Crackdown on anti-monarchy protests in UK sparks outcry from civil liberties groups

The anti-monarchy chorus is growing louder in the United Kingdom with a spate of arrests by security agencies in recent days drawing condemnation from the country’s civil liberties campaigners.

The brutal response of police to anti-monarchy protests in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth II and her son King Charles III’s ascension to the throne has reignited the long-running campaign calling for the abolition of the centuries-old British monarchy.

The British advocacy group Liberty in a statement on Monday expressed “deep concern” over new powers given to the UK police to suppress anti-royalty protests and their forceful enforcement by the police.

Jodie Beck, a policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said the unlawful arrests showed the corrosion of freedom of speech in the country.

“Whoever you are, whatever your cause, it is vital you are able to stand up for what you believe in without facing the risk of criminalization,” she was quoted as saying.

“It is very worrying to see the police enforcing their broad powers in such a heavy-handed and punitive way to clamp down on free speech and expression.”

At least four protesters have been arrested so far for expressing resentment over the proclamation of King Charles III as Queen Elizabeth II’s successor to the throne.

The arrests, which took place on Sunday and Monday, included one man in Oxford who shouted: “Who elected him?” and three other individuals from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Two protesters arrested as anti-monarchy chorus grows louder in UK

Two anti-monarchy protesters who expressed resentment over the proclamation of King Charles III as Queen Elizabeth II’s successor to the throne have been arrested.

Symon Hill, a prominent British activist who was arrested during the accession ceremony in Oxford, told reporters that he was asked to “shut up” by those attending the event when he shouted the words, to which he said, “A head of state has been imposed on us without our consent.”

He was then bundled in a police van, despite some people protesting and defending his fundamental right to free speech, according to reports.

The police reportedly told him that he had been detained under the new police and crime legislation.

Hill accused police of abusing their powers, claiming the new police and crime law had created a draconian atmosphere that has “significantly reduced free expression and harmed democracy”.

In another incident on Sunday, a 22-year-old woman named Mariángela was arrested in the Scottish capital Edinburgh for demanding the abolition of the monarchy shortly before the reading of the proclamation.

A witness said somebody shouted “Republic now” during the proclamation. Another man shouted, “Let her go, it’s free speech.” 

Global Majority Vs Campaign, the group Mariángela represents, released a statement late on Monday, saying it “condemned the centuries of colonial injustice, genocide, and unlawful extraction that have been – and continue to be – carried out in the name of the British Crown”.

“Calling for the abolition of the monarchy is as old as the monarchy itself and is a cornerstone of freedom of speech in the UK,” the statement noted.

On Monday, Police Scotland said a 22-year-old man and a 52-year-old man had been arrested in connection with a “breach of the peace” on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

Zarah Sultana, the Labour MP for Coventry South, strongly condemned the police arrests in Edinburgh, London, and Oxford.

“No one should be arrested for just expressing republican views. Extraordinary – and shocking – that this needs saying,” she said in a Twitter post.

Paul Powlesland, a London-based barrister who had held up a blank piece of paper in Parliament Square, said he had been threatened with arrest by a police officer under the Public Order Act.

“Just went to Parliament Square & held up a blank piece of paper. An officer came & asked for my details. He confirmed that if I wrote “Not My King” on it, he would arrest me under the Public Order Act because someone might be offended,” he wrote in a tweet.

“A period of quiet mourning for the Queen is fine, but using that period to cement Charles's Accession as King & cracking down on any dissent to the accession as disrespectful is outrageous.”

A former BBC broadcaster Andrew Marr said the arrests were “outrageous”.

“I think that is outrageous. We are a democratic country. We are an open disputatious country where we can say what is on our minds and I don’t believe for a moment that this is what the new king would have wanted,” he told Good Morning Britain show on ITV.

“In fact, I would bet a lot of money that the new King is equally alarmed and upset by the fact that protestors are being arrested.”

Beck said the arrests were coming at a time “when the police have just been given a bunch of new powers, which range from being able to impose conditions on public assemblies and moving protests or act in the case of other gatherings which are viewed to have created lots of noise.”

“Given the context, we are in at the moment and where the landscape for protest is really being shrunk continually, it’s not surprising that the police are interpreting certain pieces of legislation in a completely warped way,” she noted further.

Adam Wagner, a British human rights barrister said the police “should leave well alone” as people protest against the monarchy.

“Freedom of speech is as important a value in times of public mourning as it at any other time,” he was quoted as saying. “Protest is often inconvenient and irritating, but still a central part of our democracy.”

Earlier, a prominent anti-monarchy lobbying group Republic had condemned the arrests “in the strongest possible terms”, describing the free speech as “fundamental to any democracy.”

British calls for an end to monarchy grow stronger after Queen's death

Calls for an end to the British monarchy are gaining momentum following the death of Queen Elizabeth, Britain

“At a time when the media is saturated with fawning over a king appointed without discussion or consent, it is even more important,” it said in a statement.

“We will be writing to the police forces concerned and the Met, raising these concerns. We intend to organize protests at the coronation and will expect those protests to be allowed to go ahead peacefully.”

Ceremonies are underway across the UK as the new monarch takes the throne, triggering protests at multiple places with people calling for an end to the monarchy.

“I feel unable to express an opinion without being branded disrespectful, so therefore I’ve been funneled into complying with the country’s grief,” Aisha, an anti-monarchy activist, was quoted as saying by the Guardian on Monday.

“As someone who believes the monarchy is an outdated concept that compromises our democratic right and signifies colonialism, I am suddenly being turned into the bad guy for deciding not to celebrate that aspect of the Queen’s life.

The royal family cost taxpayers $100M per year and King Charles III who proclaimed the throne immediately after Queen’s death, inherits the Queen's $500M fortune, without paying inheritance tax.

Beyond the UK, people in countries falling under the commonwealth, from Canada to New Zealand, have also started calling for an end to centuries-old monarchical rule.

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