Guest (2) Gentlemen: Have you been harassed in London at all?
Prabhupāda: I don't think, but they are Londoners. They know better than me.
Devotee: Yes, we have been harassed many times. We have been arrested and left from the prison about twelve o'clock, one o'clock in the night, and then we were far from that place to here.
Devotee: When was that?
Revatīnandana: The last time was a week ago. (laughs)
Guest (2): Would you say that the Americans are generally less tolerant than Londoners to you or more tolerant?
Revatīnandana: America or here?
Guest (2): Yes. Which is the worse and which is the better?
Prabhupāda: America is more tolerant, I think.
Devotee: More tolerant. (laughs) America is more tolerant. But they're not arresting now, you see, and wherever they go, they chant freely, but here almost every week we are arrested on the streets and harassed.
Guest (2): Is it because possibly because you are less well known over here than in America?
Revatīnandana: No. Because a very conservative legal system and obsolete laws, like that.
Sister Mary: What law can arrest you?
Devotee: Well, we fought this out in the court here and the magistrate allowed that we can chant. There is no law who can stop chanting. But the police, authorities, they say, well, "You are obstructing the traffic." And under that we are arrested.
Prabhupāda: They can find out anything.
Devotee: An excuse. It's an excuse.
Revatīnandana: "Blocking the traffic, disturbing the peace..."
Haṁsadūta: Anyway, the original purpose of America was to have religious freedom. Therefore they left England.
Revatīnandana: There is constitutional guarantee...
Haṁsadūta: So they still have some respect for people who are trying to glorify God.
Prabhupāda: In American in every court case, we win. (laughter)
Revatīnandana: Well, we lost here several times.
Devotee: Last, year, when we went to the police authorities for our procession here, and we wanted to make three rathas and the police officer, he was so envious, he said, "No. There is no law, we can put three rathas on the street." We said, "What is the harm? Won't you give us protection?" "So many people will be dying and killed under the ratha. If the ratha is so big and all that. People will be killed." I said, "They are big all over the world. This is for God consciousness."
Prabhupāda: So many people are dying by motor accidents, but do they stop motor car?
English guest: Do you think the situation will get better in London.
Devotee: Yes.
Guest (2): You do?
Revatīnandana: Wherever there is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa going on, things will get better.
Guest (2): Say, if the average London policeman, if he could be convinced to chant.
Revatīnandana: Convinced? No. Some of them are less hostile, some of them more hostile, naturally. We can chant on one side of Oxford St., but we cannot chant on the other side of the street because there's two different police departments. It's like that. There is no hard and fast way to figure it out. You just have to try it and see.
Devotee: One night at Picadilly Circus we were eight and four were arrested, and four other people, no, they let them go. So I said, "No, I was arrested." (laughter) When they went to the court, Prabhupāda, they got one pound five each... They were altogether eight, and four were arrested. They also doing the same offense. It is same offense. So he said, "All right, let them go."