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Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

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Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#21

Post by metacritic12 »

closewith wrote: post #10
dijit wrote: post #9

They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. They are being arrested for being rude about it. Was the fella on radio 4 who stated to the entire nation that ‘King Charles and his family should be put in a council house and that the Monarchy should be abolished’ arrested? No. If you are going to attend a funeral, any funeral, be it the Queen’s or anyone else’s and hurl abuse or hold up signs with obscenit…

> They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. > They are being arrested for being rude about it. Got it. Arrested for poor taste. Hard to see the justification for that in a democracy?

Is stealing someone else's wallet also in poor taste? Yes.

If that thief gets arrested, is it just because it is poor taste? No.

Same thing with hurling obscenities at a funeral.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#22

Post by ISL »

dijit wrote: post #12
closewith wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. > They are being arrested for being rude about it. Got it. Arrested for poor taste. Hard to see the justification for that in a democracy?

You will be arrested for hurling obscenities at mourners regardless of who the dead person is. People were arrested at Margaret Thatchers funeral for the same thing. It’s not rocket science. You’re not allowed to do that.

In the United States, with certain limits [1], one can picket funerals and be massively disrespectful.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church#Laws_l...

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#23

Post by vkou »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #3

For all its faults, I love the US. I can go downtown with a sign that says "Not my president", and I may get some cheers, may get some boos. What I won't get is arrested. This is true no matter who is president. Now, if I were saying this about President Harris, say, when she came to visit Biden's body while it was lying in state, that would be deplorable taste. It would be worse if my sign criticized Biden while his…

> What I won't get is arrested.

You must have missed the summer of love that we had two years ago, when crowds of protesters were regularly beaten and gassed, and often arrested (Charges would, of course, get dropped, because it's not actually illegal to protest.)

But you are correct, it's possible to protest the British monarchy as much as you want in the US, with next to consequences. :)

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#24

Post by [deleted] »

carabiner wrote: post #17
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #3

For all its faults, I love the US. I can go downtown with a sign that says "Not my president", and I may get some cheers, may get some boos. What I won't get is arrested. This is true no matter who is president. Now, if I were saying this about President Harris, say, when she came to visit Biden's body while it was lying in state, that would be deplorable taste. It would be worse if my sign criticized Biden while his…

/r/ShitAmericansSay/ material right here.

[deleted]

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#25

Post by tialaramex »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #3

For all its faults, I love the US. I can go downtown with a sign that says "Not my president", and I may get some cheers, may get some boos. What I won't get is arrested. This is true no matter who is president. Now, if I were saying this about President Harris, say, when she came to visit Biden's body while it was lying in state, that would be deplorable taste. It would be worse if my sign criticized Biden while his…

Maybe what this says is that you're not paying attention, maybe it says you belong to a group who US police are less likely to target for arrest. Or maybe you'd just end up dead in a ditch instead of arrested, which doesn't seem better than getting arrested.

Bad taste isn't grounds for arrest in the UK either. In the unlikely event any of these people end up actually in court, they'll be charged with something else, in most cases it seems like public order offences. The same sort of charge you'd get if the cops arrest you drunk outside a bar yelling abuse at people and they decide you won't just sober up and go home with a caution.

Here's what the ACLU were able to have released from the White House (in the Bush era) about what the Secret Service do to prepare before a presidential visit:

"As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event site"

It doesn't say they get arrested, but of course if you're not free to go about your business, then does it really matter whether you were "arrested" or not ?

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#26

Post by googlryas »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #3

For all its faults, I love the US. I can go downtown with a sign that says "Not my president", and I may get some cheers, may get some boos. What I won't get is arrested. This is true no matter who is president. Now, if I were saying this about President Harris, say, when she came to visit Biden's body while it was lying in state, that would be deplorable taste. It would be worse if my sign criticized Biden while his…

You can do that in the UK too, just not during a funeral procession.

The US has laws against protesting at the funerals of Armed Service members. If you really want to rage against something, why not the thing from your own society, instead of the thing from some other society?

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#27

Post by dqh »

closewith wrote: post #10
dijit wrote: post #9

They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. They are being arrested for being rude about it. Was the fella on radio 4 who stated to the entire nation that ‘King Charles and his family should be put in a council house and that the Monarchy should be abolished’ arrested? No. If you are going to attend a funeral, any funeral, be it the Queen’s or anyone else’s and hurl abuse or hold up signs with obscenit…

> They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. > They are being arrested for being rude about it. Got it. Arrested for poor taste. Hard to see the justification for that in a democracy?

Do you really think you should have the right to disrupt the funeral of someone you don’t like?

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#28

Post by metacritic12 »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #6

What fun is a monarchy if you can't have a revolution?

In order to get towards that goal, Charles III should up the ante and use his reserve powers to dissolve parliament. Would make for a good show to see what the reaction would be.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#29

Post by babypuncher »

closewith wrote: post #10
dijit wrote: post #9

They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. They are being arrested for being rude about it. Was the fella on radio 4 who stated to the entire nation that ‘King Charles and his family should be put in a council house and that the Monarchy should be abolished’ arrested? No. If you are going to attend a funeral, any funeral, be it the Queen’s or anyone else’s and hurl abuse or hold up signs with obscenit…

> They aren’t being arrested for being anti-monarchy though. > They are being arrested for being rude about it. Got it. Arrested for poor taste. Hard to see the justification for that in a democracy?

I think it's fair to make certain events, like funerals, off-limits to protest.

Freedom of speech does not mean you are free to say anything you want wherever you want. I can't just walk into the Oval Office and start hurling obscenities at the President, and attempting to do so is likely to get me shot by the Secret Service.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#30

Post by LilBytes »

ISL wrote: post #22
dijit wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will be arrested for hurling obscenities at mourners regardless of who the dead person is. People were arrested at Margaret Thatchers funeral for the same thing. It’s not rocket science. You’re not allowed to do that.

In the United States, with certain limits [1], one can picket funerals and be massively disrespectful. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church#Laws_l...

I was about to quote the same church. Personally I think the UK law got it right on this one.
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