UK coronation day arrests signal ‘new era of authoritarian policing’

The Metropolitan Police made 64 arrests in London on Saturday, including senior staff members of campaign group Republic, which said it intended to stage a “peaceful and lawful protest”.

The policing of demonstrations has led to renewed criticism of the new Public Order Act 2023, which came into force last week and gives police in England and Wales new powers to stop disruptive protests.

Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, said: “This was a heavy-handed action which had the appearance of a pre-determined arrest that would have occurred regardless of the evidence or our actions.

“The right to protest peacefully in the UK no longer exists. Instead we have a freedom to protest that is contingent on political decisions made by ministers and senior police officers.”

Oliver Feeley-Sprague, Amnesty International UK’s policing expert, said: “It was genuinely disturbing to see the Met making this number of spurious-looking arrests.

“This was heavy-handed anti-protest policing at its crudest, with the police swooping on people unloading protest signs or wearing Just Stop Oil t-shirts, and even — most preposterously — taking into custody people in possession of rape alarms who were part of a long-standing Westminster Council safe streets initiative.

“Despite what the police seem to think, merely being in possession of a megaphone or carrying a placard with a peaceful campaign slogan should never be grounds for an arrest.

“In many ways the police overreaction on Saturday was exactly what we’d been fearing, with the Met and other forces now starting to use extremely draconian new legislation to clamp down on any hint of protest deemed ‘disruptive’ or ‘noisy’.

“Peaceful protest is very clearly protected under international human rights law, yet the UK has entered a dangerous new era of authoritarian policing which is undermining our collective right to free speech and public assembly.”