Kevin Bass PhD MS on X - "A journalist at @Telegraph is under investigation by British police for an alleged “hate crime”. The “hate crime” is a year-old social media post. She hasn’t been allowed to know what the post is. She hasn’t been allowed to know who her accuser—her“victim”—is. Insane."
Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson faces 'Kafkaesque' investigation over alleged hate crime (aka "Telegraph journalist faces ‘Kafkaesque’ investigation over alleged hate crime") - "“I have hundreds of black and Asian followers on X/Twitter, none of them ever suggested I’d said something bad or hateful. Besides, who decides where you set the bar for what’s offensive? This is supposed to be 2024 not 1984, yet the police officers seemed to be operating according to the George Orwell operational manual.” When she asked the officers why she could not know what she was accused of, she said: “The two policemen exchanged glances. Clearly the Kafkaesque situation made no sense to them, either.” On Tuesday night, Mrs Braverman said: “As Home Secretary, I changed the rules on recording non-crime hate incidents to protect freedom of speech. As I repeatedly urged, the police should not be policing opinions on social media but should be arresting shoplifters and tackling anti-social behaviour. “Non-crime hate incidents have been expanded by the police and really should be scrapped so that they stop wasting time and focus on the public’s priorities.” Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, said: “It’s little wonder that 93 per cent of car-related crimes went unsolved in Essex last year. The local officers are too busy policing journalists’ tweets to police their streets. “I’m sure they’d prefer to be investigating actual crimes rather than ‘non-crimes’, but their politically correct bosses are more concerned with punishing wrongthink.”"
Attacking the media is only fascism when it hurts the left wing agenda
'Elite police group' usually designated to deal with major crimes 'investigates Daily Telegraph columnist's tweet' - "Essex Police have set up an elite ‘gold group’ - usually designated to deal with major crimes - to handle the investigation into a journalist’s social media post... The complainant, who is not Muslim nor one of the people in the photo, told the Guardian: ‘Pearson tweeted something that had nothing to do with Palestine or the London protest. Her description of the two people of colour as Jew haters is racist and inflammatory."
‘Incompetent’ Essex Police set up terror-style incident group for single Allison Pearson tweet - "It came as a county councillor accused Essex Police of “institutional incompetence and dysfunction on an epic scale”, and it emerged that the force had admitted it was unable to send an emergency response to all 999 calls about drug dealing... “CC [Chief Constable Ben-Julian] Harrington is more concerned with promoting diversity than dealing with crime, indeed his divisional commander for Uttlesford and Braintree made it clear at a public meeting that they will not address active and public drug dealing due to lack of resources, Essex Police appear to have resources to chase those sending tweets on Remembrance Sunday but not for catching drug dealers in broad daylight. “There is a bizarre set of priorities. We have a bad drug-dealing problem, we have a very under-resourced policing panel and you go on the various Twitter feeds of various officers and it’s all about the latest diversity courses they have gone to.” Essex Police have been accused of ignoring 999 calls from concerned residents about drug deals on the streets, according to documents obtained by The Telegraph. Documents also revealed that Essex Police would not “dispatch a patrol car” every time it received a tip-off from a concerned resident. At a community meeting in Uttlesford in February this year, police were told residents often saw drug deals being done in public and they believed police were not doing anything about it. “We noted the number of residents at the meeting who expressed concerns about apparent open drug dealing in various communities across the district and the seeming lack of response to those activities when reported,” according to Mr Gregory. “It was made clear that 999 calls on overt drug dealing would not be pursued.”"
How Allison Pearson's tweet sparked a year-long police investigation - "Another senior barrister and KC who has advised the Government on sensitive legal issues said any attempt to prosecute Pearson would fail. “She was having a go at the police, not at a particular racial group. If she had been targeting a racial group, she could be guilty of an offence but that was not what she was saying,” they said. “She was saying it was two-tier policing and was having a go at the police irrespective of their ethnic identities. I think the police have misunderstood the legislation.” A third barrister, who has also advised the Government, said Pearson’s tweet was not so offensive as to be inflammatory in breach of the law. “What she was saying was aimed at two-tier policing where police treat one group in one way, and another group in another way,” they said."
Police visit to journalist over social media post ‘absolutely wrong’ – Badenoch - "Kemi Badenoch has said people need to stop “wasting police time on trivial incidents” after officers visited a journalist at her home over a year-old tweet. The Conservative Party leader said such incidents are “like children reporting each other” and that Sir Keir Starmer should review laws around them to show he believes in free speech."
