et this man was apparently arrested because he might have offended supporters of a banned terrorist organisation.
“This is two-tier policing in action. The law is rightly clear that supporting banned terrorist groups, inciting violence, inciting racial hatred or harassing people is illegal. Beyond that, free speech applies to everyone…."
Before detaining him overnight at Islington police station, officers searched his home in a failed attempt to find the placard, which the man had already explained was not his.
“Two police vans and six officers turned up at our house to search for ‘offensive material’, which was quite invasive. It was a horrible experience,” he said.
“They put me in the lounge and asked my partner to go with them around the house. They weren’t very pleasant to her and even went through her knicker drawer. It was totally ridiculous.”
Following his arrest, in police interview footage obtained by The Telegraph, an officer can be seen repeatedly asking the counter-protester: “Do you think that showing this image to persons protesting who are clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel that by doing so would stir up racial hatred further than it is already?”
Allowing marches calling for the elimination of Israel might possibly be seen as stirring up racial hatred – but of course racial hatred against Jews doesn't count.
He was released at 6.30am and later charged under the Public Order Act for causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by words or writing.
On May 10 – eight months after his ordeal began – the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case, saying there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction….
Lord Austin, a non-affiliated peer who was investigated by police for calling Hamas “Islamists” on social media, told The Telegraph: “It beggars belief that someone would be arrested, put in the cells and then charged for holding this sign because it might upset supporters of Islamist terrorists and a proscribed organisation, rather than take action against the terror supporters.
“There is clearly a systemic problem when it comes to dealing with the hate marches and, instead of telling us they disagree with individual decisions, ministers need to get a grip and sort it out.”
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