- Several anti-monarchy protesters have been arrested or warned by police since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
- A man arrested for shouting "who elected" King Charles III told Insider he was concerned about freedom of speech.
A man arrested in England after shouting "who elected him?" about King Charles III said he was left "shaken" and concerned about freedom of speech.
At least three other people have been arrested or cautioned for acts of peaceful anti-monarchy protests across the UK during the days of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, as legal experts and activists raise concerns about their treatment.
Symon Hill, 45, told Insider that he commented while watching an event proclaiming the new monarch in Oxford, UK, on Sunday, following the death of Queen Elizabeth last week.
The first part of the proclamation was about the death of the Queen, which Hill said he remained silent during out of respect for those grieving.
"But when it got to proclaiming that Charles was now 'our only rightful liege lord and king' and that we owed him allegiance, that isn't something I felt we should all listen to and passively accept as if we were still in the Middle Ages," he said.
At that point, Hill said he called out: "Who elected him?" and "A head of state is being imposed without our consent."
He said security guards tried to remove him from the crowd, and police officers grabbed hold of him and dragged him away despite protestations from people around him.
"They handcuffed my hands behind my back, told me I was being arrested, and forced me into the back of a police van," he said.
He said he kept asking the police officers what law he was arrested under, but "they didn't seem to know."
According to Hill, police officers initially told him the arrest fell under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act passed earlier this year, but the police have since told journalists that it was under Public Order Act 1986.
Hill said he was taken to a police station where he was "de-arrested" and driven home.
A Thames Valley Police spokesperson told Insider: "A 45-year-old man was arrested in connection with a disturbance that was caused during the county proclamation ceremony of King Charles III in Oxford."
"He has subsequently been de-arrested and is engaging with us voluntarily as we investigate a public order offense. The man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offense (Section 5 Public Order Act)."
"I don't think it's about me. It's a bigger issue about freedom of expression, about freedom from arbitrary arrest, about the right to challenge people of wealth and power in our country," Hill, who describes himself as a left-wing Christian author and activist, said.
"I have been to protests before. I'm not naive about the chances of getting arrested. I'd have understood if I'd been disrupting the ceremony or blocking the road, but I literally called out a couple of sentences," Hill said.
Anti-monarchy protesters have been arrested or warned
Other people have been arrested, charged, or warned by police for protests against the monarchy.
A lawyer in London claimed police told him he risked arrest if he wrote "not my king" on a sheet of paper that he was holding outside Parliament.
Writing on Twitter, Paul Powlesland said a police officer questioned him and told him he would be arrested under the Public Order Act if he wrote the message, as people "might be offended."
Police were also filmed moving a protester carrying a "not my king" placard from outside Parliament.
In Edinburgh, Scotland (which has different laws on protests and unrest than England and Wales), a 22-year-old woman was arrested and charged for holding up a sign that said: "abolish the monarchy" at a proclamation ceremony for the king.
A 22-year-old man in Edinburgh was also arrested after heckling Prince Andrew during the procession and calling him a "sick old man" after the king's brother faced a scandal over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a related sex assault allegation.
A violation of the right to protest, experts say
Ken Marsh, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, later said that police officers who arrested anti-monarchy protesters lacked understanding of the law.
"It was clear that some of my colleagues weren't aware what people can and can't do in terms of holding up pieces of paper," Marsh said, according to The Independent.
The lack of legal clarity on how police can deal with protesters can lead to instances of abuse of police power, Kevin Donoghue, solicitor director of Donoghue Solicitors, told Insider.
Speaking of Powlesland, Donoghue said: "In this example, he was expressing an opinion and subsequently arrested for that. That is plainly a violation of the right to protest."
It is not right for officers to use "breach of the peace" as a method of dealing with protesters, Donoghue said, adding that use of it "is either through officers having malicious misuse of that definition, or it's a misunderstanding of what breach of the peace is."
Breach of the peace, Donoghue explained, is when someone is harming, or threatening to harm, people around them.
Donoghue added the "sanitization" of the route along the route of Queen Elizabeth's funeral procession on Monday, including clearing away protesters and homeless people from the street, as "concerning." London's Metropolitan Police "are working to do anything to make sure the coffin passes by without any shouting or signs, and that really worries me," he said.
Jodie Beck, Policy and Campaigns Officer at Liberty, a human rights organization, said in a statement to Insider: "Protest is not a gift from the State, it is a fundamental right. Being able to choose what, how, and when we protest is a vital part of a healthy and functioning democracy."
Beck said the police were being "heavy-handed," and the clamp down on free speech and expression was "punitive."