From the Sex Pistols blasting their 1977 republican anthem “God Save the Queen” whilst floating down the Thames on the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, to the attempt by activists to organize a “zombie picnic” to shower the 2011 royal wedding in “maggot confetti,” expressions of anti-monarchy sentiment continue to be a part of British political culture. Unfortunately, so too are clampdowns on these expressions of civil disobedience.

Despite being one of the highest-selling singles in the week it was released, the BBC banned the Sex Pistol’s anthem from airing on its channels and police arrested members of the band after their performance on the Queen’s Jubilee. Over thirty years later, the planners of the zombie picnic would meet the same fate.

During the UK’s twelve days of official mourning since the Queen’s death, police have continued this tradition and used arrests, or the threat of them, to suppress expressions of anti-monarchist sentiment. However, this time they have clamped down on instances of anti-royalist expressions, much less organized than that of the Pistols or zombies.