UK: Home Secretary orders woke police to tackle crime instead of ‘hurt feelings’

In a precedent-setting move, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman is confronting the continued assault on freedom of speech in the UK that is tying up valuable police resources.

In 2018, London Mayor Sadiq Khan invested in a police hunt against “offensive communication” amid London’s violent crime surge. Less than a year later, Khan’s $2,000,000 (USD) of wasted taxpayer money resulted in only six prosecutions for online thought crimes. Rather than scrap the bad idea, which was wrong on so many levels, and focus on real crime, a spokesman for Sadiq Khan argued that even more work needed to be done to combat online “hate.”

In accordance with the new rules set out by Braverman, a draft code presented to parliament states that “police should only record complaints when it is absolutely necessary rather than because someone is offended.”

A few recent cases in Trudeau’s Canada highlight the violation of citizens’ rights and the waste of resources in the face of obsession about “hurt feelings.”

• Canadian Judge Dennis Galiatsatos wrote in his ruling that flipping the middle finger is a “God-given right.” Read about the case HERE. Judge Galiatsatos stated: “It may not be civil, it may not be polite, it may not be gentlemanly. Nevertheless, it does not trigger criminal liability.” In an illustration of how far the law has been hijacked by the woke who now equate hurt feelings with “hate” that must be legally proscribed, Galiatsatos added: “The court is actually inclined to take the file and throw it out the window, which is the only way to adequately express my bewilderment,” drawing on the metaphor of “throwing out a case.”
• In another recent case, Calgary pastor Derek Scott Reimer was thrown in jail for “hate” after protesting a king and queen drag show for kids at a local library. He wasn’t protesting the LGBTQ+ adult community’s choice of personal lifestyle, but the sexualization of children. Yet police immediately treated the case as if it were a breach of hate laws (as did the reporter), after the pastor was violently thrown to the floor at the library.
• A third case involves a big unfolding controversy that is now being investigated because a video circulated on social media that “appeared to show boy tearing pages” out of the Qur’an “and crumpling them.” The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board chairperson Steve Russell and superintendent of education Jamila Maliha wrote in a statement that “we are committed to repairing the harm that has been caused to the Muslim community as a result of this incident.” There was no harm done to the Muslim community except hurt feelings to some. Yet the incident warranted a full page of alarm from Canada’s state broadcaster CBC. It still has not occurred to many that such actions, such as Qur’an burnings, are not intended as expressions of hatred against Muslims, but as statements that the freedom to offend is protected under Western laws, laws which are being increasingly usurped by Islamic supremacist lobbies which act as if protection from “hurt feelings” were enshrined in Western law, just as it is in Islamic Sharia states.

Driving the woke invasion of the Western societies are: woke governments (working with powerful woke lobbies for votes), bought media, police and the legal system, which is obedient to woke officials  who are operating under the auspices of a battalion of woke ideologues in the “anti-racism” industry. They all claim to promote “diversity,” “inclusion” and “tolerance,” when in fact, they have demonstrated none of those attributes. It’s their way or you’re canceled, or worse.

I stated in a recent article entitled: UK Home Secretary ‘concerned’ over suspension of boys for mild damage to Qur’an as police call it ‘hate incident’:

Braverman should be more than just “very concerned.” Most important is the question of what Braverman intends to do about the “deadly intimidation campaign” against the targeted children, and the encroachment by Islamic supremacists into Britain, which is now being overtly transformed into a state that enforces Sharia blasphemy laws.

Kudos to Braverman. The UK College of Policing will now “update their operational guidance so that it is in line with the new code” that she has introduced. Other free societies need to follow suit and restore rule of law in accordance with Western principles.

“Suella Braverman orders ‘woke’ police to protect free speech and focus on fighting crime,” by Sam Lister, Express, March 13, 2023:

Common sense policing will today be restored when officers are ordered to focus on tackling crime instead of hurt feelings. Suella Braverman will introduce new rules that require forces to focus on serious offences rather than policing social media.

The Home Secretary says officers must be allowed to get on with catching dangerous criminals instead of being dragged into political rows.

She told the Daily Express: “Brave police officers up and down the country work day in, day out to keep the public safe.

“That is what they are there to do, and we will continue to support them to fulfil this vital role.

“It is only common sense that their focus must remain on catching dangerous criminals and bringing them to justice, not getting embroiled in political debate where no laws are being broken.

“That’s why we’re taking action to ensure a clear threshold must be met in order for ‘non-crime hate incidents’ to be recorded – under new safeguards, the police will only record these incidents when it is absolutely necessary and proportionate, and never simply because someone is offended.

“Our new code, laid in Parliament today, will protect the fundamental right to freedom of expression, and better protect people’s personal data.

“We must work together to show the public we are delivering the basics they expect us to.

“By reducing unnecessary burdens, the police can get back to their primary focus – fighting crime and keeping people safe.”

Mrs Braverman will introduce new statutory guidance about the way so-called non-crime hate incidents are dealt with to ensure police prioritise freedom of expression.

The draft code of practice laid before Parliament today will say the police should only record complaints when it is absolutely necessary rather than because someone is offended.

It follows concerns that officers have been processing trivial incidents on social media that then leads to people having information about them stored by the police….