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Police Failing to Teach Officers Importance of Free Speech While Spending Thousands on Pronoun Training

by Will Jones
20 March 2023 1:00 PM

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.

Tags: CensorshipFree SpeechFree speech crisisFree Speech UnionFreedom of InformationPolice

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14 Comments
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Benthic
Benthic
2 years ago

Oh what a surprise said no one who has witnessed the last three years.

65
0
disgruntled246
disgruntled246
2 years ago

Frankly if they have to be taught that free speech is important, they’re probably in the wrong job.

82
0
DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
2 years ago
Reply to  disgruntled246

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.

5
0
Marque1
Marque1
2 years ago

‘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.

47
0
disgruntled246
disgruntled246
2 years ago
Reply to  Marque1

I’m not sure if ‘being more alpaca’ includes the right to spit at the people who come up with this nonsense.

34
0
RW
RW
2 years ago

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.

30
-1
stewart
stewart
2 years ago

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:

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.

But then goes on to add:

The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

So basically, we have no freedom of speech.

24
0
Tintin
Tintin
2 years ago
Reply to  stewart

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….

4
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
2 years ago

Shouldn’t they be taught how to prevent crime? I thought that was the job?

28
0
RW
RW
2 years ago
Reply to  Dinger64

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.

12
0
Tintin
Tintin
2 years ago

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!

5
0
Covid-1984
Covid-1984
2 years ago

The UK police are a laughing stock

6
0
DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
2 years ago
Reply to  Covid-1984

There’s nothing like a good joke and they are nothing like a good joke

2
0
varmint
varmint
2 years ago

I thought Braverman had told them to quit this abusrdity?

2
0

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