> These officers seriously believe they have the right to police speech because somebody might be offended. <
The key word there is “might”. The arresting officer couldn’t even tell the preacher who actually was offended.
We see almost the same thing in the US. All it takes is one woke person to complain. Then statues come down. Places are renamed. Etc.
Agreed, although in the UK (and Europe), you can also find yourself behind bars. The UK police seem to be clearly politically aligned with the left.
...which is extra sad as my cousin is one of them. I asked him about free speech some years ago, respective to the laws around ‘offensive speech’. His answer, terrifyingly, was that “nobody ‘really’ gets arrested for violating them”. Ah, I see, so they’re there to intimidate. Now, even worse, they’re actually being used, used selectively to target specific groups.