Over the years I’ve increasingly seen the concept of ‘hate crimes’ and especially the idea of ‘hate speech’, as dangerous. These concepts are dangerous because they create classes of people who by dint of who they were born as or who they are, not how they behave, end up getting treated differently, and often more advantageously, to others. ‘Hate crime’ and ‘hate speech’ legislation by their very nature, treats people differently on the grounds of race, gender, sexuality or religion and therefore they go against all ideas of equitable justice where everyone is judged not on who they are but what they do or have done. For example: If someone is murdered, it matters not whether they were murdered because of their race or their sexuality, they are as equally dead as someone murdered by a random nutter in the street for no apparent reason.
Now, judging by information supplied to this blog by one of its contacts in Herefordshire, it seems that the police and the publicly funded diversity establishment in that county have as they say ‘jumped the shark’ and jokes are now considered as something that could potentially lead to ‘hate crime’. Welcome to the ‘Monty Python’ world of the Community Safety Partnership.
My contact was visiting the Kindle Centre, a community centre south of the River Wye, to pick up some leaflets about local activities and his eye was caught by a selection of ‘hate crime’ awareness leaflets. These leaflets, expensively produced at taxpayer expense of course, by the local Community Safety Partnership, are reproduced below and are the usual types of ‘fishing expedition’ publications that encourage people to report ‘hate crime’ if they perceive it as such (never a good idea in my book as perception is so personal) . A couple of the leaflets caught my contact’s eyes, most notably the one stating that jokes could lead to ‘hate crime’. My source had a ‘What on earth!’ moment when they saw this and I don’t blame them. It’s utterly gobsmacking that we’ve got to the stage where cracking a joke is now seen as a gateway to crime. A joke can be funny, not funny, clean, filthy, tasteful or not tasteful, but it shouldn’t be seen as a gateway to crime. They are just jokes.
Here’s the leaflet in question.
Regular readers of this blog will no doubt notice the imprint of the ‘Here for All’ group and the local Community Safety Partnership which has a significant amount of involvement by one Neville Meredith, who is named on at least one of the leaflets. Now for those who do not know, Meredith is formerly Herefordshire’s ‘Diversity’ officer and an evangelist for all things ‘diversity’ related. He then held other ‘diversity’ related jobs, publicly or lottery funded of course and amazingly even managed to become counter-terrorism PREVENT co-ordinator for the county. When you look at the links below to other stories about Meredith, you will see, as I do, that as a known Islamopanderer, he is the very last person who should have anything whatsoever to do with protecting people from Islamic terror. He really can’t be trusted to do such an important job in a county that is the home of the Special Air Service and this position really should have gone to a former armed forces person.
Meredith is a man who has a stunning ability to cling to the public funding teat in the county, even when funding for much more useful things, such as public toilets for example, are being cut. The presence of Meredith’s name should surprise no one who has followed the story of Neville Meredith and his pandering to Islam, he is a man who clings to public funding for his worthless diversity-related projects with all the tenacity of a stubborn clagnut on an anal hair.
Neville Meredith
The name of a Chief Inspector Turner, formerly of Bedfordshire Police, was found printed on a poster near the dispenser for these leaflets and the involvement of a senior police officer, who should be protecting people, getting involved in this sort of ‘non-jobbery’ is depressing but not surprising. You expect people like Neville Meredith to have his moniker on various bits of worthless, but expensive, diversity guff, but senior police officers debase their office by being involved in this crap.
Chief Superintendent Mark Turner
It also bodes very ill for the people of Herefordshire that one of their senior officers hails from an area, Bedfordshire, where violent and disruptive Muslims have been allowed to run riot, by both the police and the local authority, all in the name of ‘diversity’. His involvement in Herefordshire’s policing should give people cause for concern as Chief Supt Turner seems to be pushing the same diversity rubbish as has laid waste to policing in Bedfordshire.
Here’s the leaflet with my contact’s handwritten addendum noting the name and position of the police officer who is involved in this wasteful farrago of bullshit.
It’s utterly ridiculous that the social ‘rejection’ of someone, or holding opinions that some may call ‘ignorance’ is being treated as if is it could lead to something as serious as murder or criminal damage, when it’s plainly not. It’s beyond ridiculous that cracking a joke, even one that some may find offensive could be seen as leading to crime. This is especially worrying because ‘offence’ is such a very personal thing. Things that may offend some people, do not offend others and something so subjective as a joke or a personal rejection or an opinion, should be kept out of the field of criminal law.
For example: As someone who is ‘the only Jew in the village’, I’ve become used to being referred to as ‘Mr Mossad’, after the Israeli intelligence and counter terrorism organisation, in some pubs, most notably pubs with a lot of ex-service personnel, and it doesn’t bother me much at all. After all there are much worse things with which to be compared or associated with. If I received aggro or was offended in a way that was, in my opinion bad or personally unacceptable, then I’d find another pub, I certainly would not go whining to the police. It is very important that mine or anybody else’s personal perception of offence, should not, if we want to have a fair and equitable society, end up with someone being arrested or subjected to criminal penalty merely because a person has taken offence at something someone has said.
It needs to be said that there is plenty of legislation to deal with genuine offences such as offences against the person or criminal damage, but as a society we really don’t need or want any more of this ‘hate crime’ or ‘hate speech’ guff. It’s dangerous and destructive especially to the idea of freedom of speech and it is utterly shameful to see senior police officers such as Chief Superintendent Mark Turner, going along with it.
Something tells me that the way that Chief Supt Turner and those like him will police these ‘hate crimes’ will be highly selective and that he’s unlikely to be arresting, for example, Muslim hate preachers who call for the death of Jews, Christians and gays etc, any time soon. Neither will police officers like this be going after the violent thugs of groups like ‘Hope Not Hate’ or protecting from Leftist assault those with views that the state doesn’t approve of, such as those who say ‘there are only two genders’ or who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman.
Chief Superintendent Turner is yet another worthless police officer promoting equally worthless and dangerous policies and it is highly instructive that he and his force has teamed up with a waste of money and space like Neville Meredith. This is not a police officer worthy of the name and not one who anyone should trust with their security, their safety or to uphold people’s right to speak freely on the matters that concern them.
Links
Other Herefordshire / Neville Meredith related stories from Fahrenheit211
Neville Meredith Herefordshire’s ‘useful idiot’ for Islam
Another West Mercia Police officer presumes to police people’s opinions
Cllr Chappel appeaser of Islam
https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2012/10/01/councillor-chappell-yet-another-herefordshire-useful-idiot/
Hereford, another city another Islamic sex criminal
https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2013/09/12/hereford-another-city-another-islamic-sex-criminal/
Neville Meredith clings to the public teat
Muslims have another go at imposing a mosque where it is not wanted
Even more public and lottery money being spend on Meredith’s diversity vanity projects
More diversity waste
https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2015/01/11/how-much-money-will-this-guff-cost-herefordshire-taxpayers/
A further extension of the “If you can’t catch a criminal – criminalise those you catch.” principle of policing.
Why spend your time confronting violent and threatening people, when it’s so much easier and safer to arrest those who protest against the presence of violent and threatening people ?
The first instinct of a coward is to side with the bully and blame the victim,and this is now happening at all levels.