London
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Armed police officers are a rare sight in the UK, but Irish comedian Graham Reinhan landed from Arizona at London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday and met five when he was arrested, searched and questioned.
reason? Three posts he wrote to X in April, Reinhan claimed in his subsack.
“When a trans identified man is in a women-only space, he is engaged in violent and abusive behavior,” writes Reinhan to one of them in connection with trans women. “Make a scene, call the cops and if everything else fails, hit him into the ball.”
London Metropolitan Police confirmed that they arrested a man in his 50s on “allegedly inciting violence” without naming Reinhan, the co-creator of the sitcom Father Ted, a gender-critical activist.
Reinhan denied that his post was a “call to violence” against trans women and was released on bail. He appeared in London’s Westminster Magistrate’s court on Thursday in another case, facing charges of harassment and criminal damage against a trans woman.
Right-right Reform For Nigel Farage, the populist leader of the British Party, Reinhan’s arrest was “pretty timely.” He was invited to give evidence before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in Washington on Wednesday for a hearing on “European threat to free speech.”
Farage, who said he had arrived from the “land of Magna Carta,” had what he felt was a smoking gun. It’s proof that Britain is slipping into what he calls “a truly awful authoritarian situation.”
“At what point did you become North Korea?” Farage asked us lawmakers. “Well, I think the Irish comedy writer found it two days ago at Heathrow Airport.”
While Rebel Farage requires little excuse to abandon Kiel’s Prime Minister Stage’s flames Labour government, Reinhan’s arrest is the latest in a series of cases that have fueled a fierce debate over British laws regarding free speech.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in February, US Vice President JD Vance rattled multiple incidents in the UK, saying that freedom of speech has proven to be a “retreat.” Last month, the US State Department issued a report claiming that UK human rights have “greatered” over the past year, citing “serious restrictions” on freedom of speech.
Although Britain does not have a codified constitution and therefore does not correspond to the first amendment enshrines freedom of speech, the country has “a very long time” and “a very long time” as highlighted in its meeting with the US president.
But the Free Speech Law says critics are struggling to keep up with digital technology.
In a prominent incident last year, mother and former nanny Lucy Connolly was sentenced to 31 months in a post she sent to X while Britain convulsed into anti-immigrant riots.
The riot was caused by the murder of three female students by Axel Ludakbana, the son of a British Rwandan immigrant. Misinformation about the attacker’s identity prompted a massive demonstration outside the hotel that the UK uses to house asylum seekers.
“The massive deportation set fire to all the F-king hotels full of assholes for everything I care about,” Connolly wrote in June 2024.
Connolly was convicted under the Public Order Act of 1986. It criminalizes the distribution of threatening and abusive material aimed at “stimulating racial hatred.” She was released last month after serving 40% of her sentence.
While many of the British rights have condemned citizens being jailed for social media posts, lawyers stressed that such speeches were illegal prior to the advent of social media.
Whether they screamed from the corner of a speaker at Hyde Park or written in X, inciting violence can be a crime in the UK. “With words alone, it’s possible to cross the line and go criminal,” Max Hill, former director of prosecutors in England and Wales, told the BBC on Wednesday. “We’re crossing that line very clearly, tweeting that all hotels, including immigrants, should be set on fire.”
Connolly pleaded guilty to the charges against her, but she argues that she is a “political prisoner” and causes her to be an online right.
Farage said he hopes to take her to Congress on Wednesday. “Sadly, the restrictions placed on her have banned her from traveling, which is a huge shame,” he said.
Much of the rage is incited to the right, but the Starme government has also been fired from the left, with pro-Palestinian activists claiming their speeches are unfairly policed.
The British government designated the group’s terrorist group’s terrorist group after activists invaded the UK’s largest air force base in June and damaged two military aircraft. Under the Terrorism Act of 2000, terrorism includes actions that include “serious damage to property” in favour of political purposes.
Protesters in line with Palestinian actions have also been targeted since, as support from terrorist groups are also prohibited. Police arrested 466 people in one day during the protests in London in August.
This sight has plagued some of the UK’s most prominent legal authorities. Former Supreme Court judge Jonathan Sampratt wrote in a British newspaper that he has become independent.
After Reinhan’s arrest, the head of metropolitan police asked the government to “change or clarify” the laws officers must enforce.
Mark Lowry said the decision to arrest Rheinhan was “made within existing law, which dictates that a threat of punching someone from a protected group could be a crime.” However, he said his officers were placed in “an impossible position.”
He urged the government to “limit resources dedicated to addressing online statements to these cases that create real threats in the real world.” Asked about the arrests by Congress, the wise man said police “must focus on the most serious issues.”
While British institutions have slaughtered under pressure to change technologically, Farage said it provided a warning to the US. “Today we’re Claxon, so don’t allow a piece of this to happen in America,” he told Congress.
US Rep. Jamie Ruskin, a top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has rebutted that the British Prime Minister has not shut down right-wing news broadcaster GB News. He also said that Reform Council leaders have barred local newspapers and websites from interacting with authorities.
“To the British people who are thinking this… Free Speech Con artists and Trump Sicophant protect the freedom of your country, come to America and see what Trump and the Magazine are doing to destroy our freedom,” Ruskin said.
“You may be thinking a lot before “make the UK great again.” ”
