The news that two police officers stopped the van in Stoke on Trent belonging to a campaigner for an English Parliament for flying an England flag on his van and playing the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ should send a shiver down Briton’s spines and elicit righteous anger. That this incident comes just a few weeks after a heritage railway volunteer was threatened with arrest for ‘racism’ by members of the public who’d overheard and then reported the man’s private conversation to his superiors should disgust anybody who believes that freedom of speech should be almost totally sacrosanct.
Is this where we are in Britain today? With members of the public volunteering to be police informers because they encounter differing opinions and police officers, it certainly seems so and it’s a culture that needs to be resisted. Offence, or the perception of offence by individuals or groups should never trump the rights to freedom of speech, as the end result of such an ‘offence culture’ is tyranny. A society that imposes ‘speech code’ offences is allowing itself to be guided by those who are the most thin skinned or the most easily offended and such societies are not those who respect liberty would want to live in.
The Stoke incident was truly shocking, not just for the incident itself which is bad enough, but for what it tells us about Staffordshire Police. It appears that the sort of leftist thought crime ‘Bramshill Bullshit’ ‘diversity’ guff, that is beloved of senior officers, is being enthusiastically embraced by the sort of street level bullies that the more junior officers involved in this incident represent. I’m disgusted by these officers, they are no better in their censoriousness than the black clad thugs who shut down a talk by the conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos at a Californian university in January. In fact I would venture to say that these officers are worse than the scum who rioted against Milo’s right to free speech because these police officers are backed up by the power of the law and that of their office. These bullies in uniform deserve to be exposed and have proper, meaningful disciplinary action taken against them by their force. They should not have their misdeed swept under the carpet accompanied by bland excuses from Staffordshire Police. We pay these bastards wages to protect us and not to hassle law abiding people who have opinions that some may disagree with.
Here’s a section from the Daily Express with their coverage of the incident. As is usual policy for this blog the original text is in italics where as this blog’s comments are in plain text.
The Daily Express said:
The two officers have been accused of being “anti-English” by Eddie Bone, who was pulled over while driving a customised van as part of his Campaign for an English Parliament.
The campaigner, who wants England to replicate Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with separate parliaments in order to better focus on national issues, was furious and upset by the warning.
He filmed the exchange, which included the officers explaining why they had pulled over the van.
It’s a shame that the Express has pixelated the faces of these officers because we the people deserve and need to know who these bullies are.
The thought crime officers who harassed a peaceful English Parliament campaigner in Stoke.
One of the officers said: “This is not the normal thing that goes on in Hanley on a Saturday. We like to know who is doing what in the town.”
When pushed for clarification by Mr Bone, he added: “Stoke-on-Trent does have quite a diverse population, okay?
What on earth should the composition of the population have anything to do with anything? However, if Staffordshire Police has a policy of pandering to Muslims, who are the most likely to be be offended and express their offence violently, then the behaviour of these officers becomes more explainable if not excusable.
“The Jerusalem thing going and the [flag saying] English Parliament etcetera, etcetera – some people might take offence to that.
“I’m not saying people will but I’m saying some people might take offence at that.”
I’m not a Christian and I’m not offended by the St George’s flag nor am I offended by the song Jerusalem. Seeing the St George’s flag or hearing Jerusalem doesn’t affect my relationship with my deity or attack him in any way shape or form. I don’t have to fly the flag from my flagpole and I don’t have to sing the tune if I don’t want to, it’s called ‘freedom’ and something that these bullying knob-heads in uniform appear to have forgotten about. The tune and the flag are just part and parcel of my nation and not at all anything that gives offence. But anyway even if I was ‘offended’ it doesn’t really matter and should definitely not be a police matter.
The tone of the officers is distinctly menacing. If the account given by the Express is correct. It reminds me a little of a gangster running a protection racket saying to a publican or a shopkeeper ‘nice business you’ve got there, be a shame if something happened to it’. The police should not be getting involved in highly subjective matters of ‘offence’, whether those liable to be offended are members of minorities or not.
These are not the police officers that we either need or deserve, they are bullies nothing more nothing less. It’s ‘officers’ like these that are helping to encourage more and more people, most of whom are law abiding and generally respectful of those tasked with protecting us, to start to refer to the police as ‘filth’ as that is the only way to describe forces that produce and sustain officers such as this. Name them, shame them and then get them out of Staffordshire Police.
Links
Disgraceful bullying officers victimise English Parliament campaigner
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/768515/police-england-flag-jerusalem-offend-people-stoke-byelection
The spectre of ‘Iron Curtain’ style public informants comes to the United Kingdom
