HAAHAA

That is all.

However roll on the city police getting someone to raid his house, get access to his interwebs cache and hard disk to find all of the hallmarks of ebaumsworld addiction... Then send him away for possesing two CP thumbnails and have his life destroyed all for comedy value.

The damage has been done..

The guy was prevented from lawfully protesting.

He should sue the police for wrongful arrest, they shouldn't get away with this so easily.

So now take your cult signs and go protest

And when the police confiscate the 'scientology is a cult' sign again a few times, take them to court. Rinse and repeat until you've restored the right to protest fully that was taken away by some former leader and a bunch of overzealous police.

'Blair is a cu*t'

Hospitality

There are reasons organisations have rules about what hospitality can be legitimately accepted by its representatives: gifts influence us, possibly inappropriately. I bet Hurley was just made up to have an "influential" group want him to open their new HQ, and didn't realise he was being played.

Not surprising

My comments on the original story didn't quite make it online for some reason. But I predicted that it would never come to court.

So the cult whingers get their way with no risk and no comebacks. And it is apparently not the local force who don't know the law, it's the cps, they were supposed to have been consulted...worrying...or someone is fibbing?

How nice of them

"We decided to let him go. No harm done eh?" doesn't cut it with free speech issues. The damage is done, the protest is disrupted and the message has been sent: protest and you can get arrested, we will not tolerate abuse of organisations from which we've received bribes, instead of "Scientology Is A Cult" why not consider "I Consider Certain Aspects Of Scientology Objectionable But Support Their Right To Practice Their Beliefs (Please Don't Arrest Me Under Religious Hate Laws)." The "chillng effect" is invisible but nonetheless pernicious.

DM

I seem to remember a comment on the previous story calling "where's the Daily Mail when you need it?" Well here it is:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-417782/Police-officers-accepted-gifts-Church-Scientology.html

>The protest was not stopped at the time

Yes it was, they confiscated his sign.

The CPS dropping it is a big let off here, had it gone to court it would have been a clear precedent and the CoS would've got the publicity it deserves.

@Anonymous Re: Scientology

"Isn't the Met supposed to be rife with masonic favouritism, mutual back scratching, funny handshakes and varying trouser leg heights?"

Maybe it is, but this was the City of London Police, which is an entirely different police force.

@david

I wouldn't publish the comments of cultist maniacs either.

:-)

It's not surprising...

First we have a policewoman telling a member of the public that he wasn't allowed to take pictures in a public place, then police asking (that should read "ordering") protesters to lower banners procliaming that Scientology is a cult. Ignorance is no defence in law yet our own police force are ignorant of the laws that govern us. What chance do any of us have?

She Sells Sanctuary

Now all the poor kid has to do is get his DNA off the police database.

delete from dna where citizen not in (select citizen from successfully_prosecuted)

NB. nowhere does it mention that his DNA was taken, I just though I'd help with a handy bit of code.

@Sarah

That wasn't a dig...I think you do a great job...

@AC - Placards

The sign was clearly a core part of his protest allowing him to make his point to in a more visual way, making it clear that he was protesting, and of course it was the message he wanted to put across.

The right to protest is extremely important in a democracy, mocking infringements of it is just fucking stupid.

I hope you aren't a copper, we don't need any more with a sneering attitude, a dodgy grasp of the law and a dodgier idea their place in the constitution.

@AC - placard

"I fail to see how removing ONE PLACARD stopped the protest. He lost his sign, boo hoo, he was still part of the protest for the rest of the day."

So that's theft, right? Try taking a policeman's helmet, and when he remonstrates with you tell him, "You lost your hat, boo hoo, you can still do your job for the rest of the day."

How corrupt are the police ?

I wonder how many of the City of London Police are members of the Scientologists ,or receiving "benefits" from them ?.

A pleasant surprise

The CPS has built up a reputation for taking a long ime to decide these issues. It always seemed very likely that the case would be dropped, but it is a pleasant surprise that the decision has come so quickly.

Report the police to CPS

To sue the police would be expensive and time consuming. However, he could report the individual police officers to the CPS for theft of his sign and for threatening behaviour. If one of them touched him, assualt would be even better!

The police have said that they were ignorant of the law but, igorance of the law is no defence for the rest of us. Just keep on writing to the CPS demanding that they take the officers to court and openly publish the letters and the replies.

I wonder why the police did not donate the tickets to charity. That is what decent minded public servants would have done ......... ah yes, I see now.

Plod need to brush up...

The Public Order Act is not designed to protect people's feelings - its designed to protect, er, public order. So even if what you say is offensive, it must be offensive and threaten public order - hence the requirement that the behaviour or words be within the sight of someone likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress.

You also have a complete defence if you prove that your conduct is reasonable.

Then there's the oft-maligned Human Rights Act, which guarantees your right to freedom of expression (Article 10 of the European Convention). Ok, its qualified, and not as robust as the US 1st amendment... but its better than nothing. Come to think of it, as the Americans aren't using their constitution, can we borrow it ?

Re: Hogwash

"Scientology is as valid a religion as all the other rubbish from the major churches."

I read in the paper today that there are moves afoot to force fortune tellers, astrologers, etc (briefly, anyone who can't prove their claims) to put big signs outside their premises saying "for entertainment only".

Now wouldn't *that* be nice...

So, what is going to stop the LPD from chilling the next protest?

Logic dictates that the LPD knew it was going to far, and did so to chill and defang the protest. Although the precedent will dictate that the protesters can use the word "cult," this was always obvious to begin with, and what happens when the LPD decides that it will prosecute regarding the use of another patently legal word? They can string this out forever unless the source of the obvious LPD corruption is located and removed.

And corruption it must be. I recall that the LPD did nothing when the Islamic protestors marched the streets demanding the head of Rushdie, a law abiding citizen (not a cult) who merely wrote a wonderful novel. And now a 15 year old calls a "cult" a "cult" and they try everything in their power to prosecute? And we also know about the COS gifts to the LPD-- that they even accepted gifts is clearly an incident of corruption. How in heel is it acceptable for police officers to accept gifts from the people who they are supposed to police?

@heystoopid

I love these comments. Somewhere in there is always one absolute mentalist.

you tell them 'heystupid'.

whatever TF you are talking about.

Then you can have a wee biscuit and a cup of tea before you take your next set of pills.

@AC "HOGWASH"

Unfortunately they seem to be like any other "religion" in every respect, including bloodshed. Watch the youtube video and look at the website on a placard about deaths- I would post the address here, but don't know whether El Reg's legal eagles would be comfortable with it...

Damage not done

There's a lot of "damage has been done" type comments but this actually just attracted a whole bunch of extra attention to the situation ~and~ nothing bad happened to the kid after all ~and~ the media is reminding everyone that the British government does in fact classify Scientology as a cult.