A British blogger has been arrested at his dwelling for sharing a meme saying “F–okay Hamas.”
Pete North, 47, shared a video of police arriving at his dwelling in Yorkshire late final Thursday and telling him he was being arrested as a result of he “posted one thing on the web” which somebody from their hate crime group “didn’t admire.”
Although his meme additionally mentioned “f–okay Palestine” and “f–okay Islam,” the cops appeared most centered on him offending the phobia group behind the Oct. 7 bloodbath in Israel, North advised the Telegraph.
“The officer within the interview mentioned, ‘Properly, firstly, let’s begin with the meme. You posted a meme that mentioned f—okay Hamas,’” North claimed.
“I mentioned, ‘yeah, I did publish a meme that mentioned f—okay Hamas, as a result of Hamas are a proscribed terrorist organisation internationally, together with in Britain,” the blogger and author recalled.
He mentioned he advised the officer, “‘Simply so we’re on the identical web page, you do know who Hamas are?’”
“And he simply … shook his head,” North continued, claiming the officer was simply as clueless as when he requested if he knew in regards to the horrors dedicated by Hamas on Oct. 7.
“He was completely oblivious,” he claimed. “In the event you’re going to arrest folks for memes, you most likely must pay extra consideration to present affairs.”
The publish, which King shared on X final month, featured a Palestinian flag with the phrases, “F—okay Palestine. F—okay Hamas. F—okay Islam. Need to protest? F—okay off to Muslim nation and protest.”
North Yorkshire police confirmed in an announcement {that a} man was arrested “on suspicion of publishing or distributing written materials supposed to fire up racial hatred.”
North was later launched with out cost after a prolonged interrogation and has since accused authorities of attempting to “terrorize” folks into being politically appropriate on-line.
“I really feel fairly strongly that what political cartoons and memes I publish on social media is not one of the police’s enterprise,” he advised the Telegraph.
“No one needs to be going through police inquiries for posting memes on Twitter,” North mentioned.
“The entire level of this train is to not win convictions. It’s to terrorize folks like me into considering twice about posting spicy memes.”
His arrest is simply the newest sparking outrage within the UK at police cracking down on folks sharing their beliefs and even waving flags. Earlier this month an American most cancers affected person dwelling within the UK accused British cops of questioning her over an allegedly “threatening” message she’d posted.
“Pete North’s ordeal is the newest in a protracted line of egregious violations of Britain’s free speech custom” by the left-wing Labour authorities, Rupert Lowe, an impartial Member of Parliament, advised the Spectator.
“Free speech doesn’t exist in Britain – it has been systematically undermined by successive governments, usually within the identify of ‘security.’”
