Guest piece by Tina Brooker:
If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear – George Orwell.
For anyone who has read Orwell’s 1984 I am sure you would agree it was a rather chilling read, but just a work of fiction right? – Wrong in the year 2019 “wrong think” has jumped off the page and out into real life.
In January 2019, Harry Miller, a 53 year old former Police Officer was investigated by Humberside Police for retweeting a poem which was anonymously reported as “offensive and transphobic”.
Miller asked the visiting officer if he had committed a crime, to which he stated “you have not committed a crime but your tweeting is being recorded as a non-crime hate incident and I am here to check your thinking“.
Essentially offensive speech or behaviour investigated by police is recorded in cases where no crime has been committed, irrespective of whether there is any evidence to identify the hate element and kept on record.
Miller decided to bring a case against the Humberside Police and the College of Policing whose Hate Crime Operational Guidance (HCOG) forms the basis of current practice.
Miller argued this week in the High Court “the idea that a law abiding citizen can have their name recorded against a hate incident on a crime report when there was neither hate nor a crime undermines principles of justice, free expression, democracy and commonsense.”
Over 3,000 people are arrested every year in the UK for offensive comments posted online. Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 criminalises online speech. There is no requirement for a prosecutor to prove that there was any intention to cause offence.
Harry is now Chief Executive of Campaign Group Fair Cop which was created to bring like minded people together who were concerned about the extent to which the hate crime legislation and the way it is being effected in the UK may contravene our human rights of expression and freedom of belief.
My Thoughts
I believe we are witnessing an ever increasing number of political convictions and persecution for having the wrong political beliefs (wrong think).
When the Police (and the Judiciary) fail to behave in a politically neutral manner we are veering into authoritarianism which ultimately leads to a loss of freedom and liberty. This is a gross infringement on our civil liberties and must be fought with all our might.
With the advent of social media this has become a truly terrifying prospect given that our “thoughts” are out there and out there for good – any one at any time can “take offence” and land you with a Crime Report against your name which can impinge on your future career prospects and earning capability if a DBS check is required.
This is a landmark case with far reaching consequences and we can only hope that the Judge is politically neutral has commonsense (has not been on a common purpose course) and puts an end to this lunacy once and for all.
BECAUSE WHO KNOWS IT COULD BE YOU NEXT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCxQI9U_xHE
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