As witnessed by their recent disinclination to arrest Just Stop Oil protestors, British constabularies are remarkably choosy about which crimes they deign to investigate these days. Any 999-call that does not afford the opportunity to mince around in high heels or kneel in celebration of the cause du jour, is increasingly considered unworthy of attention. Burglary, car crime, and assault are passé, as is shoplifting less than £200 worth of goods. Working-class white girls are raped on an industrial scale, because raising objections might be considered distasteful; teachers spend their lives in hiding after blasphemous free speech lessons, and autistic children suffer death threats unopposed.
In lieu of crime prevention, policing has morphed into activism. The Old Bill eschew traditional criminals in favour of softer targets: online policing, ‘checking your thinking’ should you mistakenly consider an ‘offensive’ limerick humorous, and ensuring—above all else—that you do not ‘misgender’ anyone. However, they aren’t always so soft on crime.
It’s worth revisiting the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of anti-abortion group March for Life UK, who was arrested for a second time for the crime of silent prayer outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham earlier this year. Isabel must have presented quite a challenge for the officers: a lone, middle-aged Catholic woman, armed with nothing but a double-barrelled surname, which would surely make those stab-vests earn their keep. Thankfully the boys and girls in blue had the wit to go in mob-handed, as six of them brought the villain to justice.
Isabel has form in this department, having previously been arrested for the same ‘crime’ in December 2022, and having been acquitted in February. While Birmingham City Council had placed a Public Space Protection Order around the abortion centre, she appeared to be doing her utmost not to break the law: her volunteers have prayed peacefully in groups of two or three for the past ten years; they do not carry posters, and must sign a declaration that they agree to behave peacefully and lovingly. Many of the volunteers have had abortions themselves and hope that other women do not feel the same pressures that they did.
Still, this cut little ice with the officers on the scene. After requesting Isabel leave the buffer zone, the officer in question went on to give the most bizarre explanation of her offence:
Officer: The Public Space Protection Order says not to be stood out here doesn’t it?
Isabel: No, it says not to protest; I’m not protesting.
Officer: Yeah, protest. But people know who you are and they know why you’re here.
Isabel: Then they’ll know I’m not protesting.
Officer: But they will. The people who persistently phone us, which are the residents, and the people who use this place, are the ones that say that they know—and it’s their perception of events isn’t it?
Isabel: I’m silently praying, and that’s all I’m doing.
Officer: OK, and it’s their perception of events which is that you’re protesting. Now I get what you’re saying, I completely understand where you’re coming from. But it’s people’s perceptions, isn’t it?
In other words, it’s not what you are doing, it’s what people who disagree with you think you are doing—the very definition of that stupidest of policing terms, the ‘hate incident’: “Any incident which may or may not constitute a criminal offence that is perceived by the victim, or any other person, as being motivated by prejudice or hate.”
It’s worth remembering that the police are not always so forceful with this type of hardened criminal. Throughout 2022 (and now in 2023), Just Stop Oil has run riot on Britain’s roads and motorways, detaining fire engines and ambulances on call, and even arguably causing a fatal collision. The police have been content to sit by idly, enjoying their new role as tea and coffee makers – only intervening when frustrated members of the public dare take the law into their own hands. Chief of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, has even made the bizarre assertion that ‘While (Just Stop Oil) is committing some offences in terms of obstruction of the highway, those aren’t prosecutable as it’s a lawful protest as long as it does not exceed reasonable bounds.’ But clearly Isabel’s silent prayer was a step too far.
You might argue that a police force with an empty in-tray could spare six officers for such an issue, but that is not the case with West Midlands Police. The British Crime Survey of 2021 revealed West Midlands Police is the lowest-rated force in England and Wales. Just 59% of people in the area say they agree that ‘police understand local concerns,’ the lowest figure in the country. In addition, 41% of the population claim to be aware of people using or dealing drugs, the highest national figure—dwarfing London’s 31%.
In contrast to so many of today’s ‘woke’ causes, which represent little more than grandstanding, the issue of abortion is obviously deserving of its contentiousness. As an atheist and a believer in secular values, while I can certainly understand the circumstances that might lead a woman to early abortion with all its concomitant mental anguish, I am certainly not unsympathetic to those who think otherwise, particularly Catholics, for whom life begins at conception. Nor am I immune to Isabel Vaughan-Spruce’s self-evident compassion for the women walking this path.
The arrest of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce is about more than abortion, however, and more than free speech even. We’re now into the realm of freedom of thought itself. And if society, and our police forces, are seriously compelling us to defend reality against other people’s specious ‘interpretations,’ then we truly have a problem. West Midlands Police has now lifted Ms Vaughan-Spruce’s bail conditions following a legal challenge, and Isabel is likely to be acquitted once more, but that of course is not the point. With freedom of thought in the dock, it’s worth reiterating that the Old Bill are more than capable of mustering an arrest, should they feel so inclined.
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