After talks between the vigil group, Reclaim These Streets, and the police were unsuccessful, the organizers went to court to try to get permission for the event.
When the Supreme Court refused to intervene, Reclaim These Streets canceled the meeting. Even so, crowds arrived at the park during the day, with visitors, including Prince William’s wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, who was among many who laid flowers in an impromptu homage around a bandstand.
A tipping point came when people started making speeches, prompting the police to intervene and disperse the crowd. Presumably, this was because the event was moving from a vigil, which the police seemed willing to tolerate, to a demonstration, what they were not.
Adam Wagner, a human rights lawyer who advised Reclaim These Streets, said: “The police created the situation that allowed it to become a disorganized and undisciplined mess, and then felt they had to run the application.” He added that, by not reaching an agreement with the group to cooperate in organizing the event and thus managing those who wanted to be present at the vigil, the opportunity to exclude others, such as anti-lockdown protesters, was lost.
In a statement on Tuesday, Reclaim These Streets said it lost confidence in Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who the group said had granted them a meeting on Monday of just 15 minutes. “We pressured the commissioner for a clear answer on what would be an acceptable form of vigilance under the legislation and she did not respond,” noted the statement, adding that police actions “were putting the safety of women exercising their right to protest in risk. “
Without a written constitution, protest rights in Britain depend on a general human rights law and the police’s obligation to use force proportionately. But critics of the coronavirus rules note that the speed with which the regulations were passed by Parliament has left legal confusion.
Pippa Woodrow, another lawyer who advises Reclaim These Streets, said: “The lack of clarity has been a real problem from the start, and that may have been understandable at first, but now we are a year and our laws are still not better. “Having stopped some protests, the police seemed to feel that they would have looked inconsistent if they had let this vigil continue,” she added.