The Metropolitan Police have insisted that they did find rape alarms on the three ‘Night Stars’ volunteers they arrested on the night before the Coronation.
‘Night Stars’ volunteer Suzie Melvin told MPs in the Commons’ Home Affairs Committee that, despite police claims, “None of us have ever handed out a rape alarm.”
So This Writer contacted the Met and asked for a comment on this development.
Here’s the response:
Three people were stopped by officers and arrested in the Soho area on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance. Among items seized were a number of rape alarms.
The three people – a 37-year-old woman, a 59-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man – were taken to a south London police station, where they were questioned. The 47-year-old man was also further arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
All three have since been released with no further action.
So there we have it. One organisation says one thing, the other says the opposite.
I await with eager anticipation the report of the Home Affairs Committee – and any responses to it.
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Assumptions about a pre-Coronation decision to arrest volunteers who help vulnerable people on the streets of London at night were shattered when it was claimed the stated reason was nonsense.
The Commons Home Affairs Committee took evidence on the arrests today (May 17, 2023) – including from ‘Night Stars’ volunteer Suzie Melvin, whose comments left chair Diana Johnson “speechless”.
The reason? It had been stated that the ‘Night Stars’ volunteers were arrested for handing out rape alarms which police said could be used to frighten horses in the Coronation Day parade.
There’s just one problem with that: the ‘Night Stars’ weren’t handing out rape alarms at all.
Here‘s the BBC report of what Ms Melvin said [boldings mine]:
She explains to the select committee the work volunteers do and the equipment they use – mostly items to help people struggling to get home during a night out, from sick bags to flip flops.
She describes the night as quiet, with the volunteering team mainly helping people by directing them to taxis in central London.
But as the team – wearing hi-vis jackets and backpacks – approached Soho Square they were told by officers they would need to be stopped and searched.
Melvin says officers looked through their bags. But despite explaining to officers who they were, they were arrested and taken to police custody – where she was held from Friday night until Saturday afternoon.
“I am speechless,” the chair of the committee Diana Johnson says after hearing Melvin’s testimony.
Melvin says that when she was arrested, the police officer told her they were specifically looking for the Night Stars volunteers.
Longhi asks if it could be because they were giving out rape alarms, “which can cause a sudden occurrence to happen amongst the horses that were parading” and a risk to the public.
“None of us have ever handed out a rape alarm,” says Melvin. “I am not sure why we were arrested and detained.”
Suzie Melvin from the Night Star volunteers is asked if she had any dialogue with the police beforehand about the new laws and what it might mean for her operations.
“Not directly no,” she says, “but I am aware that city council members did have a dialogue and were not made aware of any suggestion we might be involved in plans to disrupt the Coronation.”
I’ve seen no comment from police who gave evidence at the hearing on any reason for the ‘Night Stars’ arrest. The claim was that they’d had information suggesting the group’s members were handing out rape alarms for the purpose of disrupting the Coronation celebrations but that does not appear to have been substantiated by any police representative.
So was that their excuse or not? Or are they changing it? I have contacted the Metropolitan Police to seek clarification.
ADDITIONAL: The Met Police responded at 2.12pm as follows:
Three people were stopped by officers and arrested in the Soho area on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance. Among items seized were a number of rape alarms.
The three people – a 37-year-old woman, a 59-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man – were taken to a south London police station, where they were questioned. The 47-year-old man was also further arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
All three have since been released with no further action.
So neither side is giving an inch, it seems.
I await with eager anticipation the report of the Home Affairs Committee – and any responses to it.
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A reminder: here’s Republic chief executive Graham Smith being arrested for not breaking any laws, by at least eight police officers.
There can’t be any doubt now that the big story of the Coronation weekend is the abuse of the new Public Order Act by police, to arrest and detain people who had every right to protest against a monarchy they do not want.
Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-monarch group Republic, was jailed early on Saturday morning, on suspicion of conspiring to cause a public nuisance by disrupting the celebrations on London’s streets.
He has made it clear that neither he nor anybody else in his group had any intention to break the law.
