Saw the UK's new protest law in action last weekend, should we be worried?

I was in London visiting friends when a small group got moved along by police for standing near Parliament with signs, and they weren't being loud or blocking anyone. The law allows cops to stop protests if they think the noise might be annoying, which seems to flip the idea of peaceful assembly on its head. Do other countries have these kind of limits and where do we draw the line between order and free speech?

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the_riley14d agoMost Upvoted

Man, people keep looking at this backwards. Everyone's focused on who gets to protest, but nobody's talking about how this law basically lets cops decide what "annoying" means on the spot. That's a whole lot of power for one officer with a badge and a bad mood.