Quaker arrests foreshadow police state

The Guardian reports that more than 20 uniformed police, some equipped with Tasers, forced their way into a Westminster Quaker meeting house and arrested six women attending a gathering of the protest group Youth Demand at 7.15pm on Thursday.

“No one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory,” said Paul Parker, the recording clerk for Quakers in Britain.

“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.

“Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy.”

In a video posted on Youth Demand’s Facebook page, a woman who claimed to have attended the meeting described it as a “publicly advertised welcome talk” about the group. She said police seized attenders’ phones and laptops.

Youth Demand describes itself as “a youth-led nonviolent civil resistance campaign demanding the UK stops arming Israel and cancels all new oil and gas granted since 2021”.

The Quakers’ statement said they “strongly condemned the violation of their place of worship” and pointed to the stricter protesting laws brought in by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023, which they claimed were directly responsible for the raid.

The Met police said it had arrested six people at the meeting on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. It said it arrested five other people for the same offence on Friday – four in London and one in Exeter.

The police said those arrested were part of Youth Demand and claimed those attending the meeting were planning direct action in the capital next month.

“Youth Demand have stated an intention to ‘shut down’ London over the month of April using tactics including ‘swarming’ and road blocks,” police said.

“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.”

In George Orwell's terms, these people have been arrested for thought crimes. There is no evidence of criminal conspiracy, nor any violence, nor any abuse of free speech to damage public order. Free speech is now being criminalised. Isn't it about time the government repealed the Tory legislation that allowed this abuse of our democratic values.