Peter Tatchell Arrested - Outrageous

[Everanewbie]

AIBU to be outraged my Peter Tatchell's latest arrest?

For those who have not heard, the famous campaigner attended a recent Gaza protest. He held a placard that demanded Israel stop the genocide, and that Hamas are a shameful, and reiterated their official terrorist status for the torture an execution of a Palestinian man that attended an anti-Hamas demonstration in Gaza. He was arrested on the basis of inciting racial and religious hatred. The police have since apologised indicating that they believed him to be part of a counter-protest. He spent 5 hours in a cell.

I think a few hours in a police cell is exactly what Peter Tatchell needs. A few years would be even better.

I couldn't care less what happens to that dodgy man.

The flaw with that is that he was only behind bars for five hours, and may well sue the police and end up using our taxpayer money he wins to push paedophilia.

Considering he literally wrote the forward for the baned book by the leadre of P.I.E (basiclly an instruction manual on how to groom and rape children), wrote a letter published in the Guardian excusing pedophilia and most recently in a video interview said that adults have sex with a 9 year old isnt harmful. Plus all his anti women bs I really don't care what happens to him.
Oh for those who don't know P.I.E is the Pedophile Information Exchange

Do you see the problem with locking people up because random people (like you and me) think they are dodgy?

Do you see that the fact that you and I would love him to be serving 10 years for paedophile apologism is 100% irrelevant to whether the police should be locking people up for nothing?

He is purposely provocative on a number of issues, fully expecting to be arrested then cry about how badly he’s been treated.

Highly doubt that he opposes the genocide in Gaza, especially as he has a history for defending Islamophobia. Knowing what a vile creature he is, he probably was there to incite his racial and religious hatred.

Nasty man.

His previous writings have been absolutely clear with his desperate "it's taken out of context / I don't have a copy of the letter" because he unbelievably runs an organisation that goes into schools to speak to children about sex - something which he's over invested in.

The man's a menace and should be nowhere near children or schools. No matter how much he tries to sanitise his repellent views.
So like most parents - I don't care what happens to him. The less we hear from him the better.

Given most of us think he should have been behind bars years ago, you can't really expect us to give a shiny shite if he has been inconvenienced for a few hours. Revolting man.

Do you think demanding a proscribed terrorist organisation stop executing political prisoners is Islamophobia? Even so, while defending PT is obviously pretty contentious but as a gay rights campaigner, I can understand him not having a lot of love for the much of the Islamic world.

I didn't know all that. I just know PT as the man who thinks the age of consent should be lowered to enable men to have sex with minors, which is bad enough.

Going back to the OPs original post. Yes, it's outrageous that someone can be arrested if they haven't committed a crime. But, men who think grooming children into sex should be in prison so I can't get upset about his arrest.

That is a really mealy-mouthed bunch of twaddle. "They said it and I just repeated it but don't agree with it..." Bullshit. What that comes down to is that he realised he had gone too far, couldn't climb down from stuff he had clearly said, so tried weasley-words to get around it.

As he defends paedophilia I’m afraid I don’t give a shit. He will have brought it on himself.

Why are you outraged when you know what happened?

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “Mr Tatchell was initially detained after concerns were raised with officers by stewards from the Palestine Coalition protest. Officers spoke with him and, believing him to be a counter protester, directed him to join the counter protest in its designated area. When he attempted to rejoin the Palestine Coalition protest he was arrested on suspicion of breaching the conditions in place and to prevent a breach of the peace."

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/peter-tatchell-hamas-metropolitan-police-palestine-solidarity-campaign-palestine-b2753082.html

He had a right to protest, but after complaints by Palestinian protestors for his anti Hamas placard the police wrongly believed him to be part of the counter protest thus was in the wrong place.

That's it.

You are outraged over a misunderstanding?

If there is to be any outrage on this it's those from the Palestian protest who, offended by his anti Hamas placard, wanted rid of him.

I agree both with PT being an odious man but also with the sentiment of this protest, and concerns with the actions of the police (not limited to this incident, of course).

However, PT is such an awful vehicle for any kind of protest thanks to his terrible views that have already been mentioned. But he thinks he’s on the side of the angels, he’s absolutely immune to any criticism and so he doesn’t know when to shut up,
doesn’t ever realise that his presence isn’t helping the cause.

Thank you. That appears to be a more credible explanation of what happened rather than the one sided bleating by PT on his website.

If your concern is about whether the police should have and should be able to exercise their power to arrest and detain people then frame it as such.

Of course it is something that needs scrutiny but it is vital tool in law and order. The police have a central role in maintaining public safety. Sometimes to do that they have to remove people from a situation. That can be on the basis of a claim from a member or the public or situation they are witnessing.

For example the police can arrest and detain someone they believe committed domestic violence. They can do this based on an accusation or their own suspicions.

Sometimes individuals and groups of individuals are intent on fighting and arguing. They do in public. They need to be kept apart and stopped from fighting. The police sometimes need to be able to remove people and arresting them is a means to an end that is justified on public safety grounds.

The consequences of stripping the police of these powers would be catastrophic for many people and many vulnerable women.

Just to be clear, I only posted his response to paedophilia on his website that he condemns it. I didn't know the full background or that newspaper clip (which I only saw after I posted his response). What was missing from that newspaper clip was him saying 'I disagree with it" which he included in his website response, so he hasn't been consistent just on that score.

I'm still not arsed I'm afraid.

Theres far better people out there to bat for than him.

These "misunderstandings" keep happening though, well it seems like it to me. And tend to be in one direction. I think that the officer(s) involved have wilfully misunderstood here. I think that they chose the easy option of arresting an older man on his own, doing nothing wrong to keep the peace rather than arresting a horde of antisemitic fanatics who they fear will riot should anyone divert from the approved message.

You’re reaching there OP.

You need to read more about all he’s done to know that this wasn’t an accident by him but a deliberate publicity stunt that he orchestrated.

If it were a publicity stunt, managing to turn the crowd against his very reasonable placard and then get arrested for, again stating reasonable views surely proved the point that the Palestine marches and the policing of them are entirely unreasonable?

He is a horrendous human being with some very dubious views but what he has been arrested for here is unfortunately not down to the views he SHOULD be arrested for.

Very strange, indeed but not surprising.

Nah. He's a professional attention seeker with a REALLY dodgy past and very iffy ethics. I agree with him that Hamas are a terrible organisation. I also suspect that his somewhat unexpected stance on that angle of a pro-Palestinian protest was entirely calculated and that he isn't actually all that bothered about what they do as a political and terrorist organisation. But I could be wrong and these are just my thoughts on the matter.