‘SOMETHING out of a police state,’ was how Republic director Harry Stratton described the way in which London’s Metropolitan Police arrested 52 anti-monarchy protesters during Saturday’s coronation.
Protesters wearing yellow T-shirts arrived in Trafalgar Square early in the morning and were arrested while booing and shouting ‘Not My King’.
At around 7am police stopped six of Republic’s organisers and told them they were detaining and searching them, Republic director Stratton said at the protest.
Stratton said later that when they asked police why they were being detained, they were told officers ‘would figure it out’ later.
After searching them, police told the six organisers they were arresting them and seizing hundreds of their placards carrying the slogan ‘Not My King’.
‘They didn’t say why they were arresting them. They didn’t tell them or us where they were taking them. It really is like something out of a police state,’ Stratton said.
‘I think people are quite perturbed by the police reaction. But the crowd reaction to us has been overwhelmingly friendly,’ he added.
Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, was released late on Saturday evening after 16 hours in custody, and said that there is ‘no longer a right to peaceful protest in the UK’.
Republic tweeted on Saturday evening: ‘So much for the right to peaceful protest.’
Former Liberty Director and Labour Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti appeared on BBC yesterday morning and said: ‘I’ve had friends from around the world expressing concern and surprise at the number of arrests.
‘Obviously we must and we will find out more in the hours and days ahead as to why these 52 people in particular were arrested.
‘I am concerned that people who were handing out rape alarms for women’s safety in a big public assembly were selected.
‘And I’m really concerned about this so-called operational independence that Lucy Frazer (Tory Culture Secretary) described because we know, for example, that the Home Secretary issued a press release a few days ago, saying that she backed the police to use her new powers to the full. That doesn’t sound very independent.
‘We also know that the Home Office directly wrote to protest groups warning them that new powers had been rushed through in time for the coronation. That is of concern to me …
‘I’m concerned that in recent years, and months, and weeks, we’ve had a real clampdown, both from the police themselves but in ever new powers.
‘I would remind you that last Autumn a number of journalists, card carrying member journalists, were arrested just for covering protests, covering them just like you are this morning.
‘And the police at the time accused them of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, just for giving the oxygen of publicity to demonstrations. That’s the kind of climate that we are operating under and it’s something to be anxious about.’
Westminster City Council’s Councillor Aicha Less, cabinet member for communities and public protection, condemned reports that volunteers with its Night Star women’s safety programme had been arrested while handing out rape alarms.
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