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Ministers are planning to grant police additional powers to target ongoing protests, specifically aimed on taking action against Middle East demonstrations, as stated by the Home Office.

Recent Detentions and Proposed Changes

This declaration follows just after almost five hundred individuals were detained in the capital for showing solidarity for a proscribed group, a prohibited organization. These changes could enable police to instruct frequent demonstrations to be moved to alternative locations.

The Home Secretary, will also examine existing anti-protest laws, with the potential to strengthen powers to ban certain demonstrations completely.

Proposed Legal Changes

Under the planned powers, the Home Secretary will push through rapid changes to the Public Order Act 1986, allowing police to consider the "combined effect" of ongoing demonstrations. Specific details will be provided "at a later date", according to the statement.

If a protest has resulted in what authorities termed "repeated disorder" at the identical site for several weeks, authorities would gain the power to order organizers to move the event to another location, with participants who do not obey risking detention.

Wider Examination and Public Safety

The Home Secretary stated that she would "also review current laws to guarantee that powers are adequate and being consistently applied", covering police powers to ban certain demonstrations entirely.

"The freedom to demonstrate is a basic right in our country. However, this freedom must be weighed with the right of their neighbours to go about their daily lives without anxiety," Mahmood said.

"Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, especially religious communities, feeling unsafe, threatened and scared to leave their homes. This has been particularly evident in relation to the significant anxiety within the Jewish population, which has been expressed to me on many occasions during these recent difficult days."

"These changes represent an significant move in guaranteeing we safeguard the right to protest while making certain everyone feel safe in this nation."

Recent Situation and Police Reaction

These expanded authorities seem aimed at both mass pro-Gaza protests, which took place in the capital and some other cities over a series of weeks, and those held to back Palestine Action.

On Saturday, authorities arrested approximately 500 individuals at the latest similar demonstration. This gathering took place even though government officials, among them political leaders, requesting that it be delayed following this week's deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

Law Enforcement Viewpoint

After Saturday's protest, the chair of the police representative body commented that officers policing demonstrations in the capital were "emotionally and physically exhausted".

"This cannot continue. Our focus should be on keeping people safe at a period when the nation is on increased security from a terrorist attack. Yet police are being pulled away to facilitate these continuous demonstrations," the federation chair stated.

Further Legislative Measures

This development come after demonstration-focused measures in the public safety legislation currently under parliamentary consideration, which prohibits the possession of masks or fireworks at protests, and criminalises the climbing of specific memorial structures.