U.K. protesters decry arrests during coronation
Anti-monarchy group says it plans to take legal action against Scotland Yard.
LONDON — An antimonarchy group says it plans to take legal action against Scotland Yard after several members were arrested as they prepared to protest the coronation of King Charles III.
Civil liberties groups are accusing Scotland Yard, also known as London’s Metropolitan Police, and Britain’s Conservative government of stifling the right to protest with new powers to clamp down on peaceful but disruptive demonstrations.
The police force expressed “regret” late Monday that the activists were prevented from protesting but defended its handling of the coronation, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of London — hundreds of protesters among them.
Police arrested 64 people around Saturday’s coronation, most on suspicion of planning to disrupt the ceremonies. Four have been charged, most have been released on bail, and six members of the anti-monarchist group Republic have been freed and told they will not face charges.
Republic Chief Executive Graham Smith said three senior police officers came to his house and apologized in person for the arrest that saw him held in custody for 16 hours.
“I said for the record I won’t accept the apology,” Smith said, adding that the group “will be taking action.”
The U.K.’s recently passed Public Order Act, introduced in response to civil disobedience by environmental groups, allows police to search demonstrators for items such as locks and glue and imposes penalties of up to 12 months in prison for protesters who block roads or interfere with “national infrastructure.”
Police said the Republic members had items that could be used to “lock on” to infrastructure. Republic said the items were ties for their placards, and police acknowledged that the “investigation has been unable to prove intent to use them to lock on and disrupt the event.”
“We regret that those six people arrested were unable to join the wider group of protesters in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere on the procession route,” the police force said.
Although the Conservative government defended police handling of the protests, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the opposition Labor Party, requested “further clarity” from Scotland Yard. He called the right to peaceful protest an integral part of democracy.
Conservative lawmaker David Davis said the new powers of arrest are too broad.
“No one wants a day ruined, but the right to put up placards is virtually absolute in British democracy,” he told the BBC on Tuesday.
Scotland Yard is already under intense pressure after a series of scandals involving its treatment of women and minorities.
Confidence in the force plummeted after a serving officer raped and killed a young woman in 2020 in London.
An independent review commissioned after the murder said the force was riddled with racism, misogyny and homophobia.