A council has become the first in Britain to scrap guidance urging schools to allow transgender pupils to choose which lavatories they use after a 13-year-old girl challenged it at the High Court.
Oxfordshire county council backed down as it prepared to fight a judicial review over the lawfulness of its “trans toolkit”, which the girl said infringed on her right to privacy.
Read article: Council ditches trans guidance on lavatories after girl’s victory
The police have no jurisdiction over our thoughts, but that hasn’t stopped them trying recently. Just over a year ago, a plainclothes officer from Humberside Police turned up at my workplace to ‘check my thinking’ for getting involved in the transgender debate online. An individual had taken offence at something I’d retweeted and reported it as a hate crime.
The crime in question? Well, it was retweeting a silly song lyric that brought the complaint, but the subsequent police investigation found another 30 ‘transphobic’ tweets I’d made. As a former police officer myself, I considered the force’s intrusion to be deeply Orwellian.
Read article: My fight against the police over ‘transphobic’ tweets
Judge says that the effect of police turning up at Mr Miller’s workplace “because of his political opinions must not be underestimated”.
Humberside Police unlawfully interfered with a man’s right to freedom of expression by turning up at his place of work over his allegedly “transphobic” tweets, the High Court has ruled.
Former police officer Harry Miller, 54, who founded the campaign group Fair Cop, said the police’s actions had a “substantial chilling effect” on his right to free speech.
Read article: Police compared to Stasi and Gestapo by judge as he rules they interfered in freedom of speech by investigating ‘non crime’ trans tweet
The police response to an ex-officer’s allegedly transphobic tweets was unlawful, the High Court has ruled.
Harry Miller was visited by Humberside Police at work in January last year after a complaint about his tweets.
He was told he had not committed a crime, but it would be recorded as a non-crime “hate incident”.
The court found the force’s actions were a “disproportionate interference” with his right to freedom of expression.
Read article: Harry Miller: Police probe into ‘transphobic’ tweets unlawful
High court finds actions of Humberside police had ‘chilling effect’ on Harry Miller’s right to free speech
Police officers unlawfully interfered with a man’s right to freedom of expression by turning up at his place of work to speak to him about allegedly “transphobic” tweets, the high court has ruled.
Harry Miller, a former police officer who founded the campaign group Fair Cop, said the actions of Humberside police had a “substantial chilling effect” on his right to free speech.
Read article: Police who warned man about ‘transphobic’ tweet acted unlawfully
When a court judgment begins by quoting from the unpublished introduction to Animal Farm, and concludes by referring to J.S. Mill’s On Liberty, you know that what comes in between is worth your time.
So it proves with an excoriating decision from Mr Justice Julian Knowles today, which marks an important – and much-needed re-assertion of the right to free speech.
Read article: The court’s judgement on the transphobic tweeter is a victory for free speech
Mr Miller won a legal challenge against Humberside Police after they recorded a ‘non-crime hate incident’ against him
When Harry Miller took his oath to join the police in 1989, he – like all aspiring officers – pledged to operate to the best of his ability without fear or favour.
“What’s happened now is that the police have started operating in fear and with favour,” Mr Miller said. “We need a return to how it used to be.”
Mr Miller today won a landmark legal challenge against Humberside Police after they recorded a ‘non-crime hate incident’ against him for sharing an allegedly “transphobic” limerick on social media.
Read article: ‘It takes ordinary people to stand up and say no’: Harry Miller on his landmark free speech case against the police
A former constable has vowed to take his fight against the police’s professional body to the Supreme Court after a judge warned his former force against behaving like the Gestapo.
Harry Miller said he would continue his fight for freedom of expression after a landmark legal challenge against the College of Policing and Humberside police.
Mr Miller accused the police of being politicised, saying that they had allowed themselves to be driven by the pro-transgender lobby including groups such as Stonewall, Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence.
Mr Justice Julian Knowles said that the police’s actions towards Mr Miller, 55, “disproportionately interfered with his right of freedom of expression” after officers visited him at work over tweets he had posted about transgender people.
Read article: Judge criticises police response to ‘transphobic’ tweets
The former officer hails “a watershed moment for liberty” following a High Court ruling on Humberside Police’s actions.
A police force unlawfully interfered with a man’s right to freedom of expression by turning up at his place of work over his allegedly “transphobic” tweets, a judge has ruled.
Harry Miller, a 54-year-old former police officer and now docker from Humberside, founded campaign group Fair Cop following the action against him over his Twitter posts.
Read article: Harry Miller: Police unlawfully interfered with freedom of expression over ‘transphobic’ tweets
He fought the thoughtpolice, and he won.
Today is a good day for free speech in Britain. The High Court has ruled that it is unlawful for police officers to harass members of the public for expressing views on the internet that some people find offensive, but are otherwise entirely legal to express. That this even had to be clarified tells us something about how far we’ve fallen, and how sorely this ruling was needed.
Read article: We need more Harry Millers
