Fuerza excesiva, vigilancia policial coercitiva y criminalización de la disidencia. Reprimir la protesta de los jóvenes en la Gran Bretaña del siglo XXI

Abstract

Youth-led protest actions and protests with young people as key protagonists have increased and become more diverse. This article constitutes a detailed case study of evolutions in policing and the legislative framework pertaining to protests and young protesters in Britain, drawing on political sociology, political science, criminology and youth studies. The article first outlines the main protest actions involving young people in twenty-first century Britain. Next, it documents developments in policing tools and methods. It then explains changes to the legislative framework. I argue that through military-style policing tools and methods, combined with authoritarian laws, successive British governments have developed coercive policing, the monitoring of protesters and the criminalisation of dissent. This runs counter to official discourse claiming there has been a return to policing by consent with greater attention to human rights and dialogue following criticisms from various official bodies. Thus, in reality, an ostensibly liberal democratic state is wielding excessive force and coercion, as part of a securitisation process, in a bid to regulate and repress young citizens’ protest actions construed as a disruptive threat to the political status quo. In this way, young citizens are being deprived of their democratic and human right to peaceful protest with important implications for Britain and elsewhere.