Anti monarchy protester suing Met chief over coronation day arrest

Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, is being sued over the arrest of the chief executive of Britain’s leading republican movement on the day of the king’s coronation, in what is being billed as a first test case of new protest laws. Graham Smith, who was detained for 14 hours on 6 May, is seeking a judicial review of the lawfulness of his arrest as well as damages and an admission of fault from Scotland Yard, according to legal papers seen by the Guardian. The case is said by Smith’s lawyers to be the first time that a court has had the chance to consider the “correct approach” to the exercise of powers given to the police days before the coronation under which they are able to arrest those suspected of “going equipped to lock on”.
The legal challenge by Smith follows an outcry at what freedom of speech campaigners criticised at the time as the heavy-handed policing of the coronation, which led to just a handful of charges despite a blizzard of police activity. There were 64 arrests made on the day, of which half led to no further action being taken, including in relation to Smith, whose detention with a group of five other republican campaigners Rowley has since conceded was “unfortunate”.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/12/anti-monarchy-protester-suing-met-chief-over-coronation-day-arrest

Police accused of ‘alarming’ attack on protest rights after anti-monarchist leader arrested
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy8rWshcgSQ

Peter Tatchell clip: https://twitter.com/PeterTatchell/status/1654864905214763009

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