No 10 confirms non-crime hate review amid Allison Pearson row - "In September, the police watchdog warned that forces were recording too many hate crime incidents and getting involved in disputes that include “hurt feelings”. The report found officers were having to take action that “may appear to contradict common sense”, according to Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of constabulary. He highlighted police recording a non-crime hate incident after a man reported other passengers on a bus giving him “funny looks” because of his ethnic appearance, without considering whether the matter was “trivial, irrational or malicious”. The Telegraph also revealed in September that police are recording more non-crime hate incidents than last year despite a crackdown on the practice, according to official data."
Allison Pearson: Journalist tells Nigel Farage about how police state hunted her down - ""Because it was Remembrance Sunday I drew myself up and told them [the police officers] we are here today on a special day commemorating hundreds of men your age who laid down their lives for the country so that it could be a free country and not live under the jackboot of tyranny. "Here you are on Remembrance Sunday, coming to my house in something that I see to be against freedom." Pearson added: "I'll tell you what, it was shocking. It was upsetting because I'm a law abiding person and I respect the police. I want to trust and respect the police... The journalist pointed out that "looking at Essex Police and forces around the country" officers have become "more interested in trying to solve thought crime than the kind of crime that normal people are interested in"... Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson also posted: "This is appalling. How can Starmer’s Britain lecture other countries about free speech when an innocent journalist gets a knock on the door - for a tweet? "Our police have their hands full of burglaries and violent crime. They are being forced to behave like a woke Securitate - and it has to stop.""
Tackle violent crime instead of tweets, Starmer urges police after Allison Pearson row - "Police should focus on tackling violent crime and burglaries instead of questioning people over their social media posts, Sir Keir Starmer has said. The Prime Minister urged forces to “concentrate on what matters most to their communities” amid the deepening row over a police investigation into Telegraph writer Allison Pearson’s post on X a year ago. He said chief constables who prioritised looking into complaints about allegedly offensive tweets would be “held to account for those decisions”. Sir Keir intervened after politicians, campaigners and a former MI6 chief warned that hate crime laws were being exploited to stifle free speech. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said that police were using hate crime laws wrongly 90 per cent of the time, while Lord Stevens, the former Met commissioner, called for forces to focus on tackling violent crime rather than policing people’s opinions online. Former MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove suggested the investigation into Pearson was a waste of resources... Forces are supposed to weed out complaints that are “trivial, irrational or malicious” or relating to “the expression of lawfully held views”. But a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in September found many forces fail to correctly apply the guidance. It uncovered evidence that confusion over the rules meant officers were taking a risk-averse approach summed up as “if in doubt, record”. As a result, NCHIs were too often being logged for complaints that amounted to little more than people’s “hurt feelings”. Julie Bindel, the feminist writer, revealed in The Telegraph at the weekend how officers knocked on her door following a complaint about a tweet she sent. She said detectives refused to tell her which post the allegation referred to but that the report had been made by a “transgender man” in the Netherlands. Tom Hunt, a former Tory MP, has also told how a NCHI was logged against him after a complaint was filed by a Labour activist. He had written in a local newspaper column raising concerns that “certain communities” were largely responsible for crime in Ipswich city centre. Chris Philp, who tightened the rules on NCHIs as policing minister in the last government, said police should only be recording them “extremely rarely” where there was a “real risk of imminent criminality”... “But the majority, probably 90 per cent of these NCHIs that are being looked at don’t meet that [threshold]. The police should not be policing free speech. The police should not be policing thought. “They should be concentrating on actual crime or behaviour that is just below the criminal threshold and might realistically and imminently lead to a crime. We want to focus on those crimes, not policing thought.” Baron Stevens, a former Met commissioner, said forces should “prioritise things like knife crime and violence on the streets”."
The Kafkaesque thoughtpolicing of Allison Pearson - "The pursuit of Allison Pearson surely reflects the comically skewed priorities of policing today, which seems obsessed with speech crime and increasingly nonchalant about actual crime. (As Pearson points out, if she had, instead of tweeting, stolen £199 worth of goods from a supermarket, the police would have left her be, given they are advised not to attend thefts below £200.) But more than that, what a terrifying sign of the times. When you allow the state to define and police ‘hate’, this is the absurd, authoritarian world you end up in."
