Police are criminalising opinions, say campaigners: The Times 11/05/2019

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/police-are-criminalising-opinions-say-campaigners-2w6bskfdj

Glad Gilligan is covering this.

How utterly illogical is it to support free speech but criticise a campaign for it, on the basis that the advocate said something you don't agree with.

What on earth difference does the person's difference of opinion make if they win the fight for free speech?

You can go back to criticising them for what they say, once they have cemented their, and your, right to say it.

Datun
Well said

Dancing raven I'm twitter banned but what if Kate's share of nice things was added to Harry ' nice things? As a contributer of nice things for Kate et al I'd be very happy with all of the 50% that didn't go to VRR going to this campaign. Obviously others would have to agree.

Genderfreelass

That's a really good idea but you would need to ask Debbie as they have the funds. I also fear that 25% has already been sent to the 3rd recipient.

There is an interesting exception to the published cases of police heavy handness against gender dissent.

A phonecall from someone at the Green Pary Conference in Bristol sent a group of police officers to the scene. The police had been told that the conference go-ers felt unsafe because anti-trans protesters were distributing transphobic hate leaflets.

The officers were bemused to see three polite women handing out GRA leaflets from Fairplay for Women. They left the Green party in no doubt that the women were not breaking any laws and were entitled to hand out the leaflets. They were bemused because they couldn't see how anyone could be intimidated or made to feel unsafe by the material or the women's actions.

I think that there was a difference in response because the officers were able to witness, at first hand, the exaggeration, hyperbole and lies of the caller.

Bristol have obviously not been "trained" yet! Good on them for their common sense approach tho ☺

That happened last October.

Thread here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3386612-Police-called-to-Green-Party-Conference

And they called the police twice at the recent Stonewall conference protest.

It seems there is a great fear of action to create legal clarity around police powers and the accounting of what crime is actually happening in the country.

Panicked smearing is as panicked smearing does.

Cutting to the chase: cui bono? Why would anybody be happy that the police are acting in excess of the law? Why would anybody be happy that crime figures are unreliable?

Odd that anyone would be so threatened by efforts to clarify the limits of police power and accuracy of crime figures that they would join a messageboard specifically to deter others from helping to achieve that clarity.

Very odd.

Or, on the other hand, not odd at all. Cui bono?

Panicked smearing is as panicked smearing does

It's interesting isn't. I would have thought that TRAs would be supporting these legal cases, after all as the TRAs are right, the transphobes will lose and this will set useful precedents for TRAs to use in the future.

Yet TRAs seem desperate for these legal cases to not be heard

And they called the police twice at the recent Stonewall conference protest

Good reminder! Once again, police action was triggered by using certain words - we don't know what they were but I can take an educated guess (intimidation, abusive, offensive, transphobic, homophobic, people feeling unsafe blah blah). When the officers saw for themselves that the behaviour was perfectly lawful and no-one was at risk, they shrugged, talked to the protesters pleasantly and walked away. They probably reported to the control room that the caller had given misleading and exaggerated information.

And don't forget Julia Long and City of London police at Accenture.

Julia Long and Accenture

That was different.

The police are duty bound to assist (by force if necessary) organisers and security staff who want to eject unwanted participants/guests etc. It's an everyday, routine power that shops, pubs, buildings and householders etc need to deal with challenging situations, drunks, etc.

The police will not care about the rights and wrongs of the participant's case. They have no interest in who you are, your sexuality or why you think you ought to be allowed to stay. If security say that they want you out, then that's the end of the matter. You will be asked nicely. You will be asked firmly. You will be touched lightly to steer you towards the door. If all those warnings fail then more force will be used.

I felt that the police action on that day had been misrepresented to suit an agenda. I thought that it was the wrong thing to do - because it was hyperbole, spin and exaggeration. There was nothing to criticise the police for.

Thanks for everyone's support and comments so far. It really means a lot.

Re the Scottish question, we are getting in touch with someone re Police Scotland and hope to work with them alongside our action which will cover E&W forces. (IIRC, PS often exchange policy advice with COP so if we are successful it suggests PS and PSNI might change their policies too.)

If anyone has any contacts with PSNI let us know otherwise we'll try reaching out to GC groups over there in due course, as well.

Thanks again.

Good to know that you're hoping to extend to Scotland, FairCop.

More than ten thousand nice things now!