LONDON – An anti-Islamic nationalist wheeled a homemade gallows intocentral London, led a group of men into a conference hall and attempted to”arrest” the city’s first Muslim mayor as he gave a speech on Saturday,Washington Post has reported.
The group failed, and was eventually escorted out by the same policeofficers they had asked to apprehend Mayor Sadiq Khan. They still managedto delay the speech for 15 minutes as they accused Khan of treachery,tyranny and disrespecting President Donald Trump.
Trump – who once sought to ban Muslims from U.S. shores and called Khan”pathetic” after a terrorist attack in London last year – earlier this weekabruptly canceled plans to visit the city. Khan was one of many Britons whowelcomed the news, claiming Trump had been scared off by threats of massprotests.
The mayor was scheduled to give a speech at a left-leaning think tank, theFabian Society, on Saturday. In the mayor’s own words, it was about “abouthow we cannot allow a populist, anti-feminist narrative to take hold inBritain.”
But as Khan prepared to give his address, a man named Davey Russell andabout half a dozen others towed a wooden frame with a noose onto a streetoutside the auditorium. They had decorated it with the emblem of a whitedragon, and written on the top: “TAKE BACK CONTROL.”
Russell told reporters outside the conference that his group was called thePendragons. But an ITV reporter, among others, identified him as a leadingmember of the English Defense League, a well-known far-right organization.Russell also hosts an anti-Islamic radio show, which Kent Online reportedwas raided by police several years ago.
On Saturday, Russell told reporters that he believed he had the law on hisside. He accused Khan of cooperating with terrorists and placing himselfabove the law, and said the mayor had no right to criticize Trump.
“He should keep his nose out of state affairs and look out for what’s goingon in London,” Russell said.
Carrying a piece of paper on which he had outlined the mayor’s allegedcrimes, Russell walked with his Pendragons to the front of the auditoriumand began to live stream.
Khan took the microphone and managed to say, “Thank you,” before a man in atrench coat approached the table and interrupted his speech.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to make a peaceful, nonviolentcitizen’s arrest of those named,” the man said. He named Khan andParliament member Kate Green, who was chairing the event, and two otherspeakers.
Khan took a drink of water, sat down and looked at the men. He said nothing.
“Could I ask security to lead the gentlemen out, please?” said Green.
A guard walked over to Russell, who seemed to have been expecting achallenge.
“We are under common law jurisdiction!” Russell cried. “If you touch us,you will be done for common assault. We’re not leaving.”
But the guard persisted, and soon Russell was arguing: “I paid for aticket! Do not touch me,” he said. “We have paid for a ticket. . . . OK, sowe want the money back for the ticket then. We cannot be reimbursed for theticket. We cannot be reimbursed!”
He said he had called the police before crashing the speech, and promisedthey would soon arrive to arrest the mayor. It would just be a few minutes.
“Please don’t panic, anybody,” Russell said.
The audience started to slow clap.
“Perhaps you could wait outside?” Green said after a few minutes. But thePendragons didn’t want to wait outside.
A small, mostly curious crowd formed around the men as they lingered by theauditorium wall, accusing Khan of subverting British law, without everexplaining how. When a reporter asked under what authority they planned toarrest the mayor, one of the Pendragons cited the Magna Carta.
Police had still not arrived after 10 minutes or so. One of the Pendragonswalked up to Khan’s table and showed him an American flag, which he washolding backward.
“Mr. Khan,” the man said, “there’s millions of British people supportingDonald Trump.”
The audience booed especially loudly at this. “Good one!” Russell cheered.
“Please sit down, sir,” Green said. So the man walked back to Russell,holding his flag up to the news cameras, still holding it the wrong way.
Green eventually began to lose patience with the men. “I am not having youdictate the way this meeting is conducted,” she said. Eventually, Sky Newsreported, Khan began to read a newspaper.
After a quarter-hour standoff, Russell pointed his cellphone at his ownface and happily announced to his Facebook viewers: “There’s an inspectoroutside we have to speak to now over these charges against Sadiq Khan.”
But when the constable walked into the room, he simply told Russell:”You’ll have to leave now.”
Russell handed the officer a sheet of paper outlining his complaints. Oneof them cited the Coronation Oath Act of 1688. The officer looked at it.”We are going to investigate,” he promised, not entirely convincingly.
“Well, the grounds for the arrest are all there,” Russell said.
“We don’t do citizen’s arrests,” the officer explained. “We do lawfularrests.”
Russell finally followed the constable outside, to much applause from thecrowd. One of his compatriots waved a water bottle aloft as they left.
Khan stood up and resumed his speech. “It’s a pleasure to be here,” hesaid, “even though we were distracted by the actions of what some wouldcall very stable geniuses.”
The crowd laughed at this. Outside in the lobby, his gallows still empty,Russell continued to argue with police. He also asked for a refund on histicket.