LONDON
\nNew and expanded powers for British police took effect on Sunday, including measures targeting activists who stop traffic and major building works with protests.
\nAuthorities have repeatedly condemned environmental protest groups, including Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, which have sought to raise awareness about the urgency of climate change by staging multiple high-profile protests at the busiest highways and roads. Their protests in recent years often caused serious disruption for motorists.
\nFrom Sunday, police will have powers to move static protests. Critics have argued the toughened laws are a threat to the right to protest, but UK officials say the measures were to stop \u201cdisruption from a selfish minority.\u201d
\n\u201cThe public have had enough of their lives being disrupted by selfish protesters. The mayhem we\u2019ve seen on our streets has been a scandal,\u201d Home Secretary Suella Braverman said.
\nAuthorities say that under the new Public Order Act, protesters found guilty of \u201ctunnelling\u201d \u2014 or digging underground tunnels to obstruct the building of new infrastructure works \u2014 could face three years in prison. Anyone found guilty of obstructing a major transportation project could be jailed for up to six months.
\nThe law also makes \u201clocking on,\u201d or protesters attaching themselves to other people, objects or buildings, a criminal offense.
\nHundreds of climate change protesters were arrested last year in the UK for blocking major roads and bridges. Many activists protested by sitting in the middle of the roads or gluing themselves to the roadway to make them harder to move.
\nThe civil disobedience is a wave of direct action that has also seen activists glue themselves to famous museum paintings or throw soup at artworks to draw media attention to their cause.
\nPolice have said it\u2019s costly to deal with the protests and that they diverted thousands of officers from other work like dealing with crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON New and expanded powers for British police took effect on Sunday, including measures targeting activists who stop traffic and major building works with protests. Authorities have repeatedly condemned environmental protest groups, including Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, which have sought to raise awareness about the urgency of climate change by staging multiple high-profile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-341089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n