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Man arrested over 'Plasticine Action' T-shirt hopes to get protesters animated
The Guardian
|August 19, 2025
It was only after Miles Pickering arrived at Scotland Yard following his arrest that the police realised they had got things embarrassingly wrong.
The T-shirt worn by the Brighton engineer did not express support for a proscribed terrorist group - instead the words on it read "Plasticine Action" and inside the letter O was an image of the stop-motion character Morph giving two thumbs up.
The text under the logo said: "We oppose AI-generated animation."
Speaking to the Guardian, Pickering admitted it was designed to be an easy mistake to make, appearing to look like the logo of Palestine Action, the protest group banned under terrorism legislation last month.
His arrest - one of 532 that day - happened at a protest in Parliament Square in London on 9 August, after a police officer glanced at his top.
"He looked down and he said: 'Right, you're nicked,' said Pickering.
Outside the Met police headquarters at what essentially was a pop-up booking suite (made from two gazebos) dealing with the large volume of arrested people, a large group of protesters cheered as people were brought in by officers.
This story is from the August 19, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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