What anarcho-tyranny looks like
Police chief under fire for defending Essex force’s handling of Allison Pearson row - "The policing chief at the centre of the Allison Pearson row is facing a backlash after defending his force’s decision to investigate the Telegraph journalist. Roger Hirst, policing and crime commissioner for Essex, has been branded “out of touch in every way” after he said police could not ignore alleged crimes “just because it’s politically sensitive”, noting that the normal measure of the severity of a crime was maximum sentence length... Zac Goldsmith, the former minister, attacked Mr Hirst on X, formerly known as Twitter, where he said residents of Essex would have voted for the Conservative crime commissioner believing he would be focused on crime. He said: “The people of Essex elected a Conservative police commissioner in good faith to sort out crime in their area. Most of them would have simply ticked the blue box assuming it meant a focus on actual crime.” Mr Goldsmith added: “They ended up with someone in charge who thinks it was right for officers to police the (non-criminal) thoughts of journalists."... “The man’s a coward. They have totally bottled it. There were a dozen people here in total,” Kevin Daines, 45, said, adding that the policing boss had the wrong priorities. “He’s talking about hate crime, they say burglary is down. It’s only down because no one reports it any more.”... In December last year, police recorded a NCHI after Rachel MacLean, the deputy chairman of the Conservatives, called a trans woman a “man who wears a wig”, but it was later removed from her record. A post by Murdo Fraser, the former deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, comparing non-binary people with those who “identify as a cat”, was recorded as a hate incident earlier this year. In 2017, comments by Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, were regarded as a non-crime hate incident after she said in a speech she wanted to ensure that foreign workers “were not taking jobs British workers could do”."
Police force at centre of Allison Pearson row did not investigate controversial imam - "The police force at the centre of the Allison Pearson row has not investigated a controversial imam who called for “Zionists” to be destroyed. Users of X, formerly Twitter, alerted Essex Police to comments by Shaykh Shams Ad-Duha Muhammad after footage of him calling for “punishment” of those who support the existence of Israel was posted... the force previously defended the same imam’s right to freedom of expression. Following a complaint including about a selection of his other comments in video footage, Chelmsford residents were told by a district commander in November 2022 that no criminal offences had taken place... The imam has made a series of controversial comments in the past, including in 2013 that Muslim girls should have children instead of careers and that homosexuality was “a vice among vices”, adding that the spread of HIV and AIDS were down to “general moral decline”. On Monday, Roger Hirst, the police, fire and crime commissioner for Essex, cancelled a public meeting on community safety at Hamptons Sports and Leisure Centre, with his office saying it was postponed in the “interests of public safety” and it was “deeply disappointed” to move the meeting. Residents who had turned up accused Mr Hirst of running scared of scrutiny and said they were surprised by the choice of location, noting that the leisure centre had been used by Ad-Duha Muhammad for controversial sermons."
Classic two tier policing
Essex Police have made Allison Pearson a free speech martyr instead of fighting actual crime - "As for the most sinister aspect of the case, that Miss Pearson is not allowed to know the exact nature of her offence nor who her accuser is, it will remind us all of the disagreeable excesses of the French Revolution when citizens were encouraged to accuse each other anonymously of thought crimes. I think I can guess the sort of person or group who might be responsible for this sort of charge; I think we all can. But it’s the sinister effect that the charge seems intended to have which should worry us. It is designed to intimidate; to make people like Allison Pearson think twice before they sound off about matters to do with race or religion. It is meant to have a chilling effect on free speech, which is why the Free Speech Union has provided her with a solicitor to accompany her to her voluntary police interview... Meanwhile, Mr Rowley can gloomily reflect that people will be that little bit less receptive to his plea for more police funds on account of how the force next door uses theirs."
The dystopian police investigation into Allison Pearson | The Spectator - "Here’s a tip. If you’re having trouble getting the police to promptly attend after a burglary, tell them the scumbag tweeted something mean about you as he made his escape... The cops would do well to explain what is going on here – and fast. Most people will struggle to believe that Pearson, a popular author and columnist, suddenly – 12 months ago – began spewing racist bile. If she had, we surely would have heard about it. Given the alarming expansion of speech policing in recent years, many will suspect that this is another outrageous example of censorious over-reach. After all, we now live in a country in which people are arrested, prosecuted, even convicted, after misgendering people. Or after making offensive skits on YouTube. And this has long threatened to catch up with the more right-wing or just un-PC sections of alternative and mainstream media, given that the woke left seems to dictate what is and isn’t considered offensive these days. Back in 2020, historian David Starkey and pundit Darren Grimes were investigated over potential public-order offences, because of ill-judged comments Starkey had made about slavery on Grimes’s YouTube channel... as anyone who has been paying attention will know, the pretence that our speech laws are purely there to criminalise fascists and racists fell away a long time ago... The British experiment in policing ‘hate’ has become as farcical as it is authoritarian. It makes you long for the days when ‘PC police’ was a tongue-in-cheek tabloid zinger, not a literal description. Oh how far we’ve fallen."
