrupted by ongoing issues that becomes a problem.' Booth said the arrest, which will raise fresh questions about the overpolicing of protest groups, had seriously affected his mental health. He said: 'Every time I hear noise in the corridor, even from a distance, I get scared that it might be police, especially when there's a knock at my door, especially if that knock at my door is early in the morning. 'But even if it's just from support staff or Amazon delivery or whatever, I get scared that it might be police. So my alertness has increased and my anxiety has increased. And I see a therapist every single week, because I always have and he's in full knowledge of how it's been affecting me.' Booth had previously been arrested in June 2024 on the same grounds after attending Just Stop Oil meetings, he said, but again released on police bail without charge. Booth had never been involved in their disruptive activities, he claimed. 'I remember specifically going to meetings and saying: 'I have not been at a protest,'' he said. 'It has left me bewildered.'
New York Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Only Nonviolence Will Beat Trump
For Saturday's No Kings protests, an estimated five million people marched in over 2,000 cities and towns. The marches were a striking display of nonviolent dissent amid an increasingly volatile political environment. Together with the military deployment in Los Angeles and the military parade that President Trump presided over in Washington, these events showcase how the strategic use or rejection of force could shape months, even years, of mass protest as well as the future of American democracy. History and research make clear that violence seen as unnecessary — whether from the state or protesters — typically reduces popular support for the political players who use it. The public's rejection of violence they view as unjustified is consistent — so much so that it often elicits complex strategic games, with movements and the state maneuvering to portray the other as unnecessarily violent. Still, important exceptions exist, and understanding when and why nonviolence wins hearts and minds requires understanding the vast research on the topic. Cross-national research by Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth finds that when states crack down violently on nonviolent protest, it often backfires. Rather than quell dissent, repression can mobilize opposition and erode the government's legitimacy. Other scholarship suggests that when state officials use excessive force against peaceful protesters — such as when the police commissioner Bull Connor in 1963 blasted civil rights activists with fire hoses in Birmingham, Ala. — the images generated can be particularly effective for movements. These findings suggest the more force the state uses on peaceful demonstrators, the more the state may inadvertently fuel precisely the kind of mass opposition it seeks to suppress. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Three Well-Tested Ways to Undermine an Autocrat
The question I get most often is: What can we do to take our country back? So let me try to answer, drawing on lessons from other countries that have faced authoritarian challenges. The funny thing is that there's a playbook for overturning autocrats. It was written here in America, by a rumpled political scientist I knew named Gene Sharp. While little known in the United States before his death in 2018, he was celebrated abroad, and his tool kit was used by activists in Eastern Europe, in the Middle East and across Asia. His books, emphasizing nonviolent protests that become contagious, have been translated into at least 34 languages. 'I would rather have this book than the nuclear bomb,' a former Lithuanian defense minister once said of Sharp's writing. A soft-spoken scholar working from his Boston apartment, Sharp recommended 198 actions that were often performative, ranging from hunger strikes to sex boycotts to mock funerals. 'Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are,' he once said, 'and people are never as weak as they think they are.' The Democrats' message last year revolved in part around earnest appeals to democratic values, but one of the lessons from anti-authoritarian movements around the world is that such abstract arguments aren't terribly effective. Rather, three other approaches, drawing on Sharp's work, seem to work better. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
