NEWCASTLE police were accused today by anti-racism campaigners of using heavy-handed tactics against Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters.

On June 27, police kettled a number of people in the city’s West End during an anti-racist speak-out, and three people were arrested while peacefully attempting to disperse. 

A notice under section 14 of the Public Order Act had banned BLM and other groups from demonstrating anywhere in the city except Times Square.

Activists said that protesters had sought to negotiate with the police, but they were placed in an impossible position, being told that they could chose between being arrested, whether or not they left the protest, or entering custody “voluntarily.”

Protests had been banned in previous weeks through repeated use of section 14 notices, and two black anti-racists had been arrested. 

Campaigners said that an identified police officer had told a protester on June 20: “We won’t allow any BLM marches into the West End – not today, not next week, not ever.”

A defence campaign has been set up to demand that those arrested have the charges against them dropped and that the police cease to impose blanket bans on anti-racism demonstrations.

“Anti-racists in Newcastle upon Tyne are being gagged, arrested and slapped with draconian bail conditions by Northumbria Police – protests against police racism have been proscribed by the police,” a spokesperson said. 

“This is political policing. In the midst of the BLM movement, when we need our voices and spaces to organise the most, this northern police force has made unprecedented moves to crack down on basic rights.”

They added that the ban was about “trying to destroy” the BLM movement in the city and to stop the growth of its actions and ideas in “local communities that are being hammered by racism.”