New UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned “woke” policing and arresting people over social media posts. He said police should be “fighting actual crime in people’s neighborhoods, and not policing bad jokes on Twitter.”
Sunak’s government wants to replicate the work of the chief of the Greater Manchester Police Stephen Watson for reforming two police departments. Watson enforced a policy that required officers to go out on patrol more often and to investigate every lead in a crime.
“We want to get officers on to the front line doing what they are supposed to do which is preventing and solving crime. The chief constable of Greater Manchester has done a great job on that. We want to see what Greater Manchester has done replicated across other forces,” a source told The Telegraph.
In recent times, UK citizens have been arrested for social media posts. Most notably, in August, police officers in Hampshire arrested army veteran Darren Brady for sharing a post.
The post was originally posted by Laurence Fox, who said the post, an image of an LGBT flag transforming into a Swastika, was commentary on authoritarianism within the LGBT movement.
The officers told Brady that he either attend an education course or go to jail. He called Fox who came and recorded the incident.
“I don’t understand. I posted something that he posted,” Brady told police. “You come to arrest me. You don’t arrest him. Why has it come to this? Why am I in cuffs over something he shared, then I shared?”
“Because someone has been caused obviously anxiety based on your social media posts,” the officer responded. “That’s why you’ve been arrested.”
