I witnessed Scottish police enforcing the "buffer zone" law during a silent vigil, despite government denials. Rose Docherty was targeted for holding a sign that read, "Coercion is a crime. Here to talk, only if you want." The police claimed her silent presence constituted a vigil, which they deemed a breach of the Act. Rose clarified she was simply pointing out the illegality of coercion and inviting conversation, but the police insisted she move away from the area, questioning her intentions based on her past protests.
Thread Text
@LoisMcLatch - Lois McLatchie Miller
🚨BREAKING🚨: Scottish police filmed applying “buffer zone” law to “silent vigil”, despite recent denials from the Scottish government! 👮♂️
“Am I committing an offence?”
“Yes, I believe you are conducting a silent vigil”
Vance was right. The law IS being misapplied to prayer!🏴 https://t.co/Gsm0x4yspM
Video Transcript AI Summary
We are considered in breach of the act if we approach someone and try to dissuade them from accessing abortion services. This includes actions such as surrounding individuals as they enter or exit a clinic or hospital. Distributing leaflets, engaging in religious preaching, or remaining silent after being asked to move also constitute violations.
Speaker 0: Examples of what we're being classed as breaching the act, you know, approaching someone, trying to persuade them not to access abortion services, surrounding people as they go in or out of the clinic or the hospital, handing out leaflets, religious preaching, silent Well, we've asked you to move.
@LoisMcLatch - Lois McLatchie Miller
The woman being targeted by police was Rose Docherty, a woman holding a sign reading:
“Coercion is a crime. Here to talk, only if you want.”👇 https://t.co/eIy9NNauGL
@LoisMcLatch - Lois McLatchie Miller
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Police: Examples of what would be classed as breaching the Act would be approaching someone trying to persuade them not to access abortion services, surrounding people as they go in and out of the clinic, handing out leaflets, religious preaching, silent vigils. So standing here saying nothing is a silent vigil
Rose: But I'm just pointing out that coercion is against the law and that if anyone wants to come and speak to me they can. I'm not doing anything else
Police: You’re saying to me that you're not doing anything wrong but there's obviously a reason why you're here. Why you're in this area. I'm aware that you have been protesting here against abortion before. So I don't understand why you're here in this area again protesting the same thing
Rose: I'm here to say that if anyone wants to come to speak to me of their own volition they can
Police: I would advise you to move away from this area
Rose: So I'm just here to speak to anyone if they want to speak to me. That's what I'm doing standing here saying that coercion is a crime and if anyone wants to speak to me they can. So is that an offence?
Police: We’ve asked you to move
