Photo taking in the first degree
A senior woman in the United Kingdom was visited by police after being caught taking a photograph of a sticker critical of gender ideology. Eve, whose identity is being protected at her request, was questioned at her home for over 30 minutes by officers of the West Yorkshire Police.
The same police who are in deep trouble for bullying and assaulting a teenage girl for no reason.
Speaking to Reduxx, Eve explained that the ordeal began in March after she spotted a sticker she thought was interesting while on a walk. The small sticker, which read “Keep Males Out Of Women-Only Spaces” had been placed on top of a large trans pride poster outside of Happy Valley Pride, a Hebden Bridge pride organization. Finding it interesting, Eve says she snapped a photo before continuing on her walk.
She snapped a photo of a poster.
Four weeks later, on April 30, Eve says West Yorkshire Police showed up at her home to question her on the photo she had taken.
They have got to be kidding. A woman pauses for a second to take a snap of a poster and the cops show up? Is there a law against taking photos in the UK???
She was upset and frightened to see them, because she thought they were there to tell her someone had died.
But Eve explained that after she opened the door to them, their opening remark was: “We have received a complaint so we have a duty to investigate it.”
A complaint that she took a photo of a poster? It might as well be a complaint that she walked past the poster, or that she was outside without a chaperone, or that she breathed. In fact the West Yorks Police might as well be the Taliban.
After inviting the officers into her home, Eve says they “gave a sermon” and explained that her personal information “had been given to them by Happy Valley Pride.”
How did Happy Valley Pride have any personal information of hers? Seriously: how? Nobody knows. Nobody knows how HV Pride got her full name, address, and post code in order to give them to the police.
Police questioned Eve for 30 minutes, apparently attempting to determine if she had been the individual responsible for placing the pro-woman sticker on the trans pride poster.
After the interrogation, the police advised Eve that “no crime had taken place.” But, through a Freedom of Information Request she later submitted, Eve says that the investigation into her was catalogued as a “non-crime hate incident” by West Yorkshire Police. According to the force’s website, a non-crime hate incident is defined as “any non-crime incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice.”
Oh well if any other person perceives it that way there is no more to be said.
Honestly they seem to have lost their minds over there. It makes 1984 look benign.
Speaking to Reduxx, Eve questioned how police decided to proceed in “investigating” her for “taking a photograph of an inanimate object on the pavement outside a building,” and said she submitted a complaint to police following the ordeal.
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“I see this as police intimidation to censor my thoughts and to try and gag any voice of dissent,” Eve said, noting that most burglaries in her area do not result in an in-person police visit.
But taking a photo of a sticker on a poster, whoooomama, call the cops.
How did whoever made the complaint know she wasn’t a trans activist collecting evidence of “actual violence”?
Maybe if Eve had died her hair blue before snapping the photo. Assuming of course it isn’t already.
Ift floors me that a police force would think doing this is a good idea. Can’t the tell the complainant to take a hike? If it had been a TiM taking a photo of a GC poster with a trans sticker on it, would they have been as enthusiastically diligent in their investigation of a trans perpetrated “non-crime hate incident”?
“… perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice”
Perhaps someone perceives the trans pride poster itself as motivated by hostility or prejudice; was there any police investigation?
Any other person? Do they go around canvassing about everything?
The charitable explanation is they saw someone had vandalized their sign, went through camera footage, saw Eve take a picture of it, decided she might be admiring her handiwork, somehow figured out who she was, and filed a complaint with the police.
I guess that doesn’t seem entirely ridiculous, except it is such a minor thing for the police to bother with. And they probably wouldn’t have, except they’re crazily pro-trans and so think anything not pro-trans is a horrible hate incident.
Their website pretty much says they will do exactly what they did, since they will investigate offensive leaflets and posters (and apparently stickers):
https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/advice/abuse-anti-social-behaviour/hate-crime/hate-crime
Just insane overreach on their part, which is nothing new for them. They’ve been mocked online for years for soliciting reports of “hate crimes and non-crimes”. Maybe they should stick to crimes rather than trying to eliminate all offensive behavior in their would-be utopia.
Victim? What “victim”? How is anyone a “victim” of taking a casual snapshot of an inanimate object?
Even the charitable explanation makes them sound unbelievably petulant and entitled. A small sticker on a large poster isn’t really all that vandalismish. Siccing the police on her, even if they did leap to the conclusion that because she took a photo of it therefore she put it there, is sadism.
Meanwhile, in a similar vein (link):
“A Conservative councillor was arrested for an alleged hate crime after sharing a video criticising how the police dealt with a Christian street preacher.
“Cllr Anthony Stevens, 50, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, told The Telegraph he was arrested at his home this month and taken to a police station to be questioned about tweets from his personal account.
“One tweet shared by Cllr Stevens in May was a video showing how officers had handled the arrest of Christian preacher Oluwole Ilisanmi in Southgate, London, in 2019.
“The police officer took away Mr Ilisanmi’s Bible after the preacher was accused of being Islamophobic and Mr Ilisanmi later received £2,500 for wrongful arrest.”