Specifically, the bill nakedly targets groups such as Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, all of which have used disruptive tactics in their protests against the government.“The police have been very clear that they have the power to adequately deal with protests and manage protests when they are going to cause unjustified disruption and that’s been the case for decades,” Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), told CNN.Direct action groups like Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion are not doing much different to what we saw in the civil rights movement or from the Suffragettes.While issues like these might be controversial, just being willing to have the argument is something that could help the Conservative Party as it tries to rebuild its base before the next general election.Sarah Jones, Labour’s shadow minister for policing, said in a statement that the police “have powers to deal with dangerous, disruptive protests and Labour backs them to use those powers… But the Prime Minister has spent more time talking about protest than he has the epidemic of violence against women and girls or his government’s shameful record prosecuting criminals.” This might be a fair criticism of the government and prime minister, but is a less clear and clean message than simply saying “protests are bad and we will stop them.” It’s not clear that the government will receive much of a boost from cracking down harder on demonstrators, especially if the new legislation leads to lots of messy scenes where peaceful protesters are being hauled away by an increasingly unpopular police force."