Expert Investigations

What are protest hooks? Welcome to the second article in a series of six where I will look, briefly, at an aspect of protests in each article. As highlighted in our introduction, the world has become an environment for more protests and activist behaviour.

Setting The Scene

The country and the world are increasingly becoming more fractious, violent and tumultuous. Now there are vast areas of unrest. With the huge increase in false media, false hype, conspiracy theorist and self-appointed unqualified ‘sleuths and hacks’, are the population being led more proactively towards protests and disruptive behaviour?

Organised and established protest groups actively seek the publicity to fuel their cause and many groups have international reach, as well as those more localised protest groups who equally seek local and national publicity.

From ‘Stop the Oil’, ‘Extinction Rebellion’ or ‘Plane Stupid’ who are the more recognised organisations, localised protests can cause huge disruption, economic loss and fear for those who are the target of the protestors.

What Is The Hook?

Simply put, it is the reason for the protest. They are far and wide. They are based on localised, national and international issues. They are based around conflict and politics, commerce, expansion and closure and based on environmental issues, to name a few. When looking at national projects, such as HS2 or Hinkley Nuclear Power Plant for example, the national project has localised impact. Whilst there may not be a national protest in all regions there may be splinter protests associated with the program.

This has been seen in previous years with notable projects such as the Birmingham Northern Relief Road (Toll Road), on which I was involved as a Police officer or the Newbury Bypass where the activist known as ‘Swampy’, Daniel Marc Hooper, orchestrated protests across the region and beyond in support against the bypass. The protest could a protest against a developer taking down trees for a building development or trying to prevent the expansion of a runaway at an airport.

Certain protest hooks have a wider, regional or national appeal for a protest. The main current activist group being ‘Extinction Rebellion’ and ‘Stop the Oil’. These have national appeal and the protestors target across the country and have worldwide support as well.

We live in a time of political unrest and turmoil with national and international events giving rise to more frequent protests. From an issue of tragedy and heartache, such as the terrible murder in Southport of young girls attending a Taylor Swift themed dance workshop which was ‘hijacked’ to lead to national unrest, rioting, assault and disorder.

The hook is the reason.

Points of Highlight – Protest Hooks

Removing Trees

Locals protest the cutting down of a hundred year old oak tree. Locals are also opposed to the expansion of rural areas for housing development. Read the article.

Expansion

Expansion of an area, whereby buildings may be demolished, green space demolished. Public money used to ‘bail out’ industries, specifically industries already subject to protest attention. For example airlines, fossil fuel plants and incinerators. Read the article.

Private Jets

Celebrities using private jets, yachts, excess number of vehicles. Contradiction of public figures outwardly showing support and then acting in contravention of that support. Read the article.

Immigration

The perception immigration is having on a region or the country. The belief an immigrant has committed a serious criminal act, or immigrants are ‘taking away our jobs’. Read the article.

War, Conflict and Terror

The majority of these protests will be subject to Policing by the 43 UK Police Services, but again can have a localised impact, especially in areas with a concentrated minority group. Read the article.

I, myself was at the summit of Scafell Pike in Cumbria in November 2024 and found that a group of 15+ pro Palestinians were staging a small, peaceful protest at the summit (all very good natured).

Summary

Protest activity can be routed in complex and diverse reasoning, but the simple beginning is from the ‘hook’. What is the reason for the protest? The protest may support the same long term cause but the ‘hooks’ may change, as a national issue becomes localised, an increase in commercial activity, or the political agenda changes.

As a business that operates in the arena where protest and activists (may) be active it is sensible to be aware of the ‘hooks’ that are currently present and those than may arise to spark some form of protest or activist activity.

‘Hooks’ and protest reasoning is inexhaustive and I have highlighted a tiny sample across a variety of socio-economic subjects that are present today.

As a business, an individual, group or organisation who may be subject to the potential protest and activist activity there is a need to consider how to:

Prevent

Disrupt

Detect

Any activity. All businesses must adopt a business continuity strategy, working from the broad and general to the specific. Please take a look at the rest of the articles in the series to get a full picture:

  1. Protest Groups: An Introduction
  2. Targets: Who and What Are The Targets For Protests?
  3. Narrative: What Is The Message For the Protest?
  4. Tactics: What Are the Key Strategies Behind the Protest?
  5. Resources: Investigative and Proactive Resources for Protests
More On Protest Groups

Many of the comments in this article are too complex to be discussed in this short article and the author seeks not to trivialise or overlook them, but merely use them as a conduit to support the narrative.

Get In Touch

David Kearns, a former Police Field Intelligence Detective, is the Managing Director of Expert Investigations Ltd, one of the countries leading investigation agencies, who has worked with numerous organisations in helping to prevent, disrupt and detect protest activity for the commercial sector. Call me now to discuss any points raised, concerns or presentation to your team on the subject.

07879 482902

Davidkearns@expert-investigations.co.uk

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