Arrested for holding a banner - can't ruin a big day, can we... PART 2

[vera99]

A continuation of the debate started at https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4800317-arrested-for-holding-a-banner-cant-ruin-a-big-day-can-we?page=39&reply=126045871

Chris Shilp repeating the untrue crap about rape alarms

I have, and they are very good points, and I'm sure you would have taken all your litter away with you as well. It’s very broad church protesting at the actions taken by the Met against Republic in particular and rightly so as a precious line in the sand of our citizens freedoms were crossed. If the King were to issue a brief statement celebrating the diversity of views and essential freedoms it would go down well. But I won't be holding my breath.

I wouldn't say fake - briefly mildly angry would be more fitting... 😉

Sir Keir is rightly paranoid about the weaponising of any of the culture war cudgels that the Tories can construct. Labour hates the police and the Royal Family trope morphs easily out of that. The fact that it is bollocks is neither here nor there.

Charles Walker on Channel 4 news basically saying i told you so

I would like to question MPs and the police on how a protest can be carried out.

I think that you can be arrested for holding a placard at some protests. You can be arrested or removed so to prevent a breach of the peace. Because some of the people who are supporting the Monarch may attack the protestor.

Of course, it could be argued that the police should try to stop the attack and it would be an interesting outcome if the protestor got attacked and did not resist. Just like Gandhi.

@vera99 i would. I know you'd find doffing a cap, tugging a forelock and picking up litter difficult but as I've said, some monarchists can do several things simultaneously.

My view is that the Met should investigate this matter thoroughly before those not directly involved i.e Sunak, the King weigh in with a comment. Not all responses have to be done at warp speed to appease the Twitterati.

The embarrassment is that the Met only appear to have critiqued their response after pressure from the Press. You'd think somewhere between slapping on the cuffs, the custody suite and lawyers being summoned that someone would've thought to ring one of the senior people involved.

Actually correct myself. BEFORE slapping on the cuffs would've been the right place to start.

I hope Republic hold a massive rally in London. I wonder if that would be allowed?

It’s actually quite nice that this is out in the open on the AIBU forum so general Mumsnet users can see some of the behaviour of posters who frequent the royal family board to goad, sneer and generally berate people who wanting to talk about the royals in a more positive way.

@mnhq is there any chance of a Republican board where people can go to discuss anti monarchy stuff. The royal family board has become unusable recently. I’m all for debate but the tone is so aggressive and unhelpful that you spend more time asking people to be civil than actually discussing anything at all. Surely the republicans would enjoy a space to themselves, in the spirit of everyone getting to have a space to be themselves.

I'd love a republican board.

This is not an anti monarchy thread, it's about the right to protest.

Mumsnet users can see some of the behaviour of posters who frequent the royal family board to goad, sneer and generally berate people

You cannot lay this on those who aren't Royalists. The most deleted posts for sneering, insulting and general PAs are from those that support the RF wholeheartedly and get incensed at a different opinion. I've seen it, felt it, had numerous attacking posts deleted.

Happy with a republican area, or on Royal threads or AIBU. Either way it would be hijacked betcha. Take for instance, the thread on Coronation Day talking about the arrests, certain posters came in to sneer and insult when all we were doing was having an in depth conversation about the arrests of Republic staff.

This though isn't about the Monarchy. I have my opinions - but this - as the original thread - is about the right to protest.

It will be interesting to see the case law when someone eventually gets charged under this and appeals. Hopefully we will still be in the EHCR?

I wonder if the reactions would have been different if a different group of protestors had been arrested under this law under similar circumstances.

Does the beliefs of the protestors affect people's reactions to the story?

It would be an interesting psychology experiment - to give different groups of people different versions of an event with different protagonists, and to see their reactions and who they side with.

Does the beliefs of the protestors affect people's reactions to the story?

Interesting.

The Tories have agreed to animal testing after 25 years. What if the protest was on Coronation Day to bring this awful backtrack to the attention of the Monarchy?

Or not even on Coronation day but any time, and protestors arrested under this law?

