Green councillor Sian Berry with mayoral candidate Zoe Garbett at Saturday’s demonstration

THE Met Police must be held to account over tactical arrests of peaceful protesters at the coronation on Saturday, a councillor who joined the demonstration said.

Using new powers under the controversial Public Order Act, officers arrested organisers from the Republic campaign group as they unloaded a van of placards. They were held for 15 hours before being released without charge.

Highgate ward’s Green councillor Sian Berry travelled into the West End on Saturday to join call for a new constitution without a hereditary head of state.

She told the New Journal the police obstructed them reaching a pre-arranged meeting point. When she asked officers why, she said she was met with stony silences and intentionally obstructive responses.

Cllr Berry – a former national Green Party leader, Mayoral candidate, member of the GLA and long-serving Camden Councillor – has liaised with the Met at protests for many years. But she said their response on Saturday was like nothing she had ever seen before.

She said: “They were all ‘not me guv’ when we asked why we were being stopped from heading to Trafalgar Square, which had been arranged long in advance for a peaceful protest. The way arrests were made was very disturbing. It looked like a premeditated act. They confiscated their posters and banners and said they arrested them to minimise any impact they may have had. That rings true.  The claims it was a mistake by officers does not.”

Republic had arranged speeches from Labour MP Clive Lewis, Republic’s chief executive Graham Smith and  human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell in the Square with the Met’s blessing. But in a move  that surprised organisers, metal security fences with entry points guarded by private security staff were put up with no warning.

Cllr  Berry said: “They had made a unilateral decision at some point that no one was going to be allowed to follow the plans they had agreed to. The guards were acting in a very authoritarian manner.”

Anti-monarchy demonstrators, decked in yellow, eventually regrouped outside the National Gallery and marched along Piccadilly.  In contrast to the heavy-handed policing, monarchists and republicans spent the day in good natured discussion.

Cllr Berry said: “No one was cross or rude. People recognised our protest as a healthy and normal thing to be happening and were very receptive.”

Her London Assembly member Caroline Russell chairs the Police and Crime Committee and will quiz commissioner Sir Mark Rowley next week.

She said: “Police are targeting and arresting people before they have even reached a protest and these heavy-handed tactics are crushing the right to peaceful protest.

“A coronation with the power of the army, state, government and monarchy on full display is exactly when the fundamental right to protest is most in need of protection.”

Sir Mark said the coronation had been the biggest operation of its type in the history of the Met Police and it passed off safely.

He added: “Protest is an important right in any democracy, but it is limited and has to be balanced alongside consideration for the rights of others so they too can go about their normal business – in this case participating in a once-in-a-generation event.”

He said that the night before the coronation, officers had received reports of plans to vandalise statues and use loudhailers to scare horses.  Mr Smith, however, says chief officers have since visited his home ot apologise for the arrest of six campaigners and the Met has “expressed regret”.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK. CLICK BANNER.