8 ms·
Were they arrested for "protesting the monarchy" or breaching the peace? Context is important. Silently holding up a banner: fine. Yelling at passing royals at
by kitd 4y ago
Were they arrested for "protesting the monarchy" or breaching the peace? Context is important. Silently holding up a banner: fine. Yelling at passing royals at a moment of deep solemnity: not fine, and stretching the free speech defence IMO. A bit like yelling at women entering an abortion clinic, or yelling loyalist slogans at an IRA funeral. There's a time & place.
Edit: Also, this is OT anyway from the matter of privacy and "nothing to hide".
- drewcoo 4y agoA protest that is not irritating is not a protest. And as for time & place, finding the right moment and location to be maximally irritating is part of the art of protest.
- BitwiseFool 4y ago>"A protest that is not irritating is not a protest.... finding the right moment and location to be maximally irritating is part of the art of protest. " Which school of thought is this from? Protesting can take many forms and they need not be offensive and/or irritating to be effective. I personally respect calm, dignified, and persistent protestors far more than the loud, disruptive, and in-your-face ones.
- int_19h 4y agoIf your calm and dignified protest achieves a meaningful result, it's because you were a better option compared to someone else who was not calm and dignified. There's some value in that, but not without that other guy to unlock it.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoRoyals getting yelled at? How horrible! Maybe the common British people should take notes from their French neighbors and teach these royal shits what true persecution feels like.
- mattmanser 4y agoYou left out the context, not only was Andrew walking right behind the coffin, the man was yards away and surrounded by mourners. Their moment for grief was severely impacted by the protestor. It's nowhere near as simple as you or other people in this thread are pretending it is. Even though I think Andrew should be stripped of his titles, it's right that guy was arrested.
- nobody9999 4y ago> You left out the context, not only was Andrew walking right behind the coffin, the man was yards away and surrounded by mourners. >Their moment for grief was severely impacted by the protestor. >It's nowhere near as simple as you or other people in this thread are pretending it is. Even though I think Andrew should be stripped of his titles, it's right that guy was arrested. Clearly that guy was being an asshole, but being a loud jerk shouldn't be a crime, IMHO. If that's the prevailing attitude there, I'm glad I don't live in the UK. Not because I think it's right to intrude on the mourning/grief/funerary rights of others (cf., Westboro Baptist Church[0]), much to the contrary, but because it shouldn't be illegal (as much as I despise such folks) to be an asshole. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church
- mattmanser 4y agoOf course it should. It's not just the protestors that have rights, the mourners do too. Just like you've got no human right to stab people as much as you like, you can't cause other people distress at a funeral. You're the one being incredibly unreasonable here. Also, you can't freely protest a soldier's funerals in America, so you're also ridiculously hypocritical, sort your own country out first if you feel so strongly about this! If you're not actively protesti g The Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act then you need to get off your high horse.
- nobody9999 4y agoIf being an asshole was a crime, we wouldn't have enough prisons to keep all the convicts, yourself included. Possibly me, too. Maybe we could be cell mates. What do you say, handsome?
- robswc 4y agoWell, there’s also people getting arrested for memes ;) But I do agree somewhat, if what you’re saying is true. People should be able to hold a funeral in peace.
- pessimizer 4y agoAnd this is something you want enforced by the state? What other unenumerated rights should be enforced by security forces? In North Korea, security forces have the responsibility of making sure that people express the appropriate amount of worry and fear when a Kim might be ill, and the appropriate amount of rage when a Kim has been insulted by a foreign leader.
- andsoitis 4y agoLet's say it is your mom's funeral. One person, probably not invited, makes a scene, shouts a bunch of stuff. Perhaps they have a mental illness, perhaps they had a grudge against your mom - she might have been a judge or a teacher. Are you just going to ignore it? Would you expect some security to remove that person so that you and others can have a peaceful funeral?
- lamontcg 4y ago> Let's say it is your mom's funeral. False equivalence. This is the accession to the throne of a monarch wrapped around a funeral. That doesn't happen when anyone else's mom dies. And the people being arrested were in public places.
- wizofaus 4y ago> the people being arrested were in public places. Funerals are reasonably often held at public cemeteries. FWIW I disagree the arrests were justifiable unless the protestors refused to be non-violently lead away from the scene, assuming they presented a genuine risk of provoking a violent response from the mourners etc.
- pessimizer 4y ago> a moment of deep solemnity The state shouldn't get to declare mandatory solemnity.
- tharne 4y ago> The state shouldn't get to declare mandatory solemnity. Of course they can - for example, remembering those who died in a terrorist attack, victims of genocide, victims of the diseases such as the AIDS epidemic, etc. Lots of groups can declare solemn events for a lot of different reasons, and they shouldn't have to deal with obnoxious and thoughtless individuals purposely trying to disrupt those events.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kitd 4y agoThey didn't. It was the thousands of people gathered in silence and respect who did.
- pessimizer 4y agoDid you ask them all? I have top secret inside information that if they broke that silence and respect, they would be arrested.
- FpUser 4y agoHolding "not my king" poster has nothing to do with "deep solemnity" and does not prevent anyone from grieving. Yet they still got arrested or questioned.
- kitd 4y agoDifferent occasion. The guy holding the poster definitely shouldn't have been arrested. The guy shouting at Prince Andrew during the procession was breaching the peace. Different context, which was my point.
- andsoitis 4y agoYou mean this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iokoD85_vg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iokoD85_vg
- torstenvl 4y agoIn a civilized society, it's the child-rapist – and not the person calling him out – who gets arrested.
- andsoitis 4y agoYou mean Andrew having sex with a 17 year old? https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/15/prince-andrew-and-virginia-giuffre-reach-settlement-in-principle https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/15/prince-andre...
- arminiusreturns 4y agoHas everyone just magically forgotten Charles was besties with Jimmy Saville, a notorious necro-pedo?
- parrellel 4y agoIt's so hard to keep straight, dead children, dead pigs, live children, other politicians... the upper wrung of British society seems to be two thirds disturbing fringe sex stuff and one third terrible decision making.
- dogleash 4y ago> Yelling at passing royals at a moment of deep solemnity: not fine, and stretching the free speech defence IMO lol, my country's concept of free speech is in part based on the idea everyone should be able to tell your country's nobility things they don't want to hear.
- kitd 4y agoWell sure. But the point of my argument was there's a time and a place for that.
- yibg 4y agoAnd who decides what the right times and places are?
- tharne 4y agoAny time and place other than a funeral or memorial service would be a good start. I can't believe there are adults here arguing that it's somehow ok to crash someone's funeral or memorial service to hurl insults at their relatives.
- khyryk 4y agoYou take a guess, and if you guess wrongly, you get arrested.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoThere is no better time and place than when royals are in earshot to hear it. And doubly so when those royals wish you would be silent.
- lmm 4y agoUsername checks out?