Just before the coronation, the British government passed a law making it easier to arrest, detain and shut down protests and protesters. Instead of protecting free speech, police were give carte blanche to basically arrest or detain anyone they “suspected” of protesting the coronation. Before King Charles and Queen Camilla even got into their stupid gold coach to make the trek down to Westminster Abbey, cops arrested 52 anti-monarchy protesters. Not only that, but cops confiscated their signs. These were people who planned to simply hold up “Not My King” signs and maybe shout. That’s it.
British police arrested 52 anti-monarchy protesters yesterday. Footage showed protesters bearing the slogan “Not My King” being detained, including Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic. The group posted photos of officers taking details from them on Twitter. “So much for the right to peaceful protest,” the group said.
As The Daily Beast previously reported, legislation passed this week made it illegal to prepare to “lock-on” to things like street furniture and arrested Republic member Matt Turnbull suggested the straps holding the placards had been “misconstrued” as something that could be used for locking on. “To be honest we were never going to be allowed to be a visible force here. They knew we were coming, and they were going to find a way to stop this,” Turnbull told the BBC.
“We absolutely understand public concern following the arrests we made this morning,” Commander Karen Findlay of the London Metropolitan police said in a statement, quoted by Reuters. “Over the past 24 hours there has been a significant police operation after we received information protesters were determined to disrupt the Coronation procession.”
Police had said they had received intelligence that protesters were going to throw rape alarms at the ceremonial procession, which may have frightened the horses on parade, and therefore caused a risk to public safety.
Certainly, Coronation fever didn’t extend to every corner of the green and pleasant land. Fans at one football match even drowned out a recorded rendition of “God Save the King” with boos. Liverpool were playing Brentford at home, hours after King Charles’s coronation, when the boos occurred. Liverpool Football Club said it was asked to play “God Save the King” by the Premier League to mark the king’s coronation, and that how spectators chose to react was up to them.
The Daily Mirror’s northern football correspondent, David Maddock, tweeted that the booing coming from around “the entire ground” was so loud he did not even know the anthem had started. There have been several reports of fans at other football matches chanting, “You can stick your Coronation up your arse.”
[From The Daily Beast]
“Police had said they had received intelligence that protesters were going to throw rape alarms” – so the police decided to arrest every person carrying an anti-monarchy sign and confiscate Republic’s signs? What do yellow posters have to do with rape alarms? If you couldn’t tell, the police are just making sh-t up as they go along. Most of the coverage I watched was on BBC News, and I was surprised that they included some commentators saying that, actually, one of the defining images of the Chubbly was non-violent protesters being handcuffed and arrested. All so a billionaire wouldn’t have to deign to see some unpleasant signage as he was driven to a party where he got to put on a hat worth billions in stolen jewels.
This is silencing a protest before it even began. pic.twitter.com/aOPwjZCZxB
— Abbey Heffer (@AbbeyHeffer) May 6, 2023
— Martin O'Neill (@martin_oneill) May 3, 2023
— Football Fights (@footbalIfights) May 6, 2023
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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