#ken marsh

Ken Marsh

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Arrests of coronation protesters were ‘premeditated’, says Republic chief

Police criticised after arrests included women’s safety campaigners handing out rape alarms

Kevin Rawlinson, Mon 8 May 2023 13.19 BST

The arrests of anti-monarchy protesters during the coronation was a premeditated attempt to “disrupt and diminish” their republican demonstration, a leading activist has said.

Graham Smith, the head of the group Republic, said the Metropolitan police’s decision to break up Saturday’s planned protest before it began trampled over their rights, adding the group had been in conversation with Scotland Yard for months beforehand.

Asked if he thought his arrest before the event was premeditated, Smith said: “Absolutely. I have no doubt about that at all, simply because there was nothing that we did do that could possibly justify even being detained and arrested and held.”

He said his organisation had engaged with the police throughout the planning of its demonstration, with officers saying until the day before that they had no concerns.

“They were well aware of what we were going to do and [said] they would engage with us and not disrupt us. So they have repeatedly lied about their intentions. And I believe that they had every intention of arresting us prior to doing so,” he said.

Ken Marsh, the chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said police acted “without fear or favour” and had to act within the context they found on the ground.

He said: “Protesting can take place in this country. But it’s the level to which you want to perform that protesting that we have to balance.”

[Inserted video of protesters being arrested at the coronation, captioned: Head of UK's leading anti-monarchy movement among several arrested at coronation protest.]

He dismissed concerns about heavy-handed policing as “pontificating”, insisting that police had done an “incredible job” on a day when the world’s eyes were on the UK. “Not one incident took place. And this went off around the world without any need to worry about what happened that day.”

Rishi Sunak backed the police on Monday, saying: “The police are operationally independent of government, they will make these decisions based on what they think is best.

“Actually I’m grateful to the police and everyone who played a part in ensuring that this weekend has gone so well, so successfully and so safely. That was an extraordinary effort by so many people and I’m grateful to them for all their hard work.”

full article here

so tl/dr: the anti-monarch group communicated with the police for months and were assured that they were allowed to protest, and then on the day, they were immediately arrested.

the mass arrests are being framed as a good thing because there were "no incidents" on the day.

the pm is backing the police on the choices made while also carefully separating himself from them on a structural basis, as if the government do not write the laws that the police are meant to follow.

do not let them brush this under the rug; do not fall for the propaganda that this was a good thing.

these laws take away the human right to protest. they unlawfully arrested 64 people. they have essentially made thought crime illegal with the ability for police to arrest anyone if believed they are conspiring to disrupt the peace.

they called the largest police operation in the history of the uk for this. the tories have been slowly edging the country into a police state for years now.

UK – ‘We are not society’s punchbags’: Met Police Federation boss condemns ‘sickening’ attack on PC who was filmed being kicked while passerby posed for selfies as he warns ‘dangers’ facing police are ‘escalating’

Officers were responding to an assault in Hackney, east London, when they were assaulted yesterday

Both officers, a man and a woman, suffered minor injuries, with one of the officers being punched in the head 

Two men, aged 20 and 38, were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an officer and remain in police custody

Home Secretary Priti Patel last night condemned the attack as ‘sickening, shocking…