New Delhi: While mourning for the late Queen Elizabeth II of Britain has brought about a sense of unity among a large section of the UK, civil liberties groups have now questioned the heavy-handed treatment of the small section of anti-monarchy protesters by the police.A number of reports have come in of protesters either heckling the processions of royals or holding up placards at the same, being detained and, in some cases, manhandled by police officers. At the same time, a number of videos showing protesters being taken into custody have been shared on social media.A report in the Guardian details many such incidents. One of them was of a 22-year-old man being arrested in Scotland’s Edinburgh on Monday, September 12, reportedly for heckling Prince Andrew on the Royal Mile in the city during the Queen’s funeral procession. In a video doing the rounds on Twitter, the man is seen being pushed to the ground by members of the onlooking crowd for shouting at the procession, where the Queen’s coffin was being followed by King Charles III, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex.Local police told the newspaper that the man had been arrested in connection with a “breach of peace”.The British newspaper reported another such incident from Edinburgh on Sunday where a woman was arrested and charged for holding up a placard which read: “F*** imperialism, abolish monarchy” during King Charles’s ascension proclamation. The Global Majority Vs Campaign, the group which this woman represents, issued a statement the following day, saying, “Calling for the abolition of the monarchy is as old as the monarchy itself and is a cornerstone of freedom of speech in the UK.”Similarly, footage went viral online of a female protester being confronted by a number of police officers for holding up a placard that read: “Not my King” outside the UK Parliament in London on Monday, according to AFP.Further, a London barrister and climate activist posted on Twitter detailing an incident where he was threatened with arrest for holding up a blank piece of paper in Parliament Square.A period of quiet mourning for the Queen is fine, but using that period to cement Charles Accession as King & cracking down on any dissent to the accession as disrespectful is outrageous.— Paul Powlesland (@paulpowlesland) September 12, 2022The barrister, Paul Powlesland, described the cracking down on dissent as “disrespectful and outrageous” in his tweet. What’s more, he wrote that the police officer who threatened to arrest him confirmed that had his blank sheet of paper said, “Not my King”, we would have been arrested under the Public Order Act, 1986.Powlesland also posted the interaction with the officer on Twitter.pic.twitter.com/8s01SZc1gx— Paul Powlesland (@paulpowlesland) September 12, 2022Speaking to the Guardian, Jodie Beck, policy and campaigns officer at civil liberties organisation, Liberty, said that the police have a duty to facilitate protest and that, given the shrinking space being afforded to protest in the country, the police’s “warped” interpretation of legislations giving them powers to impose conditions on public assemblies was “not surprising”.Following Powlesland’s video going viral, the London Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying it was aware of a video showing an officer speaking to a member of the public at the Palace of Westminster, according to the Guardian report.“The public absolutely have a right to protest and we have been making this clear to all officers involved in the extraordinary policing operation currently in place and we will continue to do so,” the newspaper quoted deputy assistant commissioner, Stuart Cundy, as saying.Further, the Metropolitan police also shared a video of Cundy on Twitter in which he speaks about the increased need for police presence in the city to ensure the safety of individuals visiting to pay their respects to the Queen. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy on our policing operation following the passing of Her Majesty The Queen.He talks about how the Met will balance the rights of protesters with those of others who wish to grieve and reflect. pic.twitter.com/uUQ2oYtiY4— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) September 13, 2022In the video, Cundy also says, “I recognise that there are people with different views and where there is protest, our response will be both proportionate and balanced.”