Heroic defender of free speech is seeking a Judicial Review of unfair police rules that allow police to record incidents as hate crimes even when there is no evidence to support that claim
A man investigated by police over a poem about transgenderism is launching a landmark High Court case to overhaul unfair police rules on hate crimes.
Harry Miller is to seek a judicial review of the hate crime guidelines followed by police forces
across Britain, claiming they are unlawful because they inhibit freedom of expression.
He argues that the current guidance, published by the College of Policing in 2014, the body responsible for training officers, promotes the recording of
incidents as hate crimes even when there is no evidence of hate beyond the opinion of an accuser.
Miller's legal team has highlighted a clause in the rules that state such incidents must be recorded by officers irrespective of any evidence to
identify the hate element.
Miller is also challenging a decision by Humberside Police to record his re-tweeting of the poem as a hate incident -- despite officers concluding that no crime had been committed.
He was quizzed by Humberside
Police in January after posting the verse about men who transition to be women, which included the lines: You're a man ... And we can tell the difference ... Your hormones are synthetic. He said he was dumbfounded by the exchange and furious when he
found out that his sharing of the verse had been recorded as a hate incident.
Explaining his reasons for launching legal action, the businessman told the Mail on Sunday:
It is about the ability to have freedom
of speech within the law and being allowed to have a debate without one group being able to call on the police to shut another group down.
Free speech is being closed down by a climate of fear and secrecy and the police are
contributing to this Orwellian culture.
On Thursday, Danny Baker was sacked by BBC bosses for a tweet of a couple with a monkey tagged Royal baby leaves hospital.
The picture sparked 'outrage', with a few people branding it as racist because of Meghan's heritage. Baker quickly deleted it
and described it as a stupid unthinking gag.
Scotland Yard said the force had received an allegation in relation to a tweet posted on May 8.
An allegation has been received by the Metropolitan Police Service on
Thursday May 9 in relation to a tweet published on May 8.
As is routine, the allegation will be reviewed and assessed by specialist officers, the Met said.
Meanwhile the BBC wrote in response to a complaint:
Danny Baker, Radio 5 live, May 2019
We received complaints from some people unhappy with the image Danny Baker posted on his social media account , and also complaints from some who are
unhappy that he will no longer be presenting on Radio 5 live.
BBC Response
Danny Baker's tweet was a serious error of judgment and goes against the BBC's values we aim to embody.
Danny is a brilliant broadcaster , however he will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us on Radio 5 live.
Offsite Comment: His tweet was dumb, but the reaction to it is
chilling
Celebrity business man Alan Sugar has been investigated by police after being ludicrously accused of posting a 'racist' Twitter message.
He posted a photograph of a crying Chinese child to 3.2 million Twitter followers, joking that the youngster was
upset after being told off for leaving Apple's iPhone production line, a reference to child labour in Asian factories where the phones are made. He tweeted:
The kid in the middle is upset because he was told off for
leaving the production line of the iPhone 5.
The tweet prompted a single complaint to the Metropolitan Police from an easily offended Twitter user, who referred to Sugar as a vile racist .
No matter how ridiculous, and
much police action infringes on free speech the police always consider that the complainer is always right. Police contacted the complainant twice, urging her to make a statement at a police station, which she eventually did. The police confirmed that
police from Merseyside's Hate Crime Investigation Unit took several days to decide whether a crime had been committed by Sugar's joke.
In the end the trivial tweet was somehow classed as a hate incident -- which means no further action will
be taken, but details will be kept on file.
The TaxPayers' Alliance condemned the police investigation, insisting police should not waste time and money chasing ill-thought-out tweets .
A teenager has been found guilty of posting an offensive Facebook message following the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan.
Azhar Ahmed, 19, was charged with sending a grossly offensive communication.
He told Huddersfield
Magistrates Court he accepted the message had been unacceptable but had denied it was grossly offensive .
The judge said his comments were derogatory, disrespectful and inflammatory .
The six soldiers were killed
by an improvised explosive device in March. The offending message, which said all soldiers should die and go to hell , was posted by Ahmed two days later on 8 March.
Ahmed told the court he was only trying to make his point that many other
deaths in Afghanistan were being ignored and added he had no idea it would cause so much upset.
Azhar Ahmed has been given a community order after being found guilty of sending a grossly offensive communication . Ahmed, 19, from West Yorkshire wrote on Facebook that All soldiers should DIE & go to HELL! This morning at
Huddersfield Magistrates' Court he was fined £ 300 and ordered to complete 240 hours of community service over a two-year period.
Re the John Terry case. The BBC reporting of what he is supposed to have said on the field is side-splittingly awful. It was 'an f-word, black, c-word'.
Azhar Ahmed appeared in court charged with making offensive comments on Facebook about the deaths of six British soldiers. He has been accused of committing an offence under the Communications Act of sending a grossly offensive message.
The District Judge heard no evidence and adjourned the trial until 14 September due to an unexpected legal problem.
Around 20-30 far right protesters appeared at Huddersfield Magistrates Court for the hearing and packed out the public
gallery.
The authorities will take no further action will be taken against a Birmingham Conservative councillor who joked that a journalist to be stoned to death.
Councillor Gareth Compton made the remark about Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on his Twitter page in
November after he took issue with what she said on a radio debate. Compton, who remains suspended from the Tory party, later apologised.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped the case after Ms Alibhai-Brown refused to make any complaint.
