In U.K. Free Speech is Hate Crime

Police tell Christian couple view on gays 'close to hate crime'

By David Sanderson
The Times December 23, 2005

POLICE questioned a retired couple for 80 minutes about their “homophobic” views after they asked their local council if they could display their Christian literature next to gay rights leaflets, it was reported last night.

Joe and Helen Roberts said that police officers warned them that their actions “were close to a hate crime” after they complained to Wyre Borough Council about its gay rights policies.

The couple claimed that the police told them they were “walking on eggshells”.

Mr Roberts, from Fleetwood, Lancashire, said he had been offended because of the council’s distribution of the gay rights leaflets and its promotion of its theatre as a venue for civil partnership ceremonies.

He said he complained to Paul Deacon, the council officer responsible for Wyre’s part in the Navajo Charter Mark campaign being run by several local authorities to offer assistance to gay and lesbian people.

Mr Roberts, 73, told the Daily Mail: “I told him I was offended. I asked him if I could put Christian literature on display alongside the gay material. He said I couldn’t because it would offend gay people.

“I said we had no objection to gay people, but we thought that homosexual practice was wrong and we were offended by the gay culture which the council is promoting.

“They warned me that being discriminatory and homophobic is in line with hate crime. The phrase they used was that we were ‘walking on eggshells’. I asked the officer, if I phoned the police with a complaint that the council were discriminating against Christians would he go to interview them?”

Lancashire police said its visit to the Robertses’ family home was a matter of routine after a complaint from the council. A spokesman added: “Words of suitable advice were given and we will not be taking any further action.”

Why the surprise? This is nothing new. Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" were warnings about this kind of intolerance. Those on the Left are intolerant of the very freedoms they claim to support. Don't you remember the '60s and '70s? Every time a Conservative got up to speak in public, those on the Left would attempt to shout them down. We see the same thing in modern time. We witness it with the attempts by those on the Left trying to intimidate Ann Coulter and Pat Buchannon by throwing pies or other substances at them. The Left hate free speech if it is in opposition to what they believe. Liberalism as a political philosophy is anti-freedom.

Full Story: Tolerance of Nothing

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