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Flickr: London Anti-Scientology Protest – Goodge St

This is absolutely outrageous. An unnamed teenager has been served by the City of London police after a peaceful protest in which his poster exclaimed “Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult“. The poster was confiscated by the police from the teenager, who is under-18, and have sent the case file to the Crown Prosecution Service. 

Within five minutes of arriving I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use that word, and that the final decision would be made by the inspector

The teenager accurately cited a 1984 high court ruling, where Justice Latey described Scientology as a “cult” that was “corrupt, sinister and dangerous“. If the Judge is allowed to call it a cult, why isn’t he? The policewoman read him Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 (pdf), which in part says that a person is guilty of an offence if he “displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting” (sec. 5, 1, b), and strongly recommended that he remove the sign.

What’s even more worrying is that an anonymous demonstrator wrote on the anti-Scientology forums that they “protested outside another Scientology building in Tottenham Court Road which is policed by a separate force, the Metropolitan police, who have never tried to stop us using the word cult“. Where’s the fair and balance the police are supposed to be serving?

I didn’t even know that back in 2006 the City of London police got into some heat because it was found that over twenty officers had accepted gifts worth thousands of pounds from Scientology. These weren’t all low-ranking officials either, they ranged from Constable to Chief Superintendent. When the new headquarters opened that year the Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley applauded Scientology for “raising the spiritual wealth of society“. Whilst this may not be bribery, it does display some sort of low-level corruption. Gifts in exchange for speaking good about Scientology perhaps? We can only speculate. What is certain is that the Chief Superintendent has clearly lost his head.

What a load of bollocks. If it’s not clear to you that Scientology is a cult, I’m sorry to inform you that your mind has been warped. It was founded by a bloody science-fiction author for Christ’s sake! How un-realistic can you get?

This pretty much amounts to public censorship. This is not threatening or abusive wording at all. Whilst it may be insulting, it’s hardly a reason to confiscate the poster nor face the teenager with prosecution. This all reminds me of V for Vendetta where Steven Fry shows Natalie Portman all the government banned loot he has stashed around. What word will the government ban us from using next? It was a peaceful protest, no property was damaged, lives weren’t lost and perhaps just some egos were bashed.

I honestly hope this kid doesn’t make it to court, or if it does, some ace barrister will offer his counselling pro bono for him. This is a disgrace. I wouldn’t really expect this here in the UK, at least we don’t class Scientology as a church (unlike the USA).

link (guardian.co.uk)