Protesting the monarchy and police overreach
Are the limits of peaceful protest being violated by anti-monarchy protestors or the police?
One of the difficulties you run into as an unapologetic defender of free expression is encountering people incapable of understanding the difference between defending someone’s right to speak their mind and agreeing with the words that actually come out of their mouth.
Defending free expression is pointless if you only think it is worth defending for the things that you agree with, or that fit within your subjective limits of taste and decency. The only true test of free expression is whether the principle remains active for those with unpopular or offensive views. Popular and vanilla views do not need protecting, for obvious reasons.
There’s a time and place for how you express yourself of course. You shouldn’t expect to be free to shout the things you would at a football match from the desk of your day job as a bank clerk. But when it comes to the public square, certain rights to protest peacefully must be protected.
I’m not a monarchist. In fact, I’m a republican. But I’ve always been quite fond of the late Queen as an individual and I understand the affection a large portion of the planet has for her. I especially appreciated this fact when witnessing the effect her Coronavirus broadcast had on the national mood:
I can’t think of a politician or celebrity that could have lifted the nation in the way she did at this time.
As new ‘progressive’ forms of identity politics take aim at anything that might reasonably be celebrated as a British identity, the monarchy has felt like somewhat of a bulwark against such nonsense.
I’ve always agreed that abolishing the monarchy is the right thing to do on principle, however such an act would undoubtedly strike a blow at the heart of the British psyche and identity. What would replace it? Would the vacuum be filled with far more sinister things? And as I struggle with that question, I find it more and more difficult to be so certain about sending in the bulldozers.
There is another issue of course and that’s that many people simply hate the monarchy. For a multitude of reasons. And they have decided public funeral processions are the perfect time to voice their disapproval. This strikes me as somewhat tasteless and self-centred—but the point is it shouldn’t matter how I feel about it. The right to peaceful protest against one of the most powerful families and institutions on planet earth should be protected—even in the context of a funeral procession.
In recent days we have seen a number of incidents that have been a cause for concern. For instance, a 22 year old man was caught on video passionately heckling Prince Andrew as he walked behind the Queen’s coffin. Angry members of the crowd yanked the heckler from the barriers and the police arrested him. He has now been charged and will appear in court at a later date:
In the video, the man can be heard shouting “Andrew, you are a sick old man!” before he was removed and arrested. There’s an argument here for the sort of smart policing that removes people from a crowd for their own protection of course, but it still wouldn’t justify the charge and court date.
Prince Andrew recently paid a £12 million settlement to a sexual assault accuser to prevent it from going to trial. His accuser, Virginia Giurffre alleged she was the victim of sex trafficking at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, for Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew has always denied the allegations—but I don’t think it’s difficult to understand why public mood towards him may be less than positive.
Another man was also arrested for shouting “who elected him?” in reference to the new King as he came upon the procession.
A woman was also arrested and charged for holding a sign which read “fuck imperialism, abolish monarchy”. You could make an argument about the problematic use of curse words on the sign, but I imagine it would still be a bad one anyway.
Another female protestor holding a sign that said ‘not my king’ has been filmed being led away by police:
You do not have to agree with any of the sentiments expressed by these people. Nor do you have to agree what they did was ethical, decent or even useful. But the question is, should they be arrested and charged for a crime?
I say no. The only true test of free speech is whether you can say unpopular or ‘offensive’ things without running afoul of the law or a violent mob.
If you cannot voice your disproval towards an unelected, wealthy, hereditary power, then just who can you direct it towards? Surely, this is the ultimate form of ‘punching up’—whether or not the timing is considered tasteful or not?
These arrests also exist in the context of the UK’s ridiculous speech laws which have resulted in a record number of arrests for opinions posted online.
For me, the gold standard of free speech remains the First Amendment of the United States. And it’s clear not a single one of the above ‘offences’ would have have resulted in an arrest under a society that had this protection.
I appreciate emotions are high and different perspectives will exist on this issue, so please let me know what you think in comments.
I'm genuinely indifferent to the Royal Family, have zero interest as a rule - to the point that I was, until I read your article, completely unaware that the Queen had made a speech during the covid pandemic and earlier today asked my husband what the link was between the Queen and Paddington bear (seen a few images doing the rounds each time i make the mistake of logging into social media). Much of the reaction I've seen in the general public has bemused me and I've had to keep most media switched off for the majority of the past week because the constant reporting on anything and everything even vaguely related to the monarchy is really quite tedious.
And with that in mind, do I think people should have been arrested for protesting? Arrested for what - shouting vaguely mean things that the masses might disapprove of? Waving a sign with a swear word on? No, they shouldn't Seems quite ridiculous and a waste of resources.
Free speech is what made this country great. Freely, I profess that the evilness of human power is in full force today. That said, these God deniers have the right to protest. They do not have the right to destroy property, burn down buildings, turn over statues or desecrate medical facilities that are trying to help women that want to keep their babies.
As in most things or topics today, Justice has been in full force on behalf of Humanistic or far left causes. In a country like ours, you cannot continually use the full force of the law to silence only one side of an argument.