> I might just be being cynical but this sounds like an intelligence led operation to remove people who were at a high risk of commiting public disorder.

You are being cynical. You cannot be preemptively arrested for having a "high risk of committing public disorder", which is what happened. Many people, who actually had no plans to demonstrate or do anything other than spend the day drinking and trying not to watch the ceremony, were subjected to dawn raids for no reason other than that they are on police watchlists (along with thousands and thousands of other peaceful protestors)

It's so incredibly easy to get on a police watchlist now - you merely have to turn up to a protest to get yourself on file. Pensioners have had files for merely walking along a protest route and then going home.