Published: April 4, 2025
Below is a collection of quotes from articles on the arrests of several people from Westminster Meeting House on March 27th, 2025 in London. For links to more news stories on this topic - go to https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/media-coverage-of-westminster-meeting-house-police-raid
From Quakers in Britain: Quakers condemn police raid on Westminster Meeting House
Published March 28, 2025
“Quakers in Britain strongly condemned the violation of their place of worship which they say is a direct result of stricter protest laws removing virtually all routes to challenge the status quo.
Just before 7.15pm more than 20 uniformed police, some equipped with tasers, forced their way into Westminster Meeting House.
They broke open the front door without warning or ringing the bell first, searching the whole building and arresting six women attending the meeting in a hired room.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 have criminalised many forms of protest and allow police to halt actions deemed too disruptive.
Meanwhile, changes in judicial procedures limit protesters' ability to defend their actions in court. All this means that there are fewer and fewer ways to speak truth to power.
Quakers support the right to nonviolent public protest, acting themselves from a deep moral imperative to stand up against injustice and for our planet.
Many have taken nonviolent direct action over the centuries from the abolition of slavery to women's suffrage and prison reform.
Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: “No-one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory.
“This aggressive violation of our place of worship and the forceful removal of young people holding a protest group meeting clearly shows what happens when a society criminalises protest.
“Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy."
From The Guardian article:
Met raids Quaker meeting house and arrests six women at Youth Demand talk
Published March 29, 2025
“The Quakers’ statement said they “strongly condemned the violation of their place of worship” and pointed to the stricter protesting laws brought in by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023, which they claimed were directly responsible for the raid.
The Met police said it had arrested six people at the meeting on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. It said it arrested five other people for the same offence on Friday – four in London and one in Exeter.
The police said those arrested were part of Youth Demand and claimed those attending the meeting were planning direct action in the capital next month.
“Youth Demand have stated an intention to ‘shut down’ London over the month of April using tactics including ‘swarming’ and road blocks,” police said.
“While we absolutely recognize the importance of 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.”
Police said all those arrested had been released on bail, except for one who was released and will face no further action.
Quakers, a nickname for members of the Religious Society of Friends, follow a religious tradition that grew from Protestant Christianity in the 17th century.
Quakers have a long history of supporting protest movements and nonviolence is one of their core beliefs.”
From the NYTimes article: London Police Arrest Gaza Protest Planners at Quaker House
Published March 30, 2025
By Ephrat Livni
“Youth Demand said in a statement that when the raid took place, it was having a “Welcome Talk” at the Quaker house to discuss Gaza, the West Bank and the climate crisis, and to share plans for nonviolent civil resistance actions that it has scheduled for next month.
The activists were told that they were being detained on suspicions of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” according to the group. Additional activists from the group were arrested the next day, it said.
Youth Demand said in an email on Sunday that it did not “have the full picture yet,” but that it appeared that about 10 arrests were made on Thursday and Friday and that 11 activists’ homes were raided. All of the activists have been released and none have been charged, the group said.
Youth Demand, which calls on the British government to stop all trade with Israel and to raise money from the wealthy to pay for environmental damage from fossil-fuel burning, was started last year. While relatively small, some of its protests have generated headlines.
In April, the group hung a banner and lined up children’s shoes outside the home of the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, before he became prime minister. “Stop the killing” in Gaza, the banner read.
In a statement after the raid, the group called on “young people to take to the streets day after day and shut London down.”
Ella Grace-Taylor, 20, an actor-musician student who was arrested on Thursday at the meeting house, said in a video after her release that the group “will not be deterred.”
“We will let this fuel us because we know this means that we are winning,” she said. “It means that the government, that the police, that the state is afraid of us, that they recognize the power that we have.”
The Metropolitan Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”