Indeed, Republic has made it clear that it co-operated fully with the Metropolitan Police before the event even started:
Graham Smith, speaking for Republic on 3 May, said: “We have had two meetings with the Met police, and numerous phone conversations. They have repeatedly said they have no concerns about Republic’s plans.”
Mr Smith was released on Saturday but police retained his phone and luggage straps that they had claimed could have been used for “locking on” – attaching protesters to street furniture to cause disruption.
These items were returned on Monday evening, when officers admitted they were not able to find any reason to charge Mr Smith with a crime. Here are his comments:
We have just been told that the police will be taking no further action. This has been a disgraceful episode and we will be speaking to lawyers about taking legal action. I also expect a full inquiry into why they repeatedly lied to us and who authorised the arrests.
— Graham Smith 🇺🇦 🏳️🌈 (@GrahamSmith_) May 8, 2023
This evening three Met police officers visited my home to hand back my phone and the luggage straps. They apologised while wearing a body cam. I made it clear the apology is not accepted as we will be taking further action. https://t.co/BwPxw2aNx5
— Graham Smith 🇺🇦 🏳️🌈 (@GrahamSmith_) May 8, 2023
Do you believe the claim of regret by the police? Richard Murphy, of Funding the Future, doesn’t:
I do not believe the police. Politely, they are asking us to believe in yet more fairytales if they expect us to think that these arrests were a mistake.
They announced zero tolerance of protest in advance of the coronation.
They got new powers enacted days in advance of the coronation to arrest without reason.
Republic had been completely open and honest about their intentions, I know. I get their emails. And so there was no new “intelligence” for the police to act on to justify their actions, as they and those seeking to excuse them (Ed Balls, I am looking at you) claimed. There was just a police conspiracy to appease Suella Braverman by showing zero tolerance that backfired spectacularly in both the UK and around the world.
And now they have not only had to eat humble pie, because their actions were so obviously unjustified and unjustifiable – because not only was the protest peaceful but there was never a conspiracy that it should be anything else – but they have now paved the way for rightful demands that use of this law be restricted until such time as it can be repealed.
The only impediment to that happening is Labour’s support for these laws – which looks most especially crass now.
I fear Mr Murphy’s hope for Labour may be forlorn. More on this below.
This morning (Tuesday, May 9), Mr Smith was interviewed by Kay Burley of Sky News, who did her level best to undermine his assertions – and he made mincemeat of her. Fair play to her for posting the clip, though!
Kay: Do you want to tell me about the officers coming round to your house or not?
This Writer cannot understand why Burley kept harping on about the cost of the Coronation. I had heard the £250m line too – and whether it cost that much or the more modest £100m figure that has been more widely-quoted, it’s still money that could have been put to better use in a country whose people are struggling financially because the government has sucked all the money out of it.
And she was unable to stop Mr Smith from making his point that “there was no evidence of any intent or capacity to commit any offence” and “no suggestion of wrongdoing… at all”.
While Burley was putting forward a pro-Establishment view, other journalists went very strongly the other way. Here’s Michael Crick – and I know he’s problematic too, but his words are worth hearing – on LBC:
'This is the sort of thing that goes on in Moscow!'
Sadly, it doesn’t matter what the commenterati say about it; the political elite in Westminster have closed ranks to deny that anything untoward happened at all – and they certainly won’t consider revising or repealing the vague law that allowed this scandal to happen.
Here’s prime minister Rishi Sunak. First he said he supported what the police did:
“The police are operationally independent of Government, they’ll make these decisions based on what they think is best,” he told broadcasters in Hertfordshire.
“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.”
Then he repeated his assertions to TV reporters:
Q: You supported the police, but yesterday they apologised to the protesters… doesn't the public order act need looking at?
Rishi Sunak: People have the right to protest freely
Q: People do have the right to protest, but these people didn't have the right… they were stopped pic.twitter.com/P6RE5X19L4
It’s interesting that Sunak claimed the arrests were “operational decisions made by the police at the time”. I wonder if we can have that confirmed? I’ll try to contact the Met and see what response I get.
