Two more peaceful demonstrators have been arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, Designated Area law, not this time in Parliament Square, but outside of Downing Street.
Milan Rai, from Justice Not Vengance, one of the two demonstrators, is accused of being an "organiser", which carries potentially higher penalties, i.e. up to 51 weeks in prison, on the evidence of having phoned up the Charing Cross police station in order to tell them about the demonstration:
"When we arrived opposite Downing Street, the police jumped up and said: you will be arrested in five minutes, there is to be''zero tolerance".Actually, it turned out to be more like half an hour, but they did arrest us exactly as promised. (They'd said they would over the phone when I talked to Charing Cross Events - my phone calls were the evidence
of my being the''organiser'.)"
Arrests at Whitehall Iraq Remembrance Ceremony
Interestingly, bell ringing, is not covered by the restrictions against the use of loudspeakers under the SOCPA legislation.
It is also interesting that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport claims that the participants and public spectators in the forthcoming Poppy Day Remembrance Sunday events on November 13th, with wreath laying at the Cenotaph, and with large numbers of people standing still wearing a Royal British Legion red poppy, in exactly the same location in Whitehall, are not covered by the SOCPA Designated Area restrictions, as this is a "Ceremony".