Tweeting to roughly 900 people, Harry Miller used to think he had done well to receive five likes or a retweet. Two years and a High Court victory later, he is the unlikely hero of a growing free speech movement.
Read article: Being offensive is part of British culture, says free speech campaigner Harry Miller | News | The Times
Judges yesterday ruled College of Policing guidelines on “hate incidents” had a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression. Harry Miller, who describes himself as “gender critical”, was visited at work by an officer when a member of the public alleged that he had posted “transphobic” tweets. The force recorded the complaint as a “non-crime hate incident”. Guidance for police says that it is “any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice”.
Read article: Ex-policeman wins appeal over ‘transphobic’ tweets | UK | News | Express.co.uk
Looking back at the article I wrote after speaking to Harry Miller in January 2019, I am struck by one of the things he said to me then, when I asked him if he would back down in the face of police challenge:
Free speech is a hill that we have to fight on. If we can’t express ourselves freely within the law, none of the other rights we have mean anything.
Harry Miller and his friends didn’t have to have that fight. But they did. They fought and they won. They corrected a wrong, and made public policy better. There isn’t much positive news these days, but that really is a good story.
Read article: One man’s campaign to protect free speech | The Spectator
For the police to record non-criminal ‘hate incidents’ is a waste of their time and a threat to free speech
It is compassionate to sympathise with someone who is upset but this should never be a matter for the police. This principle was affirmed on Monday in a wise judgment by the Court of Appeal. The court upheld a legal challenge by Harry Miller, a former police officer, against a national policy for police forces to record opinions critical of transgender activism as non-crime “hate incidents”.
Read article: The Times view on non-criminal ‘hate incidents’: Defending Dissent | Comment | The Times
Priti Patel will warn police to do more to protect freedom of speech after judges ruled that recording “non-crime hate incidents” risked interfering with people’s right to express their opinions.
The home secretary will try to enshrine in law a new code of practice that controls the way officers record such incidents after Harry Miller, a former PC, won a court battle over his right to tweet about transgender issues.
Read article: Let people express their views, Priti Patel tells police | News | The Times
Harry Miller and his organisation “Fair Cop” pulled off a stunning victory in the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal on 20th December securing a powerful judgment which effectively renders the modern recording of “non-crime hate incidents” by police forces unlawful. Upholding the Appellant’s case on two of the five grounds advanced (proportionality and interference with a human right), the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, Dame Victoria Sharpe, found the recording framework “extraordinarily broad” and far too easily triggered to be lawful ruling that “The threshold for hostility is low (it can include ill-will, ill-feeling, spite, contempt, prejudice, unfriendliness, antagonism, resentment and dislike)”. Drawing attention to the danger of modern “non-crime hate incidents” being recorded against persons simply exercising freedom of speech the court held that “the Guidance contemplates on its face, the recording by the police of incidents as non-crime hate incidents, which are, to put it shortly, non-crime non-hate incidents”.
Read article: The Miller effect: How the Court of Appeal refashioned freedom of speech, by LGN legal commentator Dennis Kavanagh – Lesbian and Gay News
Read article: Calls for 120,000 ‘hate incidents’ to be deleted from police records | Daily Mail Online
A former Humberside Police officer who was investigated by his own force over allegedly ‘transphobic’ Tweets has won a landmark Court of Appeal challenge.
Harry Miller was challenging police guidance on ‘hate incidents’ claiming that it interfered with the basic right to freedom of expression.
Read article: Ex Humberside Police officer wins landmark battle over ‘transphobic’ tweets – Hull Live
A former police officer has won a court of appeal challenge over police guidance on hate incidents after claiming it unlawfully interferes with the right to freedom of expression.
Read article: Ex-police officer wins appeal over force’s guidance on hate incidents | Police | The Guardian
We have no doubt that 2021 will be remembered as the turning of the tide. There is much more work to be done, but it was this year that we tore away the curtain of gender ideology to reveal nothing but intellectual pygmies, moral cowardice and lies. Harry’s victory — our victory — will send shockwaves through policing and politics, forcing the establishment to confront a deeply uncomfortable truth: that we cannot have a free society without free speech.
And it all started with a typical Harry tweet: crude and crass but — we can finally say — not criminal.
Read article: Miller’s victory | Sarah Phillimore and Rob Jessel | The Critic Magazine
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