Liverpool Police: Being Offensive is an Offence

Various high ranking police officers from Merseyside Constabulary have been photographed outside a Liverpool supermarket. Behind them is a huge, mobile billboard bedecked with a rainbow flag and the following words:

BEING OFFENSIVE IS AN OFFENCE

Just in case anyone has doubt regarding the particular offensiveness in mind, the billboard explains:

Merseyside Police stand with and support the LGBTQI+ community, we will not tolerate hate crime on any level.

Good for them. Thankfully, Liverpool is well known for its low levels of violence, burglaries and drug use, which allows these senior law-enforcers the time to loiter around supermarkets all day. There, glowering at shoppers and families buying their toilet rolls and weekly veg, they remind them of the consequences of being offensive.

It is worrying to think that in Britain, merely causing offense will be seized upon by underemployed police forces to demonstrate to minorities how earnest they are. Liverpudlian comedians ought to review their gags lest the local police inspector shows up on his night off. No one wishes to be offended, and I really don’t like it when Jesus Christ and His gospel are ridiculed and pilloried. But living in a free society means that the price we pay for freely worshipping and rejecting the beliefs of others is allowing them to reject us and our beliefs. If I say that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, some will be offended. I must accept their denial of that truth and deny whatever counter claim they make. Under Liverpool’s draconian interpretation of the law, a discussion of theology could land one in jail.

I can only imagine that the Chief Constable, Andy Cooke, went on a fact-finding tour of middle east police forces, seeking new ideas and fresh approaches to supervising his patch. Although Syria’s Political Security Directorate and the Disciplinary Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran might not concur with Cooke’s love of all things LGBTQ , I dare say they would delight in his methods.

I long for the day when our police will tackle the murderous drug gangs which seem to have free rein in our inner cities and housing estates, instead of posturing around equality campaigns. If they tolerated knife-wielding thugs as little as they do people who think bad things, we would all sleep safer in our beds.

Photo: Paul Embery, Twitter.