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Failure to properly police Wednesday's disruption by racist thugs of an emergency protest by desperate asylum-seekers is producing difficulties that could easily have been avoided. https://twitter.com/HumzaYousaf/status/1274057617724276737
@HumzaYousaf wouldn't need to claim messages are "completely aligned" if it was in fact true. Compare and contrast with earlier (welcome) statement that there is no equivalence between racists and anti-racists
Not necessarily correct to say mass outdoor gatherings are illegal. Coronavirus Regs have to be interpreted in a way that's compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights - this is a requirement of the Scotland Act
Any arrests of anti-racists would be open to legal challenge. Rights to freedom of assembly and expression are not absolute, but they are a basis for defence. No guarantee of how this might turn out in court...
But it "risks" opening up legal argument about the questionable basis of the regulations. I'd have thought the Scottish Government would prefer not to go there.
These are avoidable difficulties created by bad (racist? ) policing, a police belief that they are a law unto themselves, and a government reluctant to assert itself sufficiently firmly over the police.
