THE FUTURE OF PARADES
As an organisation commited to civil
liberty we would obviously favour a model based on the
freedoms in the American Constitution and on the European
Convention on Human Rights.
All roads should be open to all
law-abiding citizens. No community owns any road,
particularly if that road is the most direct route to a
town or city centre. No group has any right to impede or
harass any other group in the peaceful exercise of their
civil rights.
If the state would exercise its lawful
power to maintain such basic principles then no party
need pretend to any feeling of alienation and all
citizens would have equal rights.
Ultimately the police are the only people
equipped to make a reasoned judgement on parades. No
other body would be more acceptable and indeed another
body could probably be less acceptable.
The police however must be given clear
and unambiguous guidelines and these should also be made
clear to the general public.
Those organising Parades should be
responsible for the provision of marshals or stewards and
take precautions to ensure the good conduct of the
participants and in as far as possible, supporters. The
police however, are ultimately responsible for ensuring
that good behaviour in general is maintained and this
should remain so. The police are also responsible for
ensuring the free flow of traffic or necessary
diversions. Of course this is also true for other events
attended by large numbers of people such as sporting
events.
Problems can be posed by parades which
are politically motivated especially when the
organisation concerned has not been engaged in processing
along the route before. In such circumstances questions
of acceptability and public order should be of greater
importance than in respect of long established
processions and should only be permitted when it has been
determined that the proposed event has not been
deliberately designed to provoke resentment or disorder.
If allowed such processions would need to
fulfil very strict conditions. Flags, banners, or
placards carried should not be such as to cause offence
and as far as possible should be restricted to arterial
routes and/or commercial districts. Disorder and
misbehaviour by persons participating should necessitate
further careful consideration by the police as to whether
the procession could be repeated. So far as possible they
should not pass through residential areas unless the
overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are known to
support those processing.
No new parade or demonstration should be
permitted at a time or place where it is intended to, or
may, in fact, clash with a traditional event.
The basic principle should be that law
abiding citizens should be allowed to parade on their
normal routes and not be diverted from them simply
because a body of persons threaten violence.
When assessing whether a procession
should be allowed on future occasions it should be the
behaviour of those processing that is taken into account
and this is of particular importance in the case of new
routes and/or new bodies holding demonstrations and
parades. Strictly speaking anything outwith this should
be irrelevant.
When there is a measure of acceptance
that in a free society men and women can protest,
demonstrate and/or parade in a peaceful fashion and
receive police protection while so doing then much of the
problem would vanish.
This issue has prompted considerable
discussion and careful consideration. The following
suggestion has been put forward for the categorisation of
parades and the general framework for dealing with each
category. We believe this to be a very realistic
suggestion.
Parade
Categories
Class A -
Traditional Parades by Youth Organisations, Royal
British Legion, Fraternal Societies e.g. Orange,
Black, A.O.H. etc.
Class B -
Occasional/special parade by Fraternal Societies.
Class C -
Political, new routes, new bodies parading.
Class D - Cross
community/social/civic/sporting/trade unions.
Parade Approval
Class A
R.U.C. must guarantee free passage - possibly
after the registration of a parade as
traditional. This should include parades that
previously have been re-routed and parades which
follow a cycle of locations on established days.
Class B
Approval should only be withheld in extreme
circumstances.
Class C
Only to be permitted on the circumstances where
the R.U.C. can be fully satisfied that they are
not designed to provoke disorder and/or damage
community relations.
Class D
Free passage guaranteed.
Serious misbehaviour by participants in
Classes A, B, and C should result in a review of the
parade in question by the R.U.C.
In Classes A and B
"participants" would be members of the
organisation and the attending bands. In Classes C and D
it would mean anyone whom the police know to be
participating in the parade.
If our desire is to live in a
multi-cultural society with mutual respect and toleration
then we must uphold the basic rights of free expression
and free assembly.
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