Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986: The Threshold of Extreme Protest

摘要

On 10 March 2009, the town centre of Luton hosted a homecoming parade for members of the armed services who were involved with the Royal Anglian Regiment. The crowd was comprised of relatives, friends and well-wishers and others from the locality. The five appellants were part of a group who wished to 'mark their opposition to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan'. The group protesting comprised about 50 people, and prior to the protest they had made contact with the police with the aim of facilitating a peaceful protest in furtherance of their right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A meeting point was arranged on the day of the protest for the protestors to communicate with the police, and some officers were assigned to remain with the protestors. The police also took overt video recordings of the activities of the protestors and made arrangements to have additional officers on standby should a more serious threat to public order emerge.