Police have raided a Quaker assembly home and arrested six ladies attending a gathering of the protest group Youth Demand.
Greater than 20 uniformed police, some outfitted with Tasers, pressured their means into the Westminster assembly home at 7.15pm, in accordance with an announcement by the Quakers.
“Nobody has been arrested in a Quaker assembly home in dwelling reminiscence,” mentioned Paul Parker, the recording clerk for Quakers in Britain.
“This aggressive violation of our place of worship and the forceful elimination of younger individuals holding a protest group assembly clearly exhibits what occurs when a society criminalises protest.
“Freedom of speech, meeting, and truthful trials are a necessary a part of free public debate which underpins democracy.”
In a video posted on Youth Demand’s Fb web page, a lady who claimed to have attended the assembly described it as a “publicly marketed welcome speak” concerning the group. She mentioned police seized attenders’ telephones and laptops.
Youth Demand describes itself as “a youth-led nonviolent civil resistance marketing campaign demanding the UK stops arming Israel and cancels all new oil and gasoline granted since 2021”.
The Quakers’ assertion mentioned they “strongly condemned the violation of their place of worship” and pointed to the stricter protesting legal guidelines introduced in by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023, which they claimed have been immediately answerable for the raid.
The Met police mentioned it had arrested six individuals on the assembly on suspicion of conspiracy to trigger a public nuisance. It mentioned it arrested 5 different individuals for a similar offence on Friday – 4 in London and one in Exeter.
The police mentioned these arrested have been a part of Youth Demand and claimed these attending the assembly have been planning direct motion within the capital subsequent month.
“Youth Demand have acknowledged an intention to ‘shut down’ London over the month of April utilizing ways together with ‘swarming’ and highway blocks,” police mentioned.
“Whereas we completely recognise the significance of the appropriate to protest, we’ve got a duty to intervene to forestall exercise that crosses the road from protest into severe disruption and different criminality.”
Police mentioned all these arrested had been launched on bail, aside from one who was launched and can face no additional motion.
Quakers, a nickname for members of the Non secular Society of Mates, observe a non secular custom that grew from Protestant Christianity within the seventeenth century.
Quakers have a protracted historical past of supporting protest actions and nonviolence is one in all their core beliefs.
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