Posted on 12/27/2022 7:23:36 AM PST by karpov
This week, the arrest of British Catholic woman for “praying” outside an abortion clinic has attracted international attention. But the jailing of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of anti-abortion group March for Life UK, is neither surprising nor particularly rare as a denial of free speech in Great Britain.
It is also a cautionary tale for those in the United States, which is facing arguably the largest anti-free speech movement in its history.
Pictures from Birmingham show Vaughan-Spruce, 45, simply standing near the abortion clinic silently praying when an officer confronts her. She was not blocking access or displaying any protest signs or material. Nevertheless, she was arrested, jailed, interrogated and ultimately charged with four counts of violating the abortion clinic “buffer zone.”
According to reports, the West Midlands Police officer asked her, “Are you praying?” She responded, “I might be praying in my head, but not out loud.”
That was it. She was arrested for praying “in her head” near an abortion clinic.
A recent order from Sept. 7 made clear that praying near an abortion clinic is now a criminal act in the country. The Birmingham City Council order says that prohibited acts includes “but is not limited to graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counselling.”
Various individuals heralded the arrest. Dr. John Michael Leslie went on Twitter to declare, “No, you’re in violation of [the law] if you repeatedly harass women going to a Family Planning Clinic who might be asking for Abortion Advice. ‘Praying in her head’ is the spin from her supporters.”
However, legally, that is itself a dangerous spin. She was not arrested for past conduct but her current conduct, which was praying in her head.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
At the very minimum, there will never be a time when anyone in my family will get conned into fighting and dying to save the “free” nation of “Great” Britain.
It’s a damn homo police state, now run by foreigners.
Had multiple family members in the USAAF there in ‘43-45 and other relatives fighting and dying in the Bulge and Anzio.
NEVER AGAIN.
Attention Democrats— Tell us again how bad Putin is.
Coming soon to America. Attempts have already been made by the Biden Administration (see FBI Twitter connection for example) and the former Obama administration (see IRS attack on conservatives) to control what Americans think and say. Hate speech/think laws would be the logical next step here too.
Britain's airforce saved Britain from invasion. Even with France out of the war, Britain's Navy was able to continue throttling Germany's access to oil (and to all other Atlantic trade). WW2 was literally won and lost due to access to oil.
After losing the Battle of Britain, Hitler literally had no choice but to make a desperate attempt to sieze Russian oil in the Caucasus. Operation Barbarossa wasn't madness - it was ice-cold sanity. But once Hitler lost the battle for Stalingrad, it was all over.
Oh OK
So those B-17 bombers (with my uncles and cousins on board) were there for show, huh?
And my cousin who got dead on the third day of the Bulge was just there in a support role for Monty and his Fabulous Success in Market-Garden?
Thanks for the lecture Blimey. My Grandfather was the last man evacuated from Prague as an American Diplomat (Nazi’s flew him out on a cute little Junkers to Stockholm) and my Mother was evacuated just after the signing of the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop treaty since my Grandmother was a British subject dual national from Ulster.
So I know just a bit about the whole affair, having heard the history from um, pretty much everyone in my family. Who just happened to be there.
Broadly speaking: the West half focussed on Japan & the Pacific, while the East half dealt with Germany - in Europe and North Africa..
Why did the US fight so hard against Germany, and work so hard to assist Russia? After all: unlike Japan, Germany hadn't attacked the US.
But Germany had attacked Russia. At the time the US Executive branch of Government was ... heavily influenced by pro-Soviet voices.
These voices had always been against the US overtly entering the war, but became interested in intervening against Germany after Barbarossa began.
I hope this helps to put the European war in context Regulator. Your relatives did a very great deal of good for the people of occupied Europe: but it would simply be an error to believe that they died to save Britain.
As I say: the RAF forced Hitler to give up Operation Seelowe. The Atlantic blockade of Germany - the part of the War of the Atlantic that was never in doubt - starved Germany of oil and forced Hitler to try his desperate gamble to the East.
On the subject of Market Garden: this video is a very helpful, in-depth study of Market Garden. It's very illuminating.
Hope this was helpful
Anyway: the charges against Vaughan-Spruce solely concern her breach of the PSPO.
The text of the PSPO can be found here
It lists 5 banned activities. The one that VS has (allegedly) breached is the one that includes prayer. Even her silent prayer
Understand that it is not illegal to walk or to stand within the PSPO. But the PSPO attempts to assert prior constraint on the thoughts in Vaughan-Spruce's head
FReepers will be glad to know that this prior constraint is itself illegal. It breaches article 9 of the ECHR, that the UK ratified in the 1950s.
But will the court understand this, or will Britain sink further into the same morass that has afflicted all Western countries?
People get arrested, detained, beaten, imprisoned, and sometimes even killed for exercising their free speech in the USA.
Don’t believe me? Give a cop the middle finger. This is an explicitly 1st Amendment protected activity yet you’re still highly likely to face illegal retaliation for doing so.
Or take pictures or video of police in public. Or even from your own property and odds are they’ll retaliate against you.
These days protesting your local school board can get you classified as a terrorist and the FBI can come talk to you or even detain you indefinitely.
Don’t get me started on the hundreds of Jan 6th protesters rotting in prison without charge even two years later!
Nope. Free speech is mostly over in the USA.
I was very sorry to learn that Kari Lake - and her lawyers - are being heavily sanctioned for the temerity of fighting back against extremely obvious corruption.
Yup, there goes that Right to Petition Redress from the government.
Which is an example of why the Dems want to disarm us.
Hate crime legislation always targeted free speech. That was always the intent. Classify speech you disagree with as hate speech and off to prison goes your opposition. And our idiot pubbies voted for the legislation. Of course, the pubbies are not idiots, they are far worse.
and do you think GB is any different from the US?
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