A police raid on a Quaker meeting house to arrest six women attending a protest meeting has been criticised as “ridiculously heavy-handed”.
The women were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, according to the Metropolitan Police, after attending an introductory meeting to Youth Demand.
Youth Demand, a protest group publicly planning to “shut down London” in April with a series of protests over the government’s position on climate change and Gaza, had hired a room in the Westminster Quaker meeting house. It claimed as many as 30 officers took part in the raid.
Quakers in Britain has condemned the arrests; although it isn’t associated with Youth Demand, the religious group has a long history of non-violent protest.
One quaker was so incensed by the police tactics that he pointedly did not offer any officers a cup of tea, in a very British protest.
“They broke open the front door without warning or ringing the bell first,” said Paul Parker, recording clerk for the religious organisation.
“This aggressive violation of our place of worship and the forceful removal of young people holding a protest group meeting clearly shows what happens when a society criminalises protest.”
“No one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory,” he added.
Police denied cups of tea after ‘flooding’ building
Mal Woolford, who is an elder at the Westminster meeting house where the arrests happened, described the actions of the police as “ridiculously heavy-handed” and said officers “flooded the building”.
“There were six very young women of about 20 years old, talking in a circle around a packet of breadsticks and a pot of houmous,” he said.
“Apparently, not all of them were even involved with the organisation; they were just curious, and they ended up in handcuffs.”
Mr Woolford described wanting to keep the situation calm but also to show his “outrage” – so he made a cup of tea and didn’t offer the police officers any.
It was the “only resistance I could put up,” he said.
He added that the police raid apparently interrupted a counselling session and a life drawing class – “although fortunately they didn’t see the model”.
Youth Demand described the arrests as “an unprecedented level of police repression”.
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‘Democracy has got to have some upsides’
The arrests led to an outcry, with former Downing Street director of communications Guto Harri telling Sunday Morning With Trevor Philips: “Democracy has got to have some upsides, and one of the upsides is that the police don’t come crashing through your door just because you say something that upsets someone.”
When Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was asked about it by Trevor Philips, she said: “We have a long tradition, not just of free speech, but of freedom of assembly.”
She added, however, that the police have operational independence and “the police need to operate independently from the home secretary”.
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The Metropolitan Police told Sky News: “Youth Demand have stated an intention to ‘shut down’ London over the month of April using tactics including ‘swarming’ and road blocks.
“While we absolutely recognise the importance of the right to protest, we have a responsibility to intervene to prevent activity that crosses the line from protest into serious disruption and other criminality.”
Five of the women arrested on Thursday have been released on bail. One will face no further action.
Five more Youth Demand activists were arrested for the same offence on Friday and all have been released on bail.
