Anti-monarchy protestors should not be arrested, says former Met Assistant Commissioner
15 September 2022, 12:38
'The law should not be invoked.'
Ex-Met Assistant Commissioner Lord Dear says anti-monarchy protestors are showing “very bad manners” but should not be arrested.
The comments made by Ex-Met Assistant Commissioner Lord Dear comes after a 22-year-old man was arrested for shouting at Prince Andrew.
He shouted: “You’re a sick old man!” during a procession in Edinburgh. Also a barrister holding up a blank piece of paper in Parliament Square was told he would be arrested if he wrote the words "Not my king" on it.
Another man was arrested in Oxford for shouting at King Charles, “Who elected him?”, but was later dearrested.
Lord Dear, who also served as Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, described the protests as “an exercise in very bad manners” and said he was “quite sure that most people present felt the same thing”.
He added: “I also think that the law within reason should let that go by. If you had thousands of people doing it, it might be another matter.
“This as I understand it, was lone individuals and distasteful though it might be in the eyes of most, I don’t think the law should be invoked.”
Lord Dear also touched on the oath to the King that the new Met Commissioner took.
He said: “In the middle of his first week, Mark Rowley who must be incredibly busy with all the things that are going on in London…has taken time to focus on what is going to be quite clearly his main priority and that’s to do with standards.”
He also paid tribute to the late Queen, saying: “I have to say that if you go behind the pomp and the ceremony which we’ve all seen on our television screens and in public over the last week you’ve got very human, committed, decent people who hold those offices, and the Queen of course was the living embodiment of all that.
“All those words, and we’ve seen them…her religious commitment, personal loyalty, all that and many more, shone through.
“On the occasions that I met the Queen I always came away feeling that much better, feeling that much [more] humbled. I suppose in many ways because you were in the presence then of somebody who was very, very special indeed.”
