Man arrested at Gaza protest after police mistake 'Plasticine Action' T-shirt for banned group
A protestor wearing a “Plasticine Action” T-shirt was mistakenly arrested during a mass pro-Palestine protest in London's Parliament Square.
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Miles Pickering, from Brighton, arrived at the August 9 rally wearing a shirt containing a logo that closely resembled that of banned protest group Palestine Action.
However, on closer inspection, the wording was slightly different, and the plasticine character Morph could be seen inside the letter "o".
Beneath the logo, additional text read: "We oppose AI-generated animation."
Last month, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper proscribed Palestine Action under terrorism legislation after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two military planes with red paint.
The ruling made it illegal to display any material supporting the banned organisation.
So when a police officer saw Mr Pickering's shirt at the Westminster protest, he was arrested under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and taken to Scotland Yard.
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It was one of 532 arrests made during the protest that day.
Once Mr Pickering and the officer arrived at a pop-up booking suite outside Met Police headquarters, a large group of protestors cheered at "how silly it was that I was getting arrested for being a plasticine terrorist", Mr Pickering said.
A senior officer then asked the arresting officer if he could re-arrest Pickering under the more serious charge of section 12.
“[The arresting officer] said: ‘No, I can’t. ’ And they said: ‘Why not?’ He said: ‘Because he hasn’t got Palestine Action written on him. He’s got Plasticine Action written on him. '," my Pickering told the Guardian.
"He [the arresting officer] said: ‘I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. ’ I said: ‘What’s the good news? ’ He said: ‘I’m de-arresting you.’
“And I said: ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me.’ And then I walked free, while all the real heroes are the people that are actually getting arrested.”
Mr Pickering admitted the T-shirt was deliberately designed to look like a Palestine Action one and that he had no strong feeling about AI harming the animation industry.
He has been selling copies of the shirt to raise money for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, but said police advised him not to wear it again, as it could still be an arrestable offence.
Even so, the designer expects to see a number of people wearing the shirt at the next protest against the ban on Palestine Action on September 6.
Mr Pickering has long been a passionate protestor for Gaza and believes public opinion on the war is shifting.
“There’s no justification for it, and we all know it.
"I do think we’re winning. We’re going to win this battle, and Palestine will ultimately – as we’ve been shouting at people for so long – be free.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 14:00hrs on Saturday, 9 August officers on duty in Parliament Square arrested a man on suspicion of an offence under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
"At the time of his arrest, the man was wearing a scarf that partially obscured the slogan on his t-shirt which officers believed read Palestine Action.
"He was taken to one of the nearby prisoner processing points where, once officers realised the t-shirt actually read Plasticine Action, he was de-arrested and was free to leave."