The policing system in the United Kingdom has gone beyond what it has been over the last decade, which is a mess, and has now descended into a dangerous farce with a journalist receiving a death threat that the police will do nothing about. When I saw the account by the journalist, Jonaya English, speaking about her attempts to get those making death threats to her arrested, I like Ms English, got the distinct impression that some of our police forces are being highly selective in the manner with which they enforce the law. Despite Ms English having the right under English law and specifically the free speech clause inserted into the 2006 Racial and Religious Hatred Act by the House of Lords, to criticise or mock any religion or belief system she chooses, Greater Manchester Police are victim blaming Ms English for the death threats she is receiving. Police also seem to be threatening Ms English with legal action even though she is plainly and obviously the complainant here.

In the video linked below Ms English speaks of her correspondence with Greater Manchester Police, the victim blaming she experienced from different officers and the failure to act on evidence that she supplied to the police regarding the death threats. Ms English also details the apparent threats by officers to treat her not as the victim of death threats but as the ‘criminal’ because of her political views, most notably her views about Islam, views that Ms English is legally entitled to hold because of the Lords Amendment to the 2006 Act as mentioned above.

I found it incredible that police officers are behaving in this way. What is particularly shocking is that this behaviour is not coming from junior police constables but from more senior officers allegedly of Sergeant and Superintendent rank, who should know the law better. These officers and the Greater Manchester Police as a whole, are failing not only to protect the person of Ms English from bodily assault, but also are failing to protect, as they should, her right to speak freely about Islam within the law, which Ms English claims she has.

I must say at this point that although I have not perused all of the content published by this journalist, what I have seen of it gives me no grounds to believe that Ms English isn’t telling the truth. Is she mocking a belief system? Well yes sometimes, but then she’s allowed to do that, it’s the law. Is she inciting violence? Well, I see no evidence of this whatsoever. Is she highlighting the problems of crimes committed by a certain community, yes, but justice requires that criminality is exposed and punished no matter what ‘community’ the offender or offenders belong to. This is a basic tenet of civilised countries with fair and balanced policing and justice systems with the roots of this desire for legal balance going back to Biblical precepts. I must admit that some of the content produced by Ms English is highly entertaining and I especially admire what I call her skewering with politeness of Left wing activists giving them enough rope for them to metaphorically hang themselves with.

I defy anyone to watch the account of Ms English of her dealings with the police over the matter of the death threats aimed at her without getting angry. Ms English doesn’t deserve to be treated in the way that she has alleged she has been treated by Greater Manchester Police. She should be treated as a complainant and not a criminal. In fact I would go so far as to say that no British subject, no matter what their colour or creed should be treated in the manner that Ms English appears to have been treated.

I know from my reading of history and my observation of countries that are not as relatively stable as Britain has been up until recently, that for there to be a free and fair society the administration and enforcement of the law needs to be equal. In countries where the police are routinely capricious, corrupt and inconsistent in the way they enforce the law you have widespread distrust and, in some cases, hatred of the police because the police in these places are seen not as law enforcers, but instead are classed as oppressors. The way that Greater Manchester Police have behaved over this issue does not strike me as being impartial, fair or just. The primary crime that is being alleged here is a serious one, a threat to kill, but it seems to be one that GMP seem intent on not investigating even though they should.

It would be interesting to see what GMP’s response would be to a threat to kill against a Muslim with a similar public profile to that of Ms English? Would they treat the complainant in the appalling manner with which they’ve treated Ms English or would they alternatively pull out all the stops and immediately and effectively investigate such a threat as they are required to do when a serious Offences Against the Person Act crime is alleged? On the basis of how Greater Manchester Police have treated Ms English and the increasing willingness to police Muslims and Islam favourably I would hazard a guess that the Muslim complainant would be treated far, far better than Ms English plainly has been treated. This double standard needs to end, we all need and deserve to be policed equally and our freedoms, freedoms bought for us at great cost and over centuries, need to be protected from police officers who now see themselves more as social engineers rather than impartial enforcers of the Law.