London Police Arrest Gaza Protest Planners at Quaker House
Quakers in Britain are reeling from what they say is an unheard-of violation of one of their places of worship by police officers who forced their way into a meeting house in London and arrested activists gathered there to plan Gaza war protests.
'No one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory,' Paul Parker, the recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said in a statement issued after the raid.
But on Thursday evening, the pacifist group said, more than 20 uniformed police officers, some armed with tasers, forced their way into the meeting house in Westminster, breaking open the front door 'without warning or ringing the bell.'
The officers searched the building and arrested six women at a gathering of Youth Demand, an unaffiliated activist group that was renting a room to meet in, the Quakers in Britain said.
The Metropolitan Police said the arrests followed Youth Demand's plans to 'shut down' London with protests next month, according to British media. The police said that while they recognized the right to protest, 'we have a responsibility to intervene to prevent activity that crosses the line from protest into serious disruption and other criminality,' British media reported.
The arrests raised alarms in England, and came amid a crackdown on Gaza War protesters in the United States, especially on college campuses, where some students have denounced Israel's prosecution of the war against Hamas.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How Trump plans to punish Newsom
The Trump administration is considering cutting California's federal education funding, as a tit-for-tat battle with Gavin Newsom, the state's governor, reaches boiling point. Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested Mr Newsom should be arrested for his 'bad job' in handling a wave of anti-deportation protests, which erupted on Friday in response to immigration raids. It comes as Mr Newsom on Tuesday accused Mr Trump of a 'brazen abuse of power' when he deployed thousands of National Guard troops and 700 US marines in Los Angeles to quell the protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. The state is suing the president for sending in troops without Mr Newsom's approval, marking the first time since civil rights protests in 1965 that a president sent the National Guard to deal with civil unrest without cooperation from the state's governor. Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the administration is 'committed to ending this nightmare and restoring the California Dream'. He added: 'No final decisions, however, on any potential future action by the administration have been made.' In the wake of the row, White House officials may stop the education department's disbursement of 'formula funds' to California, Politico reported. The state receives $8 billion a year from the education department. Some of the payouts are used towards programs for students with disabilities and from low-income homes. Mr Trump's vow to cut funding to the country's most populous state began before his latest clash with Mr Newsom and his dispatch of Marines and the National Guard. He has already cut $126.4 million in flood prevention projects, and threatened to dilute California's tough vehicle emissions standards. Last month, he said he would halt federal funding after a transgender athlete took part in a sporting event. His pause to visas for students from China would also have an outsized impact on California as it enrols more foreign students than any other state. As the state was ravaged by a series of wildfires in January, Mr Trump directly blamed Mr Newsom for LA's struggling water supply, and threatened to bar California from accepting federal disaster funds unless they changed water policies. Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Trump described the LA protesters as 'a foreign enemy' and vowed to 'liberate' Los Angeles. A curfew has been enforced between 8pm to 6am in the downtown area of central Los Angeles, in what officials say is necessary to stop vandalism and looting. Mr Newsom has urged demonstrators – who have been protesting ICE raids since Friday – to remain peaceful and said Mr Trump's actions were fulfilling 'the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president' . Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Balaclava-clad suspects ‘behind £250k handbags theft' caught on CCTV
Police have released images of the balaclava-clad suspects allegedly behind the theft of handbags worth £260,000. A trio of burglars took 55 luxury handbags from a boutique in the exclusive Cheshire village of Prestbury on Sunday night. The ski mask-wearing intruders broke in from a disused property next door, drilling through the shop's chimney to gain access. They then made a getaway with the high-end handbags, worth as much as £25,000 each. Cheshire Constabulary released CCTV images of the suspected burglars on Wednesday in an appeal for members of the public to identify them. Det Con Clare Slattery, of Macclesfield CID, said: 'Enquiries in relation to this incident are ongoing and we're committed to doing all we can to identify the people responsible. 'As part of our investigation we're keen to identify the men pictured in the CCTV images as we believe they may hold vital information. 'If you recognise the men, please contact us. I would also like to appeal directly to the men in the CCTV images to get in touch.' Christine Colbert, the owner of the boutique, watched the burglary live on CCTV from her home. 'I went to bed about 10.30pm on Sunday so I was asleep when we got a call from the monitoring company,' Mrs Colbert told the Daily Mail. 'I immediately switched on the CCTV on my phone and I could see a man crouching down and bricks all over the floor. I said to my husband Gary, 'We're being robbed.' I was panicking.' Mrs Colbert said that watching the footage back, she could hear the noise of drilling for more than an hour before the raiders broke through. She added added: 'They were big burly men, and they were all in black with goggles, balaclavas, and gloves. They took three or four minutes to whirl round the shop and grab all the bags. 'One man had a duvet tied round his neck like a pouch which he threw the bags in. Another man put everything up his arms – they were full of bags. 'Then they hurled the handbags through the hole they'd made. Respect for the bags was zero.' The gang dropped just two of the bags, which were among the least valuable. The next-door building was empty following an arson attack. Items worth £180,000 were stolen from Mrs Colbert's shop last year after burglars entered through a window. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Planet Normal: ‘The numbers don't add up' in Rachel Reeves' spending review
' What we saw today, in terms of the areas under her control, there are big question marks that need to be asked' On the latest Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player below, columnists Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson discuss Labour's spending review with economist Gerard Lyons. Mr Lyons wasn't convinced by the numbers, ' Early in her speech the Chancellor said, is the plan credible, and the answer unfortunately is, no.' 'T he starting position is debt is very high, and I think we're in the early stages of Britain going into a debt crisis. If you're looking for good news, it might be that we're not the only country facing this problem; but today the Chancellor gave a speech that I think lacked a lot of the detail.' Allison is not convinced by the claims the economy is stabilising, ' We know it is not true, and we are already starting to see the impact on employment and on businesses. We know payrolls have fallen, that employment's fallen by over 250,000 since Rachel Reeves' budget. This is not an economy where you should be taking the gambles that she's taking. Where is the growth going to come from?' Planet Normal, a weekly Telegraph podcast featuring news and views from beyond the bubble. Listen on the audio player above or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast app. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