The member of the public who initially reported the incident to police also failed to provide a statement, the CPS said.
Alibhai-Brown appeared on Radio 5 Live's breakfast show discussing human rights in China. Afterwards, Compton tweeted: Can
someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really.
Speaking at the time, Alibhai-Brown said she had been upset that somebody felt it was OK to say such things: If
I, as a Muslim woman, had said about him what he said about me then I would be arrested in these times of the war against terror .
The newspaper columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has said she will report a Conservative councillor to the police after he posted a message on Twitter saying it would be a blessing if she was stoned to death.
Birmingham councillor Gareth
Compton called it a glib comment in reaction to the writer's appearance on Nicky Campbell's Radio 5 Live breakfast show.
Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a
blessing, really, he tweeted from his iPhone.
Alibhai-Brown ludicrously claimed that she regarded his comments as incitement to murder. The journalist, who writes columns for the Evening Standard and the Independent, told the Guardian: It's
really upsetting. My teenage daughter is really upset too. It's really scared us. You just don't do this. I have a lot of threats on my life. It's incitement. I'm going to the police – I want them to know that a law's been broken.
She
added that she regarded Compton's remarks as racially motivated because he mentioned stoning.
The councillor claimed she had said, with reference to David Cameron's trip to China, that no politician was morally qualified to speak out about human
rights abuses, including the stoning of women, bar the likes of Nelson Mandela.
Compton, who later apologised on Twitter, added: Twitter is a forum for glib comment of the moment. It was a glib comment. Who could possibly think it was serious?
Obviously I apologise. No offence was intended.
A Conservative Birmingham City councillor has been arrested over ludicrous allegations that he called on Twitter for Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to be stoned to death.
Erdington councillor Gareth Compton made the remark about the newspaper columnist
on his Twitter page. He called it a glib comment in reaction to the writer's appearance on Nicky Campbell's Radio 5 Live breakfast show. Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a
blessing, really, he flippantly tweeted from his iPhone.
Police said he had been arrested under the Communications Act 2003 and bailed.
He has since apologised.
Alibhai-Brown said she found his attitude loathsome and that
a flippant apology was not enough.
The Conservative Party has said his membership has been suspended indefinitely pending further investigation.
Roger McKenzie, Unison's West Midlands regional secretary, said he had been inundated
with complaints from city council workers outraged at Compton's comments and he called on Compton to resign from the council. He said: Birmingham is a multicultural city and the council's workforce reflect this. It is clear that Councillor Compton is
out-of-touch with both his city and the council staff. It is wholly unacceptable for a public official to make such racist comments. Councillor Compton must resign his seat immediately.
As the Telegraph reports the controversial tweet included the hashtag #R5L at the end. This would alert those who see the tweet to the fact he is responding to something he had just heard on Radio 5 Live. In other words, it provides important
context.
Alibhai-Brown had, on the 5 Live programme, been arguing, in the context of David Cameron's China visit, that no western politician who supported the war in Iraq had neither the moral authority to lecture China about human rights nor
lecture Iran about stoning.
Compton clearly thought this was a ridiculous point and expressed that view aggressively via his tweet:
Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell
Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really.
The easily offended newspaper columnist who threatened to call the police after a Birmingham councillor joked that she should be stoned to death has announced that she does not want him to face charges.
Newspaper columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
said: My objections have been made and there is no need for more . She said she had decided not to press charges against Birmingham Councillor Gareth Compton (Lab Erdington), who made the comment using internet messaging service Twitter last week.
Writing in The Independent, she said: Some crazed demons on Twitter believe anything goes. Written words matter and hold meanings beyond that narcissistic urge to send off instant thoughts. The Tory councillor who sent out a vile and scary
message about me says it was a joke. After some thought I decided I will not press charges. My objections have been made and there is no need for more.
But she said she was disturbed by some of the comments made about the incident, and her
response, in blogs and on Twitter: Yet having read many blogs and tweets that followed the incident, I do wonder whether our manners and morals will survive and if English itself, the best thing about us, is now seriously endangered.
Of
course the Crown Prosecution Service may yet decide to press charges themselves.
Police are continuing an investigation into allegations that a Birmingham councillor called for a newspaper columnist to be stoned to death, despite the journalist announcing she did not want him to face charges.
West Midlands Police said it would
be up to officers and the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether to charge Coun Gareth Compton (Con Erdington) who made the comment using internet messaging service Twitter last week.
A man investigated by police over a poem about transgenderism is launching a landmark High Court case to overhaul unfair police rules on hate crimes. 
On Thursday, Danny Baker was sacked by BBC bosses for a tweet of a couple with a monkey tagged Royal baby leaves hospital. 
Celebrity business man Alan Sugar has been investigated by police after being ludicrously accused of posting a 'racist' Twitter message. 
A teenager has been found guilty of posting an offensive Facebook message following the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan. 
Police have dropped charges of racial aggravation against teenager Azhar Ahmed for comments he posted on Facebook last week. 
The authorities will take no further action will be taken against a Birmingham Conservative councillor who joked that a journalist to be stoned to death. 
A Conservative Birmingham City councillor has been arrested over ludicrous allegations that he called on Twitter for Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to be stoned to death. 
As the Telegraph reports the controversial tweet included the hashtag #R5L at the end. This would alert those who see the tweet to the fact he is responding to something he had just heard on Radio 5 Live. In other words, it provides important
context. 