Police forces are failing to train officers on the importance of free speech while teaching them obscure pronouns, according to a report from the Free Speech Union into the free speech crisis in British policing. The Times has the story.
The Free Speech Union (FSU) said there was a “free speech crisis” in British policing and that forces were not emphasising the importance of freedom of expression to officers.
Officers are undergoing tens of thousands of hours of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training in which they are told that gender is “culturally determined” and about the use of pronouns including “fae” and “faer”. At least one force still uses the “genderbread” diagram, which illustrates the notion that biological sex is irrelevant to an individual’s innate sense of gender.
The FSU’s freedom of information request revealed that forces were spending “little or no time” on the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Its report, entitled ‘The Urgent Need to Teach Police About Free Speech‘, argues that the balance needs to be redressed.
The organisation says that EDI training should not have a chilling effect on free speech, arguing there have been incidents of police intervention resulting in arrests which should never have been a criminal matter in the first place.
The report states: “While a belief in the concept of ‘gender identity’ as distinct from biological sex certainly reflects the views of some members of the public, it is very far from a consensus position. It is therefore concerning to find police EDI training endorsing one side in this ongoing debate.”
The report says that “partisan” EDI training has led to arrests of gender-critical speakers, citing the arrest by Gwent police of a women’s rights campaigner after they received complaints she had put up stickers perceived as “offensive” to transgender people.
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, recently said that freedom of speech was the “lodestar” of the UK’s democracy and that police must not be complicit in shutting it down. Her comments were prompted by the row over four pupils in Wakefield who were suspended for a week after a copy of the Quran was “slightly damaged”.
West Yorkshire police recorded the episode as a non-crime hate incident but acknowledged that no crime had been committed. New guidance on non-crime hate offences, published this month, requires police to prioritise freedom of expression ahead of people taking offence.
According to the FSU, 25 of the 32 forces in England and Wales that responded to it (78%) were providing no or inadequate training on Article 10.
In one example, Essex police dedicated an estimated 38,750 hours of police time on EDI training – including a £193,000 contract with a private company that urged the public to “be more alpaca” because the animals were “naturally inclusive”.
Worth reading in full.
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Oh what a surprise said no one who has witnessed the last three years.
Frankly if they have to be taught that free speech is important, they’re probably in the wrong job.
Free speech has never been a concern of plod. They know that the courts will always take their word over those of ‘the accused’. Witness far too mant cases of miscarriages of justice down to plod lying.
‘Urged the public to be more Alpaca’. Someone has identified the idiot in charge, made a very accurate assessment of their IQ, and sold them a complete crock of ordure at an exorbitant price. Grifters will grift and morons will be taken for a ride.
I’m not sure if ‘being more alpaca’ includes the right to spit at the people who come up with this nonsense.
While a belief in the concept of ‘gender identity’ as distinct from biological sex certainly reflects the views of some members of the public, it is very far from a consensus position.
Gender identity is an abstract concept invented by (US) social scientists and it’s absolutely different from sex. The lack of consensus is more in the area to which degree other people have to care about someone’s supposed gender identity, eg, is it ok to reject (as man) advances of a male cross-dresser with Sorry, but I’m not gay and hence, you’re barking up the wrong tree here? That’s a practical example of misgendering someone.
Why would they teach the police the importance of free speech?
Free speech isn’t allowed in Britain.
Just read article 10 of the 1984 Human Rights Act, which supposedly. enshrines our freedom of speech. It says:
But then goes on to add:
So basically, we have no freedom of speech.
I get the gist but related to someone self IDing or proclaiming to be the opposite sex, and demand the world to kowtow to his belief (not religious), then the proviso above does not apply. This self-inflicted offence has not national interest, not poses no danger to the country….
Shouldn’t they be taught how to prevent crime? I thought that was the job?
The more everyday behaviour gets criminalized (like carrying a folding knife in your pocket because that’s useful for opening stuff and sometimes, getting rid of annoying vegetation) the more crime can the police prevent without doing anything out of the ordinary. Like, say, tackling armed criminals. That could be dangerous.
Shouldn’t the Ministers raise this issue in Parliament, and then pass a law against freedom of speech by any law enforcement agent? No wonder the police is bankrupt – apparently millions have been paid out for wrongful arrests etc!
The UK police are a laughing stock
There’s nothing like a good joke and they are nothing like a good joke
I thought Braverman had told them to quit this abusrdity?