My Orwellian ordeal at the hands of time-wasting police
It was a Sunday lunchtime around 1pm when I received a knock on the door. I was with my family and friends, preparing lunch, looking forward to a convivial afternoon of roast chicken, chilled white wine, and lots of gossip.
I opened the door, and saw two uniformed police officers. At first I thought that perhaps they were investigating a spat of local burglaries or car thefts in the area, although I soon dismissed that possibility. The police are rarely proactive on those issues, as resources are so stark and ever diminishing.
Which is what made it so shocking when the young, female officers told me why they were standing on my doorstep. “We are here to talk to you about a hate crime”, said one, as her colleague looked anywhere except at me.
When I asked what it was about, I was told that a “transgender man” in Holland had reported me for a tweet. Yes, something I had tweeted, sometime within the past year. I was not allowed to know which tweet it was, or under which category of hate crime law it fell.
I assumed of course it was so-called transphobia, and started asking about the legal jurisdiction, such as how a person based in Holland can make a complaint about someone based in the UK, and which court it would get to.
I was asked if I would voluntarily go into the station the following day to make a statement. I said, “absolutely not”. Why should I do that, when I have no idea what I was being accused of? I had better things to do.
One of the officers then explained that they would have to talk it over with their senior officers and come to some decision about what to do. I said they were welcome to pop round any time and let me know exactly what I was supposed to have done that was illegal.
The officers left looking a little bewildered. I did have a sense that they understood what a ridiculous mission they have been sent on. I advised that they could better use their time investigating rape and domestic violence.
The next day I received a phone call from one of them telling me that the investigation had been dropped. I was disappointed, because what I had hoped would happen was that I ended up in court, on a ‘hate crime’ charge, and my friends and colleagues would protest outside of the court and use it as a way to educate the public about this Orwellian state of affairs. Police have limited time to investigate actual crime, but are instead being tasked with ticking off the likes of me for daring to tweet that “trans women are NOT women” (or whatever the person in Holland had objected to).
I was able to send the two officers packing, without their visit even spoiling my lunch.
I know the law on these issues, and am well aware they had no chance in getting the Crown Prosecution Service to press charges. Nevertheless, I thought about the women who have lost jobs, been hounded out of college courses, friendship groups and university societies, as well as those who would have found it distressing to be threatened with a hate crime conviction for no good reason. A criminal record is a serious issue and can have a terrible effect on a person’s livelihood, reputation, and self-esteem.
Police coming after those of us who do nothing more than speak the truth about gender madness and refuse to bend the knee to the crazy cultists, are doing a massive public disservice. Unless there is a very good reason not to, we must all publicly protest this terrible infringement of our human rights.