London Jew accused of "breach of the peace" by looking "openly Jewish"

[everydaywonderful]

I'm gobsmacked by this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68856360

Fucking unbelievable.

If the fact this happened isn't horrifying enough, people are actually trying to defend it.

Whether or not this man deliberately tried to get a response by walking near the racists is irrelevant; the point is that we apparently have vast numbers of people who are likely to attack someone for being a Jew, and rather than arrest them the police have decided they're ok with it (or maybe just powerless to stop it) and so instead told the Jew that if he gets attacked then it's his fault for not hiding his ethnicity/religion. One rather suspects that if a muslim woman was ordered to remove her headscarf because Britain First were protesting and they might be provoked, people here wouldn't be shrugging their shoulders and repeating that it's her fault and she knows exactly what she's doing, or that the police have every right to arrest her for breaching the peace.

This man should be allowed to be as outwardly Jewish as he likes and the police's duty is to keep him safe. He should be allowed to wrap himself in an Israeli flag, loudly sing Jewish songs and vigorously dance Jewish dances all while juggling matzo balls and the police's fundamental duty is to protect him. If there is a reason they are unable to fulfil this duty (like swarms of racists descending on the streets of London every week) they need to ask the government for extra help, like calling in the army to help disperse the racists. Full stop.

I can absolutely believe it. Probably beat the shit out of him for good measure. The Met are not nice to non-white people.

Can you clarify what you mean by this please?

I'm Jewish and I don't think anything about this suggests the police are pro-protestors and anti Jews, I agree with Gideon Falter (the guy from the video) that it's more a result of the police being put in a difficult position. Sadly I also don't doubt we have already seen people going 'Oooh, bit of a coincidence eh that this guy who is chief exec of the Campaign Against Antisemitism decided to walk through the march' and assuming it was a publicity stunt.

I have attended a rally myself and felt safe but, as this video has shown, there will be some protestors who assume anyone Jewish not on the march must support Israel (and on the whole they would be right) and feel they are entitled to have a go. I do think there is a degree of glee among some of the left to feel they have a group (Zionist Jews) that it's 'OK' for them to be hateful to because hey, they're colonisers and therefore baddies. And that is not OK.

Yet I still dislike the idea of banning the marches - the best way for them to end, would be for Israel's bombardment to end, ideally with an exchange of remaining hostages and a peace plan, which would be nice if unlikely.

It is a such a relief after reading the thread on CIME board (which is just awful), to read this one. Thank you to everyone for recognising antisemitism and wanting to do something to address it. I do think there are practical things we can all do:

• write to your MP, express your concerns and ask that their party commits to a national strategy for tackling antisemitism in their election manifesto and makes it a priority if they win the election
• email Mumsnet and ask them to provide training for ALL their moderators on antisemitism so there is zero tolerance for it on talk boards
• ask your children’s schools to run sessions on antisemitism and talk about it in PHSE
• ask your employer to run a session or sessions for all employees. Campaign against antisemitism, Community security trust and Antisemitism policy trust are brilliant organisations that all offer these types of sessions
• finally, Gideon (the man in the video) is planning a walk (mentioned in the longer CAA video) next Saturday. The start point will be posted on Friday. Lots of people physically standing alongside British Jews will send a strong message

If this happened to another group of people there would be outrage. I'm so sorry to my Jewish friends. I dont know what has happened to the UK.

Black people have been arrested for being black and driving the wrong kind of car, or being in the wrong area. Muslims have been falsely arrested under counter terrorism laws. So yes the police do discriminate all the time. Of course it isn’t ok but at least in this circumstance they actually apologised.

This. This was the first thing that went through my mind.

Can you imagine if someone were to be castigated for wearing a cross or a hijab?

Thanks for this reasoned and thoughtful post.

Did they tell the black people it was because they were being outwardly black? And the muslims that it was because they were being outwardly muslim?

The Casey report found the Met Police to be rife with Islamophobia

This isn't a "Oh I bet it wouldn't have happened to a black person, a Muslim etc" moment

This is a "the Met Police have a fundamental issue towards women and minorities that has been highlighted time and time again and it's simply not acceptable"

Totally agree that the Met are awful where other minority ethnic groups are concerned. I don't think anyone in their right mind would suggest otherwise.

Worth noting that yes, they issued an apology for this incident and then had to issue ANOTHER apology for the crassness of their original apology, I mean you couldn't make it up.

This.

My family were hounded out of Hamburg and my dad arrived here on the Kindertransport as a frightened 7yo. He's now 93, has contributed so much, feels the UK is his home and feels sickened to read this.

That first 'apology' was despicable, the fact they released it without apparently even realising how awful it was it definitely seems to show that this isn't just the odd racist policeman but rather a very deep-rooted issue across the force; presumably a few people at least would have approved it before it went out, and it was still only understood to be problematic after a public backlash. Just shocking.

I can only imagine the horror he feels. How frightening for him.

Thank you for your post and to the OP for posting this thread on chat. I sincerely hope it's not moved to the conflict in the m.e board (a vast echo chamber); these kinds of anti Semitic incidents need to be highlighted and dragged out into the open, so we can collectively condemn this vile behaviour. At the moment those with the loudest voices are " winning" the propaganda battle - those of us with moderate views need to start piping up and demanding that any acts of anti semitism will not be tolerated. There is never any justification for overt hatred on our streets.

Oh that's so so sad. Bless Your poor dad. How has is it come to this? It's sickening

RetroDesigned thank you, yes it's frightening and I know even if I wasn't Jewish I'd be really concerned as to how things have changed here and what's happening.

You and your family are in my thoughts. I hope your dad knows that the vast majority of us don't think this way. We stand with you.

Absolutely this, as I say all the time on here we are the silent majority and he should know that if things got really really ugly then we will rise up and be behind you all the way.

Who would you and the silent majority rise up against LibbyLemoncake?

What's that saying for evil to prevail?
When good people do nothing.

Maireas, plenty of good people doing nothing in terms of the Palestinian people.