In England police threaten arrests, illegal to sing Christian songs in public outside of church

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Truth7t7

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As many are seeing, England is cracking down on free speech hard.


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Yeah the UK has went full tilt on the hate speech misinformation band wagon, I see a big change coming once President Trump takes office

The UK's actions violating human rights will stop, it was a green light under Biden, it will be a red light under Trump guranteed
 

Wrangler

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As many are seeing, England is cracking down on free speech hard.
Being able to sing only in church indicates the Left’s scheme to substitute freedom of religion with freedom of worship.

Freedom of religion is about your life, how you conduct yourself at every moment in life, provided you don’t violate the equal rights of others.

Freedom of worship reduces Freedom of Religion to having the right to go inside a building for 1 hour per week and exercise ritual but all the other hours of the week you must speak, think and dress as the propagandists dictate.
 

Rita

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So you think that throughout the U.K., everywhere, that carols and christian songs are banned and illegal Outside of churches , I must be living in a different U.K. !!!!!!
By the way it’s taken 9months for you to report that story !
 
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Wrangler

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So you think that throughout the U.K., everywhere, that carols and christian songs are banned and illegal Outside of churches , I must be living in a different U.K. !!!!!!
By the way it’s taken 9months for you to report that story !
Woah! This is precisely the hypocrisy and Appeal to Strawman that undermines the validity of Christianity in the secular world. Are you saying that Christians can object to the restriction of singing Christmas songs inside church buildings ONLY IF this restriction applies throughout the U.K., everywhere?

Compare to the outrage if a single sexist, racist, Islamophobic, homophobic statement was uttered by anyone in government under any context? The double standards of tolerance are amazing! Here, you are actually suppressing an OP speaking out against injustice to Christians because they are practicing their Christian faith. There are no words to describe such foolishness Rita!
 

Rita

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No I am doing no such thing , I didn’t say the event didn’t happen, or that I agree with it. The post endeavours to convey that it is happening everywhere n the U.K., and it simply isn’t Yet . The police apologised to the singer. I hate all the stupid reactions to things in this world l and the fact you can’t do this, or you can’t do that because it offends - drives me nuts.
However what drives me nuts too is the fact that people post videos from social media and jump to bigger conclusions about the reality within a country where they do not live.
 

JohnDB

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I get to be arrested for Christmas caroling?

Sign me up!
 

Scott Downey

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No I am doing no such thing , I didn’t say the event didn’t happen, or that I agree with it. The post endeavours to convey that it is happening everywhere n the U.K., and it simply isn’t Yet . The police apologised to the singer. I hate all the stupid reactions to things in this world l and the fact you can’t do this, or you can’t do that because it offends - drives me nuts.
However what drives me nuts too is the fact that people post videos from social media and jump to bigger conclusions about the reality within a country where they do not live.

The crackdown on free speech continues in the United Kingdom as officials use recent rioting to justify a roundup of citizens who they view as “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs.” The government is ramping up arrests of those with “extremist ideologies” in the latest wave of arrests. The crackdown includes those accused of misogynist views.In my book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,I discuss how difficult it is to get a free people to give up freedoms. They have to be afraid, very afraid. For that reason, governments tend to attack free speech during periods of public anger or fear.


That pattern is playing out, yet again, in the United Kingdom. The recent anti-immigration riots have given officials a renewed opportunity to use anti-free speech laws to target those with opposing views.

For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests.A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

While most of us find Brock’s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room. Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: “I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”

Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:

t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”

Even though Lodder agreed that the defendant was older, had limited mobility, and “there was no evidence of disseminating to others,” he still sent him to prison for holding extremist views.

After the sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), warned others that he was going to prison because he “showed a clear right-wing ideology with the evidence seized from his possessions during the investigation….We are committed to tackling all forms of toxic ideology which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.”

“Toxic ideology” also appears to be the target of Ireland’s proposed Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) law. It covers the possession of material deemed hateful. The law is a free speech nightmare. The law makes it a crime to possess “harmful material” as well as “condoning, denying or grossly trivialising genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace.” The law expressly states the intent to combat “forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.”

The Brock case proved, as feared, a harbinger of what was to come. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has vowed to crack down on people “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs.” That includes what she calls extreme misogyny.

Cooper said that the problem revealed by the recent protests was “gaps in the current system” and stressed that “it’s not OK any more to ignore the massive growing threat caused by online hatred towards women and for us to ignore it because we’re worried about the line, rather than making sure the line is in the right place as we would do with any other extremist ideology.”

She added: “For too long governments have failed to address the rise in extremism, both online and on our streets, and we’ve seen the number of young people radicalised online grow. Hateful incitement of all kinds fractures and frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy.”

For free speech advocates, it is chilling to hear UK officials state that they have been too lax on free speech in the past and must now take censorship and arrests more aggressively.

