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Met silent as King’s Army accused of breaching anti-fascism laws in London

On 5 October, we covered that Turning Point UK promoted a march by ‘King’s Army’ in Soho:


In that article, we highlighted that some described the group as ‘blackshirts’. Since then, we’ve learned there’s a very simple reason why you don’t get blackshirts on the streets anymore, and that’s ‘the law’:


The King’s Army

As we reported, King’s Army is a militant Christian organisation with a heavy emphasis on ‘militant’:

Images of key figures in the King's Army who are described as 'majors' and 'colonels'

Images of the King's Army in formation

People ridiculed their march in Soho:

You can read more about the wild origins of King’s Army in this thread:

We recommend reading all of it, because it takes several unexpected twists (Simon Cowell pops up at one point). The thread ends with this:

The blackshirt laws

As YouTuber Patrick Hurley highlighted above, the UK has laws against individuals from wearing uniforms which signify their involvement in a political organisation. There is an exception, which is that uniforms may be worn on a “ceremonial, anniversary, or other special occasion” where it “will not be likely to involve risk of public disorder”. This caveat exists – rightly or wrongly – to allow things like the Orangemen marches (as they discussed in parliament at the time).

The King’s Army march in London doesn’t seem to have been marking a special occasion; it’s also obvious the uniforms aren’t a one-off:

The question is this: is King’s Army a political organisation?

Politics

Here’s what King’s Army say on their website:

We are not a political organization [sic]. We don’t stand for, represent, or align ourselves with any political party.

Oh okay, so that’s cleared up.

Or it would be if I didn’t click one of their videos anyway, because this is what they say in the very first second of their Spiritual Confrontation London:

Caption in a video which reads: 'King's Army Soldiers make a stand against abortion and euthanasia outside parliament in the heart of London!'

I’m confused now, because ‘soldiers’ making a ‘stand’ against ‘political issues’ outside the ‘political centre’ in the ‘nation’s capital’ sounds like a distinctly political thing to do?

No-tier policing when it comes to the King’s Army

We contacted the Metropolitan Police to ask how they plan to approach this allegedly apolitical group the next time they’re engaging in unmistakably political actions. The Met did not get back to us.

If you live in London yourself, you may want to ask the Met why a US-backed ‘aPoLiTiCaL’ group is running around in uniform doing political activism. Be sure to let us know what they tell you if they bother responding.

Featured image via King’s Army

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.