Meanwhile, here’s Tory MP Peter Bone, who supports his prime ministers point of view, having his derriere turned into burger meat and handed back to him by Marina Purkiss:
Tory MP, Peter Bone is all for freedom of speech…
He is also all for the met police preemptively arresting protesters.
Lisa Nandy, on the morning media round, made it clear that her party sides with the Tories and repeated the assertion (although not in as many words) that Labour wants to be able to clamp down on protesters just as hard as the Tories appear to have done:
If you are worried about human rights, civil rights, the right to free speech and the right to protest, you cannot expect – on the evidence – that Starmer’s Govt will be much better than the grimly repressive Tories https://t.co/mGDQ2vguJv
Even Barry Gardiner, usually excellent at presenting his party in a reasonable light, struggled in a discussion of the scandal on the BBC’s Politics Live:
And what does Labour think of Republic, and the right of anti-monarchists to be able to present their point of view?
Sir Keir Starmer has proscribed the anti-monarchy group Republic
Labour Party members are now forbidden to affiliate with the group, and they face being expelled from the party
The Labour leader continues his authoritarian attacks against democracy within the party https://t.co/jHIVcb9Uhj
John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, questioned the rules this week, saying: “I can’t see that allowing local parties to participate in groups like these is going to bring down civilisation as we know it.
“A form of institutional paranoia has emerged in the higher echelons of the party’s bureaucracy which has led to a level of control-freakery in relation to the activities of local CLPs which borders on farce.”
Another MP and former shadow frontbencher, Clive Lewis, who will address anti-monarchy protesters staging a demonstration against the coronation in London on Saturday, said he had “serious misgivings” about the rule preventing affiliation with Republic, adding there was a long history of branches having relationships with democratic campaigning organisations.
Lewis said: “It feels wrong, and sits uncomfortably with me. I think a lot of people will find it problematic, even people who are going to be supportive of the coronation and the king. Many of them will also be people who believe in freedom of speech, freedom of expression and having an open, honest political debate about the future of this country.
“If you join the Labour party, you often joined because you want to make a difference to make your country better, and those are the kind of people who will want to ask questions about the kind of democracy we have.”
But Starmer seems to feel he has to act this way because it might win him some votes – despite the fact that it makes him (yet again) a hypocrite:
Labour under Keir Starmer’s leadership has attempted to underline its patriotism in order to reconnect with voters in “red wall” seats. In the past, Starmer had advocated abolishing the monarchy.
Meanwhile…
Littering is an actual crime and carries a fixed penalty charge of £150. @metpoliceuk how many fixed penalty fines for littering did you give out this weekend? pic.twitter.com/1qYS3leNyZ
Yes, littering is indeed a crime, but it seems nobody has been punished for it.
Instead, the police concentrated their resources on persecuting people who had not broken the law at all.
It really is the big story of the weekend: supporters of the monarchy attacked, arrested, and imprisoned dozens of people on the day their icon was crowned – not for any crime, but simply for having a different point of view.
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The Metropolitan Police seems to be falling into increasingly deeper trouble over its decision to arrest members of an organisation that hands out rape alarms to vulnerable women.
The arrests were made at around 2am on the morning of the coronation, on the grounds that the rape alarms could be set off and thrown at mounted police to frighten their horses.
Over on Beastrabban’s Weblog, This Writer’s brother had this to say about it:
The volunteers, who I’ve heard were giving them away at 2 o’clock in the morning, have explained … that they do it to protect vulnerable women [and] girls on a night out.
This seems to me far more plausible than the Met’s story. I’ll be interested to see what evidence the Met has for this intelligence, assuming we’re allowed to see it and it’s not another fairy tale to allow the cops to clamp down on peaceful protesters and perfectly innocent volunteers in a fit of judicial paranoia.
He also found the Channel 4 News report on the matter, which is about as damning as a fair and balanced report can be:
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Keir Starmer: how does he feel about the UK monarchy? The flags might be a bit of a giveaway…
Once a pillar of the Establishment, always a pillar of the Establishment?
