by Julian Mann, Christian Today
It is good news that a senior Metropolitan Police officer has praised the constable who defended a Christian street preacher’s freedom of speech in Whitechapel, east London. But pro-free speech campaigners would be naïve to think that the culture of the Met will change overnight.
Met Assistant Commissioner (AC) Matt Twist was speaking at the London Assembly’s police and crime committee on February 25 after a viral video showed the female officer calmly telling a crowd of angry men who objected to Christian preaching in a “Muslim area” that, “In this country, we have freedom of speech.”
According to the London Standard, Susan Hall, the leader of City Hall’s Conservative group, told AC Twist: “I particularly want to congratulate you on your female officer, who I think it was in Whitechapel, actually reminded people what the meaning of free speech is. I really would like to commend her and I would love to see more police officers actually doing that. I hope you thank her on behalf of very many of us.”
He replied: “Thank you for noting the great work of PC {Police Constable} Moule who was in Whitechapel. It’s been reposted a number of times on differing social media accounts, some more politicised than others. My view is it was a good example of officers showing policing common sense without fear or favour and doing a good job.”
But despite this commendation the unfortunate reality is that the Met’s track record on upholding freedom of speech has been poor.