{"id":212852,"date":"2020-08-31T08:09:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T08:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=212852"},"modified":"2020-09-03T05:41:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T05:41:28","slug":"piers-corbyn-73-arrested-and-handed-10k-fine-over-trafalgar-square-anti-lockdown-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=212852","title":{"rendered":"Piers Corbyn, 73, arrested and handed \u00a310k fine over Trafalgar Square ‘anti-lockdown protests’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harriet Brewis \u2013 Evening Standard Aug 30, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Anti-lockdown protest in Trafalgar Square, London. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Piers Corbyn<\/strong><\/span><\/a> has revealed himself as the pensioner arrested in central London during anti-lockdown protests<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn<\/a><\/strong><\/span> said he has been slapped with a \u00a310,000 fine for his part in the ‘Unite for Freedom’ rally on Saturday which saw thousands descend on Trafalgar Square.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 73-year-old, a climate change denier who set up controversial weather forecasting business Weather Action, said on Twitter he had been handed the fixed penalty fine as \u201corganiser\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the tweet to his more than 31,000 followers, he called the demonstration an \u201cepic success\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The 73-year-old Piers Corbyn was surrounded by police officers and led away, reportedly handcuffed at an earlier protest. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

He separately confirmed that he would “refuse” to pay the penalty and would “appeal the process”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hours earlier, Metropolitan Police said they had arrested a 73-year-old man on suspicion of breaking newly introduced coronavirus<\/a><\/strong><\/span> laws.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was punished, according to the Health Protection Regulations, for holding a gathering of more than 30 people in an outdoor place, Scotland Yard said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has now been released from custody.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement, Metropolitan Police Commander Bas Javid<\/strong><\/span><\/a> said officers had been working “tirelessly” to remind local communities “that we remain in a health pandemic.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur interaction and intervention saw the majority of people gathered disperse,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Five people have been spoken to in relation to the new legislation.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the tightened measures, those attending a gathering of more than 30 people may be committing a criminal offence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Javid also warned that detectives had begun a “post investigation operation” which would enable them to “retrospectively take action” on “individuals contravening the regulations”.<\/span><\/p>\n

As further rallies took place in the capital throughout the Bank Holiday weekend<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, he added: “There are currently a number of demonstrations in central London and we are actively out on the ground, speaking with people taking part.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He said officers were “continuing to emphasis the public health risk and the regulations, and that it is incumbent on them to fulfill the requirements under the new legislation to (…) ensure that they are not committing an offence by being involved in a large gathering or they may be subject to a large fine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunday saw hundreds of demonstrators take to the streets of west London to take part in the first ever Million People March to protest against systemic racism in the UK<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Organisers said they hoped the march will drive conversations about race, sparked by the Black Lives Matter<\/a> (BLM) protests, and give the BAME community \u201ca louder voice\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The march took place this year in lieu of the annual Notting Hill<\/strong><\/span><\/a> carnival, though organisers said they aimed to incorporate the same spirit of freedom through peaceful protest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around 400 demonstrators walked along Bayswater Road from Notting Hill tube station, finishing in Hyde Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

At several points along the way the crowd stopped, sitting down in the road and even breaking into a rendition of Redemption Song by Bob Marley, as demonstrators raised their fists.<\/span><\/p>\n

The march was organised by Ken Hinds, an adviser to Scotland Yard, Sasha Johnson, a youth worker and activist, rapper 2 Badda, and author Anthony Spencer\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Continues \u2026 https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/news\/london\/trafalgar-square-antilockdown-man-73-handed-10000-fine-a4536441.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Comment \u2013 Aug 31, 2020<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Interesting that Piers Corbyn was arrested by police and hit with a statutory \u00a310,000 fine for organising the protest. While the organiser of the much smaller march, who also happens to be an \u2018advisor\u2019 to the Metropolitan Police, was only \u201cthreatened with arrest …\u201d.<\/h5>\n
Why the double standards?<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strange double-standard here. The organisor of the anti-lockdown protest is promptly arrested and issued with a \u00a310,000 fine. While the organisor of a much smaller march in sympathy with BLM is only “threatened” with arrest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Behind_The_News","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212852"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212858,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212852\/revisions\/212858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}