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The Metropolitan Police said it “understands public concern” after 52 arrests were made during the King’s Coronation. The force said the alleged offences included affray, public nuisance and breach-of-the-peace offences.
Officers came under under heavy criticism on Saturday after campaign groups slammed ‘alarming’ detentions during republican protests. Protesters from the anti-monarchy group, including its chief executive Graham Smith, were apprehended during the day – as well as demonstrators from Just Stop Oil and Animal Rising.
The Met said it had received information protesters were “determined to disrupt” the coronation – including defacing public monuments with paint, breaching barriers and disrupting official movements.
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But campaigners said the protests were ‘peaceful’, describing the arrests as ‘a dangerous precedent for us as a democratic nation’. The force confirmed reports from Just Stop Oil that 13 demonstrators were detained on the Mall and six public nuisance arrests on St Martin’s Lane following protests from Republic.
Three people were also apprehended in Soho, three at Wellington Arch and five on Whitehall on conspiracy to cause public nuisance, with another in Whitehall arrested for religiously aggravated behaviour likely to cause harassment.
The Met said a further 14 people were detained in east London on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. All suspects remain in custody, the force said.
(Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)
Footage from the Mall showed the Just Stop Oil protesters being handcuffed and taken away by a heavy police presence. Animal Rising said a number of its supporters were apprehended on Saturday while at a training session away from the historic event.
Nathan McGovern, spokesman for the campaign group, described the arrests as “nothing short of a totalitarian crackdown on free speech and all forms of dissent”. Ms Findlay, who led the policing operation, said: “We absolutely understand public concern following the arrests we made this morning.
“Protest is lawful and it can be disruptive. We also have a duty to intervene when protest becomes criminal and may cause serious disruption.
“the coronation is a once in a generation event and that is a key consideration in our assessment. A protest involving large numbers has gone ahead today with police knowledge and no intervention.”
A spokesperson for Human Rights Watch said: “This is something you would expect to see in Moscow – not London.”
Amnesty International’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh also raised concerns after police were reportedly given instructions to apprehend people with megaphones.
The Met said it received intelligence people wanted to disrupt the coronation by using rape alarms to disrupt the procession and arrested three people in the Soho area on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance. Outside London, hundreds of people joined a march through Cardiff city centre in protest against the monarchy as the King was crowned.
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