The CPS has decided not to proceed against a 16 year old boy who carried a placard citing Scientology as a dangerous cult:
A teenager who was facing legal action for calling the Church of Scientology a cult has today been told he will not be taken to court.
The Crown Prosecution Service ruled the word was neither “abusive or insulting” to the church and no further action would be taken against the boy.
Frankly, all other considerations aside, it was a petty and vindictive decision to seek to charge him in the first instance. After all, he was merely expressing his opinion and why not? We are, are we not, a country that values such liberties as freedom of speech and expression… are we not?
The unnamed 16-year-old was handed a court summons by City of London police for refusing to put down a placard saying “Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult” during a peaceful protest outside the church’s headquarters near St Paul’s Cathedral earlier this month.
Police said they had “strongly advised” him to stop displaying the sign but he refused, citing a high court judgment from 1984 in which the organisation was described as a cult.
The summons was issued under the Public Order Act on the grounds that the sign incited religious hatred.
And this is where New Labour and its politicised police force have led us. A placard at a protest claiming that an organisation is a cult is now deemed incitement to religious hatred. I don’t doubt that the CoS wasn’t happy at the accusation, but I am equally sure that it is capable of ignoring it, too.
It takes a particularly fuckwitted view of the world to come to the conclusion reached by the City of London Police – and not to reach a similar conclusion when faced with marching Muslims carrying banners demanding respect for their murderous little cult religion of peace and that infidels be killed. Two standards? Surely not? And, of course, a teenage boy complaining about Scientology is hardly likely to engage in a murderous campaign on the streets of London – unlike those who think infidels should be killed. The police took the soft option, perhaps? The police, I suggest, took leave of their senses. I’m mildly surprised – pleasantly so – that the CPS appear, at least in this instance, to have retained a grasp of theirs.
I am also less pessimisitic about the youth of this country when one of them stands up for freedom of speech in the manner that this young man did:
“We advised him to take the placard down when we realised what was happening but he said ‘No, it’s my opinion and I have a right to express it’,” she said.
There is hope, after all.
Ah yes, but you doubtless saw that there is apparently quite a cosy relationship between some members of the City of London police and the “Church” of Scientology.
I first heard about this on Ken Frost’s site – all I can say is good luck to this kid – he’s at least willing to stand up for his rights when too many of us (including me, I’m ashamed to admit) have in the past just shrugged our shoulders and given in.
You go, boy! You give the rest of us hope.
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Dinner with Tom Cruise, no less.
This has happened again, this time in Glasgow. Surely the polis of auld Glasgae toon have more to do than clamp down on peaceful protest?