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

Arrest someone because you can't be arsed/are too scared to police properly?

It was peaceful. But would it have remained peaceful if a Jewish person walked through the middle of it ? Could you personally guarantee that Jewish guy's safety? If he had been allowed to walk through and things got unpleasant and it was all caught on social media would we then have been condemning the police for being complacent? Again a genuine question. I am not religious and I have no affiliation with the police.

What do you mean?

If a Jewish person cannot cross the road without being attacked the protest is not peaceful

The argument is always that there are Jewish people marching in these protests, so why would one more Jewish person make a difference?

You are right if thing had got unpleasant I would have blamed the police for not policing the protest sufficiently to stop that from happening, but I would have been blaming the senior decision makers. I also would have blamed the protestors for not protesting peacefully and for being anti semitic.

But regardless, I don't blame the Jewish man for wanting to cross the road. There shouldn't be a situation where the answer to anti semitism is to hide away the Jewish people or arrest them.

How would you feel if the answer to date rape was that women weren't allowed in pubs and in premises that sold alcohol and if they were found there they would be arrested for inciting the men to rape?

No because we would expect, if it got ‘unpleasant’, for the police to do their bloody jobs and arrest the attackers.
But the attacks would never happen because the ‘peaceful protesters’ are not anti-semites, not at all, no siree, nothing to see here…

The protest was peaceful up to that point but the police couldn't guarantee the man's safety. People are unpredictable when in large numbers and emotions are running high. If it had turned unpleasant it would then have put police officers at risk as well as members of the protest.

So what is the answer? Pussyfoot around these peaceful people in the hope we don’t upset them? Jewish people should hide away because they wouldn’t want to antagonise them?

It is not okay for there to be regular protests which mean Jewish people are not able to go about their business without fear if being attacked or being arrested

It doesn't matter what way this is spun, this is still a fundamental truth.

You didn't answer the question about women in pubs so let me ask you another.

How would you like it if every Saturday, in the place that you lived, you weren't allowed to go down certain streets because men were protesting and if they saw a woman they might attack you, so if you tried to get home your normal way you would either be attacked or arrested.

Is that okay with you? Would you think that was acceptable?

A member of Republic with a blank poster was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace because the police did not think that they could guarantee his safety at a Royal Event. Therefore the Royal crowd presumably were not peaceful and should have been broken up by a suitably equipped police force.

There is a difference between a counter-protest (which holding a blank postcard seems to be) and someone just trying to cross the road in peace.

ANYONE should be able to cross a road without being threatened with arrest because the police don’t like their appearance.

I think peaceful counter-protests should be allowed as well, but it is a different issue.

@susiedaisy1912 I mean this appears to be the Met Police's strategy. We can add "walking while Jewish" to the offence of "walking while black" according to the Met Police clowns.

Because many in these marches are far from peaceful and far from well intentioned.

Some may well be marching for peace, but they do so alongside Hamas flags, swastikas and anti Jewish chanting which rather undermines their cause.

The police were holding up a mirror to the sentiment of those marches by telling the man how much in danger he was, simply by virtue of being a Jewish person in their presence.

And you can see how insidious it is and how marches like that are legitimising these people just from some of the comments people feel safe to make in this thread. For instance, I mentioned how resonant with 1930s Europe the current zeitgeist is and some numpty pipes up about Israel and genocide being to blame with seemingly zero awareness of why what they said is so deeply problematic, rather confirming the point about how at risk Jewish people in London are right now.

If the police are openly admitting how ‘non peaceful’ these marches are then I hope people will give up pretending that what they are doing is moral and virtuous and we all start feeling safer to call it out for what it is.

it’s a shame as the right to protest is one of the many rights that separates western democracies from some of the terrifying regimes causing such suffering in the Middle East - there should be nothing frightening or dangerous about people coming together in the name of peace; so it does rather beg the question what they are really there for !?

I know, that was the point I was somewhat sarcastically making

That they can't both be peaceful and it be impossible for a Jewish man to walk safely through them

In the context of my other posts this probably made more sense

Sorry, got it 👍🏼 me being slow on the uptake !

No no it's fine, you shouldn't have to know who has posted what for it to make sense, I meant that I had totally got that as a stand alone post why you read it how you did

How would you like it if every Saturday, in the place that you lived, you weren't allowed to go down certain streets because men were protesting and if they saw a woman they might attack you, so if you tried to get home your normal way you would either be attacked or arrested

I would avoid that area like the plague and plan another route. I would not put myself in unnecessary danger regardless if police were there or not. My own sense of self preservation would tell me this was a daft idea.

And if you accidentally ended up there? Perhaps you had somewhere important to get to like an appointment and this was the only route? Are you still okay with either not going there or being arrested?

I find it a little unbelievable that you would be okay with being blocked out of sections where you live every week without complaint tbh

”The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
Edmund Burke (although now some debate as to whether he paraphrased an earlier writer)
This is my favourite quotation and the one I try to live my life by

And that's why Tank Man is iconic and you are not.

Oh I absolutely would complain. But whilst complaining and campaigning to get such a spiteful misogynistic demonstration stopped, I would in the meantime take a different route home or if I found myself accidentally there I would take the police's advice who were on the ground and aware of how volatile the situation was or could possibly be.

In reply to dimlla theoretically men only protest

Who is Tank Man ? 😁

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man

Ah yes I remember when this happened.

He wasn't arrested for having a blank piece of paper;

“Officer came and asked for my details. He confirmed that if I wrote ‘Not My King’ on it, he would arrest me under the Public Order Act because someone might be offended.”

The Jewish man wasn't protesting, he didn't have a sign, placard or flag and he wasn't calling out.