Man charged over racist comments at pro-Palestine rally
H/T Ceemac at TLN; the BBC headline disguises the fact that the arrest was for racial hate speak AGAINST Pro-Palestinians
But there’s more going on in this piece. Underneath a police picture has zoomed in on the ATTIRE of two protestors against violence towards Palestinians - a picture maybe three inches square - and is now appealing for them to be dobbed in for it.
This article represents a new BBC practice - a kind of political Crimewatch - a program where after being titillated with police accounts of crimes, the public were asked to help apprehend ‘real’ criminals from the footage.
But even in this Trojan horse of a story the BBC can not bring itself to at least give a truthful headline about either the horse itself, or which way it is facing.
As if to affirm the point: also on the BBC page at the moment, this screaming Heil headline:
THE BBCPOLICE ARE COMING FOR YOU IF YOU GLORIFY TERRORISM
But lighting up government buildings with terrorist government flags is okay apparently.
The old Chomsky: “A terrorist is a man with a bomb, that doesn’t have an air force.”
Now it seems that in the case of an imprisoned people, it’s not even the image of the bomb but the plane - even if it’s made of boxwood and nails.
You don’t even have to zoom in all that much on the right-hand photo to see that the presumed Palestinian flag on the woman’s red top has been superimposed. She quite possibly is not the same person depicted with the paraglider image cellotaped to her back: headgear looks different, with/without facemask and earring/s.
“Among those wanted by police is a woman who was seen carrying a placard depicting Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak as coconuts, which is a racist term used to imply that someone has betrayed their race”
Looked it up…brown on the outside, white on the inside - I can see how that might be objectionable, especially if used as a general slur with no context.
However when the implication is that the accused person is abetting the repression - and wholesale slaughter - of brown people on behalf of white people…
When the term has such a specific meaning, there is an easy defence - for the accused to say “No I’m not”, and explain why.
Except…I think that’s the problem that Sunak and Braverman (who are in positions of enormous power) have - explaining their use of that power.
I look forward to that debate in the commons.
Or any debate on Israel-Palestine there, for that matter.
The woman is wanted by the police. Presumably they will find her.
If she is charged, ten doughnuts to one says there will be no debate allowed in that process either.
I wonder if in the present context, the ‘victims’ statements - and actions - in support of the genocidal attacks on the Palestinians would be considered a relevant or mitigating factor.
Thanks @Evvy I saw the coconut placard (and so many others) and figured it for a fake. In other words the woman was hasbara discrediting the marchers. A pretty weak attempt I thought. There was video footage of a woman being arrested for hate speech because of some ambiguously worded placard, no doubt there were others. But among all the nauseating hot takes this one had to be close to the top of the list (and at the foot of the screen grab you can see this schlemiel is also pushing the Mein Kampf bollix)
I never thought of that. I guess it would need to be an outsider or people would know her.
Anyway it seems the woman is genuine as the police have got hold of her.
It doesn’t say if she was arrested or walked in of her own accord as the accused ‘hanglider’ women did.
She is a teacher, and by the sounds of it she was simply expressing a genuinely held view.
That being the case I imagine she will be the type to argue her case in court down to the nitty-gritty.
They’ve probably released her while they scour her devices and her life looking for some TrumpUppable tidbits to bolster their case.
It could be tricky if it boils down to a genuine discussion
Naturally I expect they will be guided from above, for the Greater Good (of the UK government and would be ‘state’ custodians, who may wear grey suits).
No doubt they will claim that the depiction simply used the race of Sunak and Braverman to criticize them, and if they hadn’t been of that race there wouldn’t have been a banner.
The woman will be able to point to racist UK policy on Palestinians - with the racism seemingly offset by having coloured politicians at the helm, who are rewarded by the realisation of personal ambitions and power - at the expense of the brown people .
Given that the depiction isn’t inherently racist, the guidance will likely be to see if she can be ‘done’, without giving her arguments much of an airing.
The way it’s reported so far suggests they will get help in that respect from the press.
Good luck to her. She’ll be hounded, but if her excuses are legit enough, that combined with her colour (always handy to in a minority when accused of something like this) then she’ll escape punishment. They’ll still send her round the houses though. Cos government etc
Though you might well be proved correct, don’t forget the ladder of privilege: women lower than men, black women lower than white women, but whining loudly at the very bottom the wearers of small hats. The deluge of persecution they suffer gets to trump everyone else’s as we can see very clearly at the moment. I’m not quite sure where the Trans community are positioned right now, but I expect next time it’s Pride Month we’ll get an update. </hatespeech>
Can we rely on msm reports to tell us whether someone has been ‘arrested’ or ‘detained’? And how exactly do the twats distinguish ‘racism’ from ‘hatred’ from ‘tewwowisim’?
The message on her placard just looks childish crap to me anyway.
It’s all for show, to discourage big attendances and limit opposition. They were keen to tell us of the two women ‘engaging in terrorist activity’ by standing in a pro-Palestinian crowd with debatable Hamas-supporting insignias picked up by zoom lenses; now got to go to court.
“And how exactly do the twats distinguish ‘racism’ from ‘hatred’ from ‘tewwowisim’?”
Well it can hardly be sincere, or half the MPs supporting the attacks on the civilian population on Gaza would be arrested for terrorism as well as Islamophobia.
