Media coverage of Fair Cop and the Judicial Review

As a criminologist, one of my main interests and concerns is with what is known as over-criminalisation – the overuse of laws and policing in modern society. One dimension of this over-criminalisation that often goes under the radar is the practices of the police themselves.

Read article: Stuart Waiton: Is 1984 now a police manual?

Harry Miller – known by many as “Harry the Owl” on Twitter @HarryTheOwl – has been through a lot. If you’re not up to speed on Harry and the limerick you can learn about Harry’s adventures with the “thought police” here. Country Squire Magazine decided it was time for an update and so one of the Squires interviewed Harry last week.

Read article: The Harry Miller Fair Cop Interview

In January, Harry Miller was investigated by the police for retweeting a limerick on Twitter. The police said the limerick – and 30 other tweets – constituted transphobic hate speech.

Miller is one of the thousands of ordinary people who have found themselves on the sharp end of the law in recent years simply for expressing their views. Social-media posts, usually intended as jokes or political arguments, are increasingly being criminalised if they convey the ‘wrong’ opinions about certain topics. Posts on trans issues are considered particularly toxic and are zealously investigated by police. Miller, alongside barristers, police officers and other victims of police overreach, have started the Fair Cop campaign to defend free speech.

Read article: ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four is now a policing manual’

Police guidance on “hate incidents” is to be challenged in the High Court by a former officer who tweeted an allegedly transphobic limerick.

The case will be heard in November after the man was given approval yesterday to make his challenge.

Harry Miller, who was a constable in the 1990s, says that guidance to forces in England and Wales from the College of Policing results in a “chilling of free speech”. He claims that officers from his old force, Humberside police, warned him that a reference in a tweet to Jenni Murray, the Woman’s Hour presenter, could be transphobic.

Read article: High Court review for College of Policing guidance on hate crime

A man interviewed by police over alleged transphobic tweets is challenging police guidance on hate incidents against transgender people.

Harry Miller, from Caistor in Lincolnshire, was contacted by Humberside Police over a limerick he re-tweeted.

He is now seeking a judicial review of the College of Policing (CoP) guidelines at the High Court.

Read article: Lincolnshire man challenges police transphobia guidelines

A businessman investigated by police over a poem about transgenderism is launching a landmark High Court case to overhaul the official rules on hate crimes.

Harry Miller is to seek a ‘judicial review’ of the hate crime guidelines followed by police forces across Britain, claiming they are ‘unlawful’ because they ‘inhibit freedom of expression’.

Read article: Businessman, 54, investigated by police over Twitter poem about transgender people launches a landmark High Court battle to overhaul official rules on hate crimes

A man from Lincolnshire has set up a campaign group which he says is aimed at protecting freedom of speech.

Harry Miller was spoken to by Humberside Police after he re-tweeted a poem about transgender women which some people found offensive.

Mr Miller, who is a former police officer, was not arrested or charged with anything – and has complained that his freedom of expression was being supressed.

At the time, he said he was “utterly shocked” to be questioned by a police constable.

“This is not about being anti-trans. This is all about telling the police to respect the law. The European Convention of Human Rights says we are able to engage in lawful political discussion without any interference whatsoever. And yet, the police have sought to shut me up and shut me down.”

Harry Miller

Harry Miller, the self-styled ‘Limerick Criminal,’ was contacted by police after he retweeted a limerick about transgender people on Twitter. Now, he’s taking legal action against the police. Whose side are you on?

A comedian and a former policeman reprimanded by the police for making public comments on transgender issues have backed a new lobby group set up to push for police guidelines to be changed.

Fair Cop, launched this week, argued that British police are misusing hate crime laws to “harass” those who question whether trans women should be able to identify as women and access female-only spaces, by saying any complaints had to be recorded.

Read article: New UK lobby group calls for change to police rules over trans comments

People warned by the police over comments they made about transgender issues are launching a pressure group and legal action next week, challenging “Big Brother interference” with their free speech rights.

The Fair Cop campaign is headed by Harry Miller, 54, from Lincolnshire, who was visited at work in January by Humberside police for retweeting a limerick that said trans women had silicone breasts. The force admitted there was no crime, but described it as a “hate incident” and said it would be monitoring Miller’s and his wife’s social media accounts.

Read article: Police are criminalising opinions, say campaigners