It seems that Keir Starmer could have stopped the Public Order Act that allowed the police to stop peaceful protests against the coronation of Charles III before they even happened – or at least delayed it.
But the evidence suggests that he decided not to:
The consternation of @UKLabour MPs rings hollow when you realise they did *not* do all they could in the Lords to stop the #PublicOrderBill. Labour peers must do as they are told by @Keir_Starmer and at the final vote they abstained. https://t.co/ptg5ZV062w
If that’s right, then I can only agree with Richard Murphy’s comment on it:
The right to say, peacefully, that Charles was not a person’s chosen head of state was denied. And I hold Keir Starmer amongst those responsible for that. It might have been Tory legislation, but in the end Labour enabled it. We saw the consequence yesterday.
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Despicable: as the person who posted this image stated: “This will be the photo that goes around the world today. A peaceful protester handcuffed and arrested in Britain.”
Where would he send them – Rwanda?
Not happy with the arrests of 52 peaceful protesters, Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson thinks they should leave the UK of their own accord, presumably so forelock-tugging, kowtowing toadies like him can carry on bullying the rest of us with impunity.
He tweeted: “Not My King? If you do not wish to live in a country that has a monarchy the solution is not to turn up with your silly boards. The solution is to emigrate.”
Anderson’s complaint – essentially that anti-monarchists hate the UK and should therefore leave – is largely nonsense. Anti-monarchists mostly don’t even hate the members of the Royal Family (although there are one or two notable exceptions…).
onto the coat tails of the Monarchy. Now that the Coronation's over and protests that could have brought the country into disrepute, are they going to repeal the public order act (thought not) or is there something more sinister going on? Add it to the Snoopers Charter, dangerous
— Gary Bowman, Braverman, on a plane, that's my… (@GaryOpinionated) May 7, 2023
Meanwhile, of course, we’re learning more about the behaviour of the police – who worked hard to protect the new King from people brandishing magazine covers, wearing t-shirts and holding placards…
… and, in the middle of the night before the coronation, the Metropolitan Police protected the King from a group of people who hand out rape alarms to women walking in Soho in the dark:
The Met arrested members of the City of Westminster’s Night Safety team. They are volunteers. They were pulled last night at 2am and have been held for 14 hours. One of them came out of the station in tears. Police didn’t apologise.
A third member of the Night Safety Team is here. He has marks on his arms from being roughly arrested by the TSG. He wasn’t processed until 5am and was kept in cuffs for all that time. Riz Choudhry says: “Pure police brutality and racial discrimination.” pic.twitter.com/TizvuCbOXd
It’s not believable, really, is it? The police heard that people being handed rape alarms were going to disrupt the Coronation procession at two o’clock in the morning when it wasn’t even happening, and this would scare their horses that weren’t even there?
There’s no point in checking whether any such intelligence really was received, of course. The Metropolitan Police Service has lost public trust to such a degree that nobody would believe the reality of any documentation it produces.
— Oliver 🌹✊💚 #ClimateAction #Socialist (@tynewrc) May 7, 2023
This is Ben.
Ben is 21 years old & has been arrested this morning, presumably for having "Not My King" on a placard & wearing a t-shirt with that same slogan on his shirt.
This Site reported yesterday that Republic’s chief executive, Graham Smith, was arrested before the coronation events began. He has since been released, and had this to say:
I’m now out of the police station. Still waiting for my colleagues.
Make no mistake. There is no longer a right to peaceful protest in the UK.
I have been told many times the monarch is there to defend our freedoms. Now our freedoms are under attack in his name.
— Graham Smith 🇺🇦 🏳️🌈 (@GrahamSmith_) May 6, 2023
Scotland Yard said those arrested had been held on suspicion of affray, public order offences, breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance around the Coronation.
No doubt many Monarchists have applauded what they consider to be proportionate police action against dangerous subversives. But here’s an inconvenient truth:
People who are cheering for this to happen, for democracy and free speech to be curtailed because you disagree with what they're saying… you need to understand that one day these same powers WILL be used against something YOU agree with.
