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Good morning Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police expressed regret for having arrested 6 anti-monarchy campaigners. These arrests were based on a recently passed controversial law that makes it an offence to go out equipped for locking-on to objects such as immovable street furniture. This includes a ‘suspicion-less power’ to stop and search. As I was cycling along yesterday, with my trusty D shaped lock for all to see, I wondered if now I might be suspected as a lock-on risk? Would this suspicion rise if I was wearing a plain t-shirt, or one saying Peace, or Freedom to Frack? For me, this isn’t primarily about police actions as their role as public servants is to carry out parliamentary laws and protect our human rights, with greater or lesser success or care. The wider questions that the weekend’s arrests raise is what kind of society we want to live in, especially as protests, from all parts of the political spectrum, are designed to challenge the status quo, so they stimulate debate and reaction. While measures must be taken to protect the public from dangerous behaviour, non-violent demonstrations define rather than deplete democracy. The shadow side of protests, if they’re restricted, looks like fear or apathy and disconnecting from democracy. Judaism balances two core values relating to active citizenship. The first is ‘dina d’malchuta dina’ – our law follows the law of the land which means we must align Jewish law with the laws of the country. Then we’re encouraged to change the world and not to be passive, teaching that if we don’t protest the transgressions that we see, then we ourselves are held responsible for them. Our rabbis taught that if we sit in our homes and ask, “What do the matters of society have to do with me, why should I trouble myself with the peoples’ voices of protests? Let my soul dwell in peace. If you do this, say the rabbis, you damage the world.” Biblical prophets protesting injustice were a noisy nuisance – definitely a public inconvenience and disruptive. Many prophets criticized their peers, those they saw as exploitative and even the monarchy. As the prophet Isaiah declared, ‘Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their transgression.’ If we want to live in a society which we are motivated to contribute to and a democracy that navigates difficult and different views then for me, non-violent protests, even at a time of world-stage events must be tolerated and even welcomed. That’s the Britain I want to show off to the world.