“Mister Justice Knowles is very clear: We have never had a Gestapo or a Stasi in Great Britain, but the actions of Humberside Police came way too close.
By Sarah Phillimore
On Friday, January 24th I was alerted to the recently launched Crown Prosecution Service Hate Crime Schools Project on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans+ Hate Crime. In their words:
Fair Cop is deeply concerned that new police and CPS guidelines will criminalise schoolchildren for expressing doubts about gender ideology.
The reasoning in this judgement has enormous and wide-ranging implications for freedom of conscience and expression. The right to freedom of conscience – as enshrined in Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights – is only meaningful if citizens can express their beliefs without fear of sanction.
November. In my mind always the ‘nothing-time,’ the liminal space between the brightly lit days of September and October, when the Northern Hemisphere hasn’t quite finished its tilt away from the sun, and the dank, grey days and rotting leaf-mounds that have to be endured before the light and glitter of the Christmas season. But this November is different.
In one of the more disturbing hate crimes of recent times, a masked mob of vigilantes harassed a peaceful meeting convened to discuss transgender rights. These thugs verbally abused vulnerable trans people as they entered the venue, chanting “trans scum” and even throwing liquid over some of the terrified attendees. As the meeting went ahead the mob kept up their intimidatory tactics, continuing their hateful chanting while beating an aggressive tattoo on the venue’s windows so loud, those inside could barely hear themselves think, let alone listen to the speakers.
Forget the Supreme Court’s ruling on the prorogation of Parliament. The most important legal case of the year is scheduled for 20–21 November — and you’re invited!
The tumblr account “your fave is problematic” stopped posting years ago, yet the effects ripple on. For those thankfully unfamiliar with this tumblr, it was a place where reportedly six anonymous young people listed the transgressions and faults of celebrities. Unlike Heat magazine or the Daily Mail, however, the critiques were aimed not at celebrities’ diets or sartorial elegance, but at their wokeness credentials.
I am writing to you as Executive Director of Fair Cop, a human rights organisation comprised of serving and former police officers, barristers, lawyers and parliamentarians. We are committed to monitoring the actions of British police forces in relation to hate crime, hate incidents and free expression and, to this end, we have sought and been granted a Judicial Review at the High Court against both Humberside Police and The College of Policing, which will be heard in November.
by Sarah Phillimore
I have been a family law barrister since 1999 and the site administrator of the Child Protection Resource www.childprotectionresource.online since 2014.
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