The fear of this is already being instilled – in young people.
Awful conversation last night with one of my kids who is worried about climate change and, after a friend was arrested, is now worrying about whether they can protest against it. I feel devastated at having to explain that this is the country we now live in.
My eldest also told me how they had to explain to my youngest, who also wants to protest against climate change, that they must *never* rise to the deliberate provocation they sometimes encounter from the Metropolitan police.
Slowly, slowly we in the UK are encountering an emerging authoritarian-driven rule of law crisis that is every bit as serious as Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Israel. But ours, arguably, is more dangerous because structural features of our constitution means it can happen unnoticed.
The implication is clear: our youngsters are being told that they are not important; their views do not count and if they try to express those views in any way they will be arrested and punished for a criminal offence.
They’re being told to accept their lot as drones working for the elites in Parliament and big business; that they must keep their heads down and do as they’re told.
And if they don’t like it, they can (try to) move to another country.
Would you accept that from your government, your monarchy, your police?
There is a ray of hope; some MPs take an alternative view to that of the Leeanderthal and are demanding an explanation of what happened:
Parliament returns on Tuesday. There must be a statement from the Home Secretary on the policing of the demonstration on Saturday & a full report from Metropolitan Police Commissioner. It’s become increasingly clear that despite assurances the right to protest was not protected.
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) May 7, 2023
Hopefully this will stimulate a debate.
But under Rishi Sunak’s fetid, corrupt government, do any of you seriously believe any statement we get will be worth the time we’ll have to waste listening to it?
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Shame of the nation: police arrested opponents of the Monarchy before they even had a chance to protest the coronation of Charles III. Here, they were arresting Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-Monarchist group Republic – and look how many of them were apparently needed to do it!
UK citizens who oppose the Monarchy were arrested before the coronation ceremony in shocking scenes that have made a mockery of democracy in this country and indicate that King Charles is truly the head of a fascist state.
This Writer sits vindicated. I warned this would happen and others denied it. Now it has come to pass.
Police used powers under the newly-passed Public Order Act, that were specially rushed into operation for the coronation, to suppress any opposition to the event.
Democratic nations do not lock up dissenters before they have even had a chance to voice their complaint.
But – well, see for yourself – and take note of the comments by the social media users posting about this:
Images like this will fly around global media in no time.
Completely unnecessary and illiberal policing. The heavy-handed image management attempt has backfired absolutely.
Listen to the vagueness of the warnings issued by police (and remember that they are “just following orders” as the saying goes:
Republican protesters near Trafalgar Square being told by a Met Police officer that they may be arrested for public nuisance for chanting “Not My King” pic.twitter.com/8pG90ns9dG
Do you think that man’s words actually meant anything, considering what was to follow?
We are appalled by the pictures coming out of London this morning where peaceful anti-monarchy protestors are being arrested and having placards confiscated by police.
Solidarity with @RepublicStaff and others exercising their democratic right to protest.
— Breakthrough Party 🟠🌤️ (@BThroughParty) May 6, 2023
This is not what Britain is – and not what British police are.
This is our police being used as government enforcers for a government over-obsessed with controlling culture whilst preaching an alarm around the protection of free speech. pic.twitter.com/kkra1Zj58l
— Dr Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) May 6, 2023
I tend to disagree with Dr Galsworthy. This is what Britain is, and what British police are. I’ve seen them used as political tools, ever since I was old enough to be aware of national events.
So I tend to side with Kerry-Anne, below:
We warned you. Welcome to Police State UK.
Black people have been here a while, along with GRT and homeless communities. https://t.co/a2YEKgS2CI
— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️🌈 (@TheMendozaWoman) May 6, 2023
We did indeed warn you. We’ve been warning you for more than a decade (in my case alone). Some of us have been warning you for much longer than that.
"The Met police had tweeted earlier this week that they would have a 'low tolerance' of those seeking to 'undermine' the day."