Essex Police records hundreds of non-crime hate incidents but failed to answer non-emergency calls in same two year period - "In one case, a shopkeeper “suspect” was recorded on the force’s hate incident database after he refused to let someone into his shop because they had a guide dog with them. In another instance, a complaint was logged when an individual said that their bank was being difficult with them because of their “skin colour and height”. In a separate police watchdog inspection, it was discovered that the force fails to “promptly resolve non-emergency calls”. The investigation found that the slow response time could “contribute to a loss of confidence in the service”... Councillor Neil Gregory, a substitute member of the Essex Police, Fire and Crime Panel, accused Essex Police of “institutional incompetence and dysfunction on an epic scale”. He told The Telegraph: “It is certainly the impression I get that they are prioritising diversity over real crime. “Sadly the appalling treatment of Allison is merely the tip of the iceberg of an obsession with diversity, neglect of crime and institutional incompetence and dysfunction on an epic scale.”"
Hate speech is clearly the most damaging crime around
Any one of us could be next, say female journalists as they rally around Allison Pearson - "Female journalists are rallying around Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, saying they could be next to face police investigations for their social media posts or columns. Pearson is being investigated by three police forces over a deleted tweet... Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine said the visit was a “frightening moment” for female journalists who “console ourselves with the thought that the police and responsible authorities have our back”. Journalist Rachel Johnson has expressed support for Pearson and raised concerns about the safety of female journalists, saying “any one of us could be next”. “This is the Je Suis Allison Pearson moment for anyone who makes their living from writing or speaking their mind in Starmer’s Britain,” she said. “The Government is putting a numbing effect on discourse. We should remember we are not in Eastern Europe under the communists. “Policing speech is complete nonsense. I feel totally aggrieved on Allison’s behalf because it’s a total waste of police time.”... “They messed with the wrong Welshwoman this time but any one of us could be next.”... Sonia Sodha, chief leader writer for The Observer, also came to Pearson’s defence, despite not sharing her political views. She said: “That deleted Allison Pearson tweet was nasty, unwise and wrong. But that it should be the subject of a criminal investigation feels like absurd levels of police overreach. “The police have an appalling record when it comes to policing speech. Any liberal who cares about our fundamental democratic rights should be worried about it,” she wrote. “And there are examples of both left and right governments in the UK handing too much unqualified power over speech and protest to the police. It’s an issue across the political spectrum.” Journalist and royal biographer Angela Levin also weighed in to support Pearson. She wrote on X: “I am so angry that a top, honourable journalist like you [has] been treated so badly. The Police on the other hand are creating rules and behaviours that we must not go along with. My thoughts are with you.”... Donna Jones, the former chief police and crime commissioner, said police officers should not go to people’s homes over offensive online posts. “The police should not be going to somebody’s home if they have not committed a crime,” said Ms Jones, former chairman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners. “If the police determine it’s not a crime, it’s not a hate crime, then they should not be going and knocking on someone’s door and encouraging them to come in for a voluntary interview or undertaking some kind of enhanced thinking course. “Where I don’t agree with the current law and the process, and by the way a lot of the police are very frustrated about this as well, is that if it is a non crime, it should stop there,” she said. “Yes, collect the data, feed it into the Home Office, that someone has reported that someone has done something that has offended them.” Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Jones said the treatment of NCHI should “radically change”... Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, and Suella Braverman, former home secretary, have also expressed concern about the policing of NCHI. Geoffrey Robertson KC, one of the country’s leading lawyers, has said: “the Essex investigation is a waste of public money.”"
The left doesn't care about women when they stand in the way of the left wing agenda
Allison Pearson on X - "The story so far.
1. I am not a racist.
2. I didn’t post a racist tweet.
3. My tweet did not incite violence against any protected characteristic.
4. My fairly innocuous tweet was deleted a year ago.
5. Senior lawyers say my tweet does “not come near the threshold for criminal prosecution”.
6. But Essex Police upgraded the accusation from Non-Crime Hate Incident to offence under the Public order Act. Why?
7. Essex Police visited my home but refused to specify either the accusation or the accuser.
8. Under pressure, Essex Police deployed the terrorist-fighting Gold Command to investigate a solitary Welsh journalist 5ft 4 inches who still believes in freedom of speech. Weird, I know.
9. This is all nonsense. Deeply sinister, frightening nonsense and wholly disproportionate police over-reach if you ask me.
10. Last night, I realised I no longer feel safe in my own country. A terrible moment.
As Elon Musk said, “This must stop.” It really must."
