In an era when innocent retirees find constables launching raids on their bookshelves for evidence of “Brexity” magazines and the latest bestseller by Douglas Murray, we can hardly be blamed for fearing that our police have lost their way. What a relief, then, to read the following.
In Liverpool, we read this week, a 71-year-old pensioner put a poster in his front window expressing support for the proscribed terror group Palestine Action. Merseyside Police, however, decided to take no action.
Good. A rare example of common-sense policing.
Please don’t misunderstand me. As I wrote in June, the Government was quite right to proscribe Palestine Action. If breaking into an RAF base and damaging our planes isn’t a terrorist act, what is it? I have no time for these thugs’ supporters, either. They are, at best, idiotically naive.
Even so, I don’t want police locking them up for displaying posters in their own homes – or, indeed, for waving pathetic little placards on which they’ve scrawled “I support Palestine Action”. Scores of demonstrators, including quite a few elderly women, have been charged after doing exactly that. But I think it’s a mistake. Not because I condone their views, but because it’s a total waste of police time.
In an era when innocent retirees find constables launching raids on their bookshelves for evidence of “Brexity” magazines and the latest bestseller by Douglas Murray, we can hardly be blamed for fearing that our police have lost their way. What a relief, then, to read the following.
In Liverpool, we read this week, a 71-year-old pensioner put a poster in his front window expressing support for the proscribed terror group Palestine Action. Merseyside Police, however, decided to take no action.
Good. A rare example of common-sense policing.
Please don’t misunderstand me. As I wrote in June, the Government was quite right to proscribe Palestine Action. If breaking into an RAF base and damaging our planes isn’t a terrorist act, what is it? I have no time for these thugs’ supporters, either. They are, at best, idiotically naive.
Even so, I don’t want police locking them up for displaying posters in their own homes – or, indeed, for waving pathetic little placards on which they’ve scrawled “I support Palestine Action”. Scores of demonstrators, including quite a few elderly women, have been charged after doing exactly that. But I think it’s a mistake. Not because I condone their views, but because it’s a total waste of police time.