AN anti-monarchy campaigner who was arrested for peacefully protesting King Charles’s “mini coronation” event in Edinburgh has said the police’s actions were “totally political”.
Charlie, a 20-year-old activist from republican campaign group No More Royals, said he and three of his peers were arrested for “swearing too loudly”.
The small group had travelled from different parts of the UK specifically to protest the event.
He said: “We were holding a banner that said ‘No Kings, No Queens, No Cops’ and then a second banner which said ‘turn the palace into social housing’.
“Then, when the King drove by, some of us were chanting ‘Feed the hungry, f**k the King’.
“Once the King had finished being driven past, four of us were immediately arrested and taken into the church behind us.
“We were told we were arrested under breach of the peace for saying ‘f**k the King’ too loudly where kids might hear it or something.”
The four protesters were searched, handcuffed and detained in Canongate Kirk for “an hour or two”, said Charlie.
He added: “It was a totally political arrest. We should not have been detained for exercising our free speech and our right to protest.
“The event was a massive waste of public money, a massive waste of police time, and a massive inconvenience to people’s daily lives in Edinburgh.
🚨4 no more royals activists have been arrested for protesting the king's scottish coronation🚨 turn the palace into social housing ! no kings, no queens, no cops! fuck the king, feed the hungry! it's time to stop giving public money to the imperialist cult that's the royals pic.twitter.com/duXHl1uut7
— No More Royals Oxford (@nmroxford) July 5, 2023
“All just so a rich imperialist can be paraded about to the people of Scotland – who don’t give a s**t about him anyway.
“The people we spoke to on Tuesday didn’t even know it was going on.”
Another arrested No More Royals protester, Barnaby, said they had felt the need to stand up to the royal family.
He said: "Together we stood up to the institution of the royal family demanding justice for all those suffering, including refugees, the dispossessed and the hungry, while the royals live in luxury".
Police Scotland said that four people were arrested during the event with a further four later issued with a recorded police warning.
Assistant Chief Constable Tim Mairs, police lead for the event, said:
“I would like to thank the overwhelming majority of protestors who engaged with us and also our officers whose professionalism helped ensure the safe delivery of this event for everyone who attended.
“Decisions about how to police protests require us to balance complex and often competing rights and issues. We have a legal duty to protect the rights of people who wish to peacefully protest or counter-protest.
“Our priority is public safety and a policing plan was in place to maintain people’s safety, ensure the safe delivery of this event, enable peaceful protest and minimise disruption.”
