Posted on 10/26/2009 10:28:22 AM PDT by onehitfrag
After witnessing a gay pride march, committed Christian Pauline Howe wrote to the council to complain that the event had been allowed to go ahead.
But instead of a simple acknowledgement, she received a letter warning her she might be guilty of a hate crime and that the matter had been passed to police. Two officers later turned up at the frightened grandmother's home and lectured her about her choice of words before telling her she would not be prosecuted
Mrs Howe, 67, whose husband Peter is understood to be a Baptist minister, yesterday spoke of her shock at the visit and accused police of ' wasting resources' on her case rather than fighting crime. 'I've never been in any kind of trouble before so I was stunned to have two police officers knocking at my door,' she said. 'Their presence in my home made me feel threatened. It was a very unpleasant experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
But this is okay...
This is the type of horsecrap that the Obama administration is seeking to impose on the USA
save
arrest her at a tea party.......drag her off and throw her in a paddy wagon. then you won’t have to worry about her collecting on Medicare or Social Security....yep, that’s the ticket. /sarc
Yup. Real dangerous criminal you have there.
Were the two policemen “Yobs”? A bit of the old in-out, in-out? Looking for some ultra violence? Britain has certainly morphed into Krubecks Clockwork vision. I hear flashing your lights on a couple of fags dogging it in the bushes is considered a hate crime. Shoosh - to think my people came from there.
If the gays are able to flaunt their lifestyles, so should Christians.
Oh wait—this is the United Kingdom, not the U.S. Maybe this is a “crime” in the U.K.
“and accused police of ‘ wasting resources’ on her case rather than fighting crime.”
- Well duh, that is what they DO. Waste time. They are after all on the POINTS system. Guilty or innocent, common sense evades them. Much easier to arrest grandma than to actually WORK for a living. But that is part/parcel of the whole LEA/GOVT gig..get by with the least amount of work possible.
Seems to me she has only exercised her right to free speech. I can’t imagine that she wrote anything vulgar or threatening....likely just an open, honest letter.
Maryland Police calls that a hate incident and pass it along to the feds for national statistics, and this is not new. I saw a Police Chiefs of america recomment police do this even though they cant make it illegal.
She's guilty of being a member of the wrong religion in England. THESE people say far worse on their signs and are not arrested.
It is completely different. Great Britain doesn’t have nearly the same level of free speech protections that we do and “hate crimes” there include hateful speech.
In the United States, the hate crimes bill covers religion, race, gender, military service, sexual orientation, and a few other things and can only be used to prosecute someone if he or she, “willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person—”
The new hate crimes law law specifically says it can’t be used to limit freedom of speech or religious beliefs. People that say otherwise are too lazy to read the bill. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s909/text
The old hate crimes law was passed in 1994 and protected Christians, women, etc. It was called the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994). So, as Christians, we’ve been covered by hate crimes for a long time and you haven’t seen people who oppose us thrown in jail. It’s just utter stupidity. To compare us to countries that don’t have freedom of speech in their Constitution (everyone just assumes that since they are free, western nations, freedom of speech exists; it doesn’t. America is different in the level of emphasis we put on it in our highest law).
And I’ve said before, it’s a stupid, pointless bill. If you assault someone, or you commit murder, adding a “hate crime” to it is symbolic. It’s just another waste of time when there are far more important things to be worrying about - like the $1.4 trillion deficit and the union card check legislation that needs to be destroyed. But to believe that it could be used to suppress religious beliefs or speech shows a complete and total lack of understanding in the nation’s legal system as well as an inability to read the law itself. It’s crystal clear that it only applies if you go out and blow some cross dresser’s head off or you stab some young gay kid. If you did those things, you were going to jail anyway (hence: pointless law).
Well, I see one sign I kinda like.....
Harbinger of things to come in America. White people will be oppressed by enviro gay fanatics. Sad.
Blacks and Latinos are exempt as their victim card trumps eco zealots and gays,
NHS might be informing her any day that all electable procedures will not be available to her.
I am surprised that no jail time came from this. I bet the muslim radicals will make sure some punishment comes from this.
Will the bobbies will sit and watch while they’re beheaded in their front yard?
You know what I love about the United States? The Supreme Court carved out a narrow exception that said freedom of speech did not cover speech that was specifically designed to call others to action to cause bodily harm, death, or injury (the famous “you can’t falsely yell fire in a movie theater” line). Given that those signs specifically say enemies of Islam should be killed, they wouldn’t be covered by the first amendment and could be arrested.
Deep in the heart of Texas, these folks would be thrown into jail (or at the very least, chased off the streets by a large, armed, angry mob). There is no way we would tolerate that here.
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