Not even pretending to operate the law, are they? Just arresting people who are politically inconvenient. https://t.co/bh3n1Ks8cj
I'm deeply concerned that people have been arrested while just preparing to peacefully express their support for a Republic, a view held by 25% of the public. This must stop. It's a basic democratic principle that people have the right to peacefully express their opinions.
Only 25 per cent? This draconian display has undoubtedly turned more of us against the status quo:
All heavy handed tactics by the police have done is bumper the Republican message internationally and demonstrated how our democratic right to peacefully protest had been limited by Tories. It's now the main topic of convo.
And the funny thing is that a year ago I was one of the few ppl who defended Charles. Soothsayer about environmental issues, bit of a 70s disco lad, incredible suits. I defended him while @GBNEWS called him the clown Prince. But this all isn't sitting well with me at all.
It is as Russ Jones (whose The Week In Tory has been a highlight of Twitter) states:
I never really minded the royals. Didn't even think about them. They're a soap opera I don't watch.
But if you wanna turn a "don't know" into a hardcore republican, spend £100m on a farcical party for a bored billionaire while people are starving, then arrest anyone who tuts.
Jeremy Corbyn – as ever – makes the most insightful point about this – the fact that the arrests show the majority of us are, by law, at the mercy of a tiny minority who have all the wealth, status and power, and that those who made the law that allows the arrests, together with those who are enforcing it, are not acting out of patriotism but despotism:
We live in a grotesquely unequal society that concentrates wealth, status & power in the hands of a few.
Real patriotism is about building a society that cares for each other and cares for all.
This Writer, staring in shock at the photographic evidence, briefly considered whether the newly-crowned King could smooth matters over with a statement deploring the heavy-handed treatment of UK citizens who had not committed a crime.
Sadly, even if he was inclined to do so, that would probably be considered unconstitutional. He’s not supposed to interfere in political matters – even if they are directly related to him.
In this, he is as much a puppet of the politicians in power as the rest of us.
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For those who can’t read images, it states: “”Dear rest of the world.
“Don’t be fooled by any propaganda you see coming out of the UK this weekend. The mood here is not jubilant, it is sour. England is a fascist nightmare, where there are more food banks than branches of McDonalds. We don’t want pageantry, we want affordable food, and rent, and bills. The timing of this coronation, with all its gold and bejewelled opulence, couldn’t be more distasteful and sickening. It’s unjustifiable and it’s unwanted. If we’re asking God to save anyone it should be the 14.4 million people living in poverty, not the King.”
Needless to say, the comment has been disputed – by people who want to impose a happy mood on the rest of us.
I don’t think anyone should bother protesting against the coronation, though. There’s no point, with the fascist Public Order Act now in force and police empowered to arrest anyone expressing a dissenting point of view in public. Here’s an example of them using their new powers to do just that:
Armed police arrest 33 for peaceful protest vs Israeli arms-maker – including Palestine Action founders https://t.co/Ve2FbQybb9 via @skwawkbox
The Metropolitan Police have already said they are running a “multi-layered” security operation that includes “managing crowds” and “carrying out searches”, with “low” “tolerance” for “disruption”:
Our tolerance for any disruption, whether through protest or otherwise, will be low.
We will deal robustly with anyone intent on undermining this celebration.
— Simon Gosden. Esq. #fbpe 3.5% 🇪🇺🐟🇬🇧🏴☠️🦠💙 (@g_gosden) May 3, 2023
I mean, wow.
Last I heard, even after the Public Order Act, here in the UK it is a principle of justice that someone has to actually commit a crime before they can be jailed.
And here’s another: prime minister Rishi Sunak once criticised the Chinese government for refusing to listen to protesters in that country, but apparently he thinks only people in foreign countries should pay any attention to protest; anyone taking issue with whatever’s going on in the UK now clearly needs to suffer a “clampdown”.
So, even though most of us have been driven into poverty by the Establishment that is propping up the Monarch, even though there will be “low tolerance” for anyone pointing this out and the police will be on hand to make sure we do as we’re told, and even though the money being spent on this event would be better-used helping the long-suffering people of the UK to survive…
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