A man who was arrested by police in England for asking who elected King Charles III says he’s worried that his arrest could have a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression in the country. Symon Hill said he was handcuffed, dragged away by officers and put in a police van after asking “Who elected him?” at an event in Oxford proclaiming King Charles as monarch. Several other arrests connected to anti-royalist sentiment or protests following the death of Queen Elizabeth II were carried out elsewhere in the UK, including a woman who held up a “fuck imperialism, abolish monarchy” sign in Edinburgh, and a man who heckled Prince Andrew as he walked alongside the Queen’s coffin. Meanwhile, someone was led away by police in London after holding up a sign that said “not my king.” Paul Powlesland, a barrister, was subsequently warned by police in Parliament Square that he would be arrested if he wrote the same words on a blank piece of paper. Hill’s actions barely amounted to a protest, he was just walking home from church when he stumbled upon an official event in Oxford proclaiming Charles as the new king – one of many similar events that took place over the UK last weekend. “I am involved in some campaigns on some issues, I do oppose the monarchy. But I wasn’t carrying a badge, or a placard,” he said. “The first part [of the proclamation] was about mourning the previous monarch, and I didn’t say anything, I respect people’s grief. But then it moved on to declare Charles as our only rightful lord and king. That’s when I called out, ‘who elected him?’.” Hill said his comment caused barely a ripple at first, with no one really reacting apart from one person who told him to shut up, to which he said that the UK was having a head of state imposed on it. “Before I knew it, there were security guards pushing me away, police dragging me off, handcuffing me, and placing me in a van,” he said.