Inevitable West on X - "🚨BREAKING: Allison Pearson, who was visited by the police for an X post, will now SUE the Guardian after they made a bot account posing as her making racists comments. Reminder: they left X just 24 hrs ago due to misinformation… 👀"
Inevitable West on X - "🚨BREAKING: Hundreds of British citizens, including journalists, are reporting that they’ve been visited by the police this weekend regarding X posts. Make Orwell fiction again. 🤒"
Private Eye’s shameful attack on Allison Pearson | The Spectator - "What is the purpose of Private Eye? I know it’s supposed to be some kind of anti-establishment satirical magazine, boldly holding power to account and standing up for the little guy. But I must say I’m finding its response to the extraordinary police doorstepping of Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson rather puzzling. You would think that this supposed thorn in the side of the powerful would sally out in defence of a fellow journalist being visited by the police because of something she posted online – not out of love for the journo in particular, but for the vital principle of free speech. Sadly, however, it seems any such principles have fallen by the wayside... Pearson finds herself in the ‘Street of Shame’ column for allegedly ‘misreporting’ her encounter with police at her Essex home... wouldn’t anyone, journalist or otherwise, be pretty shocked to have police turn up at their door on a Sunday morning? Should Pearson have had a notepad stashed in her dressing gown pocket just in case the cops came calling? It seems that in its dislike of Pearson, the magazine has forgotten the human element in all this. In any case, what is Pearson supposed to have gained by wrongly claiming she’d been accused of something else? Private Eye gives much weight to a transcript released by Essex Police to dispute Pearson’s claims, which it says provides a ‘pretty comprehensive rebuttal’. The ‘transcript’ comprises just three lines spoken by an officer. Along with the force’s dubious assertion that ‘Essex Police supports free speech’, it clearly aims to present the police in a favourable light. An inquiring investigative magazine might be minded to ask why we haven’t been given the full transcript. Indeed, if the dispute is so cut and dry, why not release the bodycam footage, too? In any case, whether or not Pearson reported what happened accurately, by using this minor factual discrepancy to rubbish the entire issue, Private Eye seems to be wilfully missing the wood for the trees. Whether it was an NCHI or anything else really shouldn’t matter – no one should be visited by the police over tweets, least of all Pearson. Numerous legal professionals have said her tweet came nowhere near the threshold for criminality, as proven by Essex police dropping the case. It’s nonsense to say that Pearson’s backers should have stopped defending her when it became clear she had been investigated for the far more serious offence of inciting racial hatred, for which the maximum penalty is seven years behind bars. Indeed, this fact makes her case more chilling, not less. The Street of Shame continues to say that ‘there remains an important issue at the heart of all this’. Readers can probably think of some. Free speech, perhaps? The egregious waste of police time? The chilling effect on journalism? The fact that Essex Police upgraded Pearson’s case to a Gold Unit usually reserved for terror cases? But none of those quite makes the cut... it’s notable that Private Eye chooses an apparent instance of two-tier policing that’s three years old here. It’s almost as if it can’t bring itself to notice the more glaring recent examples of varying police priorities because it’s politically incorrect to do so. In case you thought this anti-free speech line was an isolated incident, the same edition also carries a spoof piece justifying the police’s decision to knock on Pearson’s door... In its desire to make light of Pearson’s ordeal, Private Eye manages to turn her doorstepping by the police into ‘a request for a quiet word’. It then implies, contrary to mountains of evidence, that the only people who need fear a knock on the door by the police are those who have tweeted ‘libellous drivel and lazy misinformation online’ – in other words, people who probably deserved it. It also attempts to suggest the right is only concerned about Pearson’s case for cynical reasons. In fact, Pearson’s treatment has been labelled ‘Stasi-like’ by a Labour MP, criticised by old-school lefty Suzanne Moore, and even called out by Sir Keir Starmer himself. In the end, it seems like only the ‘liberal’ left have been unable to see the Pearson case as a disturbing case of police overreach. Other to have taken aim at Pearson include ex-BBC hacks at The News Agents podcast, who have accused Pearson of a ‘persecution complex’, and the production company behind Have I Got News For You in a now-deleted tweet. A writer in the Guardian has called it a ‘non-scandal’ and cries that ‘“free speech” has been weaponised’. These establishment figures may delude themselves that they’re speaking truth to power, but they share, as Niall Gooch noted earlier this year of Ian Hislop, a ‘concept of the Establishment [that] seems to be stuck in about 1952’. And that explains a lot. Only someone so out of touch with the reality of social power today could call themselves a liberal, yet see the police being sent to a journalist’s door and cheer it on."
Essex Police taking no further action against Allison Pearson - "The investigation has been closed, but there will be an independent review of the force’s handling of the matter"