The United Kingdom has a myriad of laws criminalizing speech with vague terms allowing for arbitrary enforcement. For example, Public Order Act 1986 prohibits any expressions of racial hatred, defined as hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group’s color, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins.

Section 18 of the Act specifically includes any speech that is “threatening, abusive, or insulting.” An arrest does not have to be based on a showing of intent to “stir up racial hatred,” but can merely be based on a charge that “having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.”

For those Americans who have remained silent during as this anti-free speech movement grows, you need only to look to the United Kingdom to see what this movement means for our “indispensable right.” That wave has now reached our shores and it will require each one of us to defend a right that defines us all.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster).
 

Rita

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Scott, I didn’t say it wasn’t happening, but it’s still not in context of the fact that Christians can still go door to door and preach the gospel, they can still celebrate Easter in public places, Christians conveying the good news within the towns , they can still sing carols and have choirs singing, Christian music can be be played outside of church buildings. Where I live they have open church services on the beach
Yes, I agree that in some places there have been incidences , but many many Christian’s still have freedom of speech - all I am saying is get it in balance of the whole picture - not just weigh it up with one or two articles or videos from social media.
Your OP was about a Christian singing in public, so my response was about what Christian can and can’t do.
 
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Windmill Charge

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As many are seeing, England is cracking down on free speech hard.


View attachment 52431

This shows how useless most media is and how gullible those are who follow them.

The actual news report is quote "
A volunteer police officer who told a busker she couldn’t sing Christian worship music on a high street faces an internal investigation.

The special constable was filmed stopping street singer Harmonie London, 20, from performing on London’s busy Oxford Street over the weekend.

She was heard telling Harmonie: ‘No miss, you’re not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds, by the way.’ "
Link Very mature PCSO sticks tongue out after challenging busker's song choice

If you are going to post outrageous claims please post a link to the actual report and not to some idiot trying to be outrageous.
 
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Scott Downey

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Scott, I didn’t say it wasn’t happening, but it’s still not in context of the fact that Christians can still go door to door and preach the gospel, they can still celebrate Easter in public places, Christians conveying the good news within the towns , they can still sing carols and have choirs singing, Christian music can be be played outside of church buildings. Where I live they have open church services on the beach
Yes, I agree that in some places there have been incidences , but many many Christian’s still have freedom of speech - all I am saying is get it in balance of the whole picture - not just weigh it up with one or two articles or videos from social media.
Your OP was about a Christian singing in public, so my response was about what Christian can and can’t do.
Like Turley says, I see this as a slippery slope. And perhaps people are already biased against being able to speak out and cause offense because free speech will always be offensive to someone.

A Hollywood actress here said electing Trump lifted a suffocating cloud off of her, cause she had been forced to go along with everything and was forced to keep silent.


Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman expressed optimism for the country following President-elect Donald Trump's historic victory, saying it felt like a cloud had been lifted.

"I feel good. I feel great, in fact," Bateman told Fox News Digital in an interview. "I feel like there was this kind of suffocating cloud that was kind of over us… Regular people who had questions about decisions that were being made were threatened subtly or obviously into silence. And I feel like that's been broken, that sort of suppression has been kind of broken."
 

Truth7t7

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Freedom of religion is about your life, how you conduct yourself at every moment in life, provided you don’t violate the equal rights of others.
The US Supreme Court already ruled on freedom of religion and expression, the cake baker and website design artist refused to make cakes and websites for homosexuals due to their religious beliefs, the court sided with "Freedom Of Religion and Expression"

The homosexuals claimed their rights were violated, the US Supreme Court ruled otherwise
 

Rita

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Like Turley says, I see this as a slippery slope. And perhaps people are already biased against being able to speak out and cause offense because free speech will always be offensive to someone.

A Hollywood actress here said electing Trump lifted a suffocating cloud off of her, cause she had been forced to go along with everything and was forced to keep silent.


Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman expressed optimism for the country following President-elect Donald Trump's historic victory, saying it felt like a cloud had been lifted.

"I feel good. I feel great, in fact," Bateman told Fox News Digital in an interview. "I feel like there was this kind of suffocating cloud that was kind of over us… Regular people who had questions about decisions that were being made were threatened subtly or obviously into silence. And I feel like that's been broken, that sort of suppression has been kind of broken."
My point is that you are basing the reality on ‘ what someone says ‘ and ‘ what you read ‘ - it’s not based on the reality of living in the country you are talking about. The slippery slope you talk about started a long time ago, it’s not new and everyone knows it exists but how that plays out , no matter where you live, is in the reality of your own experience.
If you want to use msn, Fox News and social media as ‘ the whole picture ) fine. I have said all I wanted to say.
 

MatthewG

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Isn't disturbing the peace a crime? Christian or not.
 

Scott Downey

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England votes in a communist socialist authoritarian leader, so don't expect freedom of speech to be championed.
And that is what we are seeing

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Rita

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You’re just proving my point !