Interesting article

‘It massively backfired’: Republicanism in spotlight after arrests | Protest | The Guardian

An extra £50,000 in income.

This bit is interesting

Around midday, the detective looked in. “He said: ‘You’re making the news around the world.’ You know, I immediately felt more bullish although it was sort of 11 hours before I got out.”

11 hours after the detective said this - and they got released, having made the news around the world.

I think at an event involving this many people in such a confined area of London, involving so many variables (horses especially) that the police are right to be cautious for everyone’s safety.

in the same way that anti-abortion protesters are no longer allowed to stand right in front of clinics and harass women as they enter.

Or we would want pro- Brexit protesters to be held back from the anti-Brexit marchers to prevent violence.

The right to protest isn’t the right to disrupt or cause violence- some people fail the understand this.

And I’m not going to further engage in accusations of bad behaviour on the royal family boards. People can read for themselves and come to their own conclusions.

I think at an event involving this many people in such a confined area of London, involving so many variables (horses especially) that the police are right to be cautious for everyone’s safety

But. As has been pointed out - and even by the police, there was a protest that was allowed to take place.

Republic organised the protest. It was agreed.

6 people from Republic were arrested - and after some misinformation, it seems they were arrested under the charge of going prepared to lock on (a charge under the new law)

As on the previous thread - there are several outcomes from the moment of arrest.

They should have realised / listened to Graham and listened to the fact that he was the Chair of Republic who are not known for such direct action.

They could have removed the luggage straps and let them carry on their way.

They could have arrested them and released them earlier when they realised the circumstances.

Instead, they held them for 16 hours
The news has dominated the headlines for a few days.
There's been an urgent question in the House.
Republic have had massive publicity
A Chief Inspector has apologised.
The Head of the Met has written a worrying article mentioning the police being applauded for arresting protestors.

I am not sure this was the outcome the police and the Government were looking for.

The Telegraph ran a puff piece that the ban on fox hunting had contributed to the collapse of the fox population in the countryside. Seems to be something in the air of a rollback to the rulers and the ruled, the rich man in his castle the poor man at the gate stuff. Charles did that back in the day lest we forget. A HUGE red line for me.

I would be very happy with a Republican board as well and as Roussette points out at a lot of the abuse has come from sneery, goady monarchists SHOUTING IN CAPS at the losers that literally NO ONE CARES ABOUT and don't engage in any meaningful way. That said there's no need for abuse from either side and civilised discussion, even if we have opposing viewpoints should be the order of the day.

And I’m not going to further engage in accusations of bad behaviour on the royal family boards. People can read for themselves and come to their own conclusions

Totally agree.

If you read the Guardian article you will see the lengths Republic went to, to keep the Police informed and were assigned a Police Liaison Officer who agreed everything with them right up until Coronation Day

Anyway, it's all confirmed now with apologies from the Met. And apologies at the Graham Smith's house person to person from the Chief Inspector.

I think you’ve just proven my point for me @vera99

I do hope @mnhq will consider a Republican board.

Anti-abortion protestors can stand in other agreed areas, and would not be arrested for doing so. As much as I oppose their views, they have a right to express them in a way that doesn't affect the right of others to access healthcare.

The right to protest isn’t the right to disrupt or cause violence- some people fail the understand this.

And some people are wilfully misrepresenting what happened with the Republic members who were arrested on Saturday morning. There was no intention to disrupt the coronation and no intention to cause violence. This is a complete strawman argument.

It seems to me as if a difference of opinion isn't accepted by some on here.

Ain't that the truth! I don't go on the RF board often, but from what I've seen there are a few royalist posters who get rather angry and combative/ rude about all the republican posters being rude. Haven't come across much if any actual examples of rudeness from republican posters...

@Boudicasbeard you don’t really believe they did this for safety though do you? Why would they not say that at the time? They arrested them first THEN searched the van and THEN invented some BS about lock on straps 🙄. It was a political arrest.

@vera99 you’ll be waiting until hell freezes over until Charles speaks out in favour of protest. He’ll want to see the Republic crushed. He has no interest in debate.