LONDON: The Metropolitan Police has come under fire from MPs and human rights organisations after 52 individuals were detained in London on the day of the Coronation.
The leader of the Republic, which seeks to do away with the monarchy and elect a head of state, was one of those detained, according to the BBC.
There is “no longer a right to peaceful protest in the UK,” according to Graham Smith, who was freed on Saturday night after spending 16 hours in detention.
Scotland Yard said that it had acted “appropriately.”
Commander Karen Findlay justified her officers’ handling of protesters by asserting that they had a duty to step in “when protest becomes criminal and may cause serious disruption.”
She continued, saying that the fact that the Coronation was a “once in a generation event and that is an important factor in our assessment”
According to Scotland Yard, those detained were being held on suspicion of assault, public order violations, breach of the peace, and planning to disturb the peace around the coronation.
While protesters asserted that their demonstrations were nonviolent, police claimed to have information that certain groups were “determined to disrupt” the event.
Sir Chris Bryant, a prominent backbencher for Labour, stated on Twitter that “freedom of speech is the silver thread that runs through a parliamentary constitutional monarchy” in reaction to criticism of the Met’s response.
Using social media, shadow minister Jess Philips said, “our nation and our King is not so fragile as to not be able to take harmless protest of a different view.”
Whatever your opinion of the monarchy, the freedom to peaceful protest is essential to democracy, according to MP Zarah Sultana and Labour MP Richard Burgon, who both expressed their “deep concern” about the arrests.
Yasmine Ahmed, the UK head of Human Rights Watch, was one among several who criticised the Met, comparing its conduct to “something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London.”
