This article was originally published on The Expose. You can read the original article HERE
The recent public outcry about authoritarianism in Britain, ignited by the authorities’ response to the Southport child murders and mass immigration protests, has raised significant questions about two-tier policing and sentencing.
These concerns strike at the heart of the justice system, where police enforcement and the judiciary are supposed to defend the citizenry by dispensing justice fairly and without prejudice.
So, are the accusations of a two-tier justice system justified? JJ Starkey compared some of the cases to see if the UK’s justice system is indeed two-tier.
“What seems clear is that some police departments have enforced the law equally while others have not … Because our speech laws are so loosely defined, there’s little wonder why there is such inconsistency,” he writes.
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The TRUTH About the UK’s “Two-Tier Justice System”
By JJ Starkey
The recent public outcry about authoritarianism in Britain, ignited by the authorities’ response to the Southport child murders and mass immigration protests, has raised significant questions about two-tier policing and sentencing.
These concerns strike at the heart of the justice system, where police enforcement and the judiciary are supposed to defend the citizenry by dispensing justice fairly and without prejudice. Yet, the public’s apparent increasing loss of faith in these institutions suggests that this is dissipating, and quickly.
Here’s a look at some specific examples to help shed light on whether these claims of two-tier justice hold any merit.
Tyler Kay
On 9 August, Northants Police announced that Tyler James Kay, a 26-year-old father of three, had been sentenced to 38 months for “stirring up racial hatred” online. Several free speech advocates promptly jumped on the news – seemingly without investigating his posts on X – and claimed it constituted an obvious violation of free speech.
However, a deeper investigation by local paper Northampton Chronicle & Echo revealed Kay had clearly and directly incited violence in one of his X (formerly Twitter) posts:
“Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b****** for all i care… if that makes me racist, so be it”.
Despite the incitement to violence, Judge Adrienne Lucking convicted Kay of “stirring up racial hatred” – a charge that hinges on a subjective interpretation of his intentions when he already broke clear laws specified in the Serious Crime Act of 2007, which prohibit encouraging violent, unlawful action.
Kay did not mention any specific race in his original X post. Nor was there any evidence that his X post directly caused others to commit material violence.
Facing Judge Adrienne Lucking at Northampton Crown Court last week, Kay denied intending to stir up racial hatred, but admitted “in hindsight” some of his posts “made [him] look like an idiot.”
Yesterday, the same Judge Lucking sentenced 19-year-old convicted heroin dealer, Amjad Ali, to 14 months (24 months fewer than Kay) in prison for punching an unknown male in the face and aiming a “ferocious” kick to another’s head. Ali was in attendance at a counterprotest to a “far-right” protest at the office of an immigration law firm.
In a press release announcing Kay’s sentence, Detective Chief Superintendent Rich Tompkins said:
I hope this case sends a very clear message to people who think they can hide behind a screen and publish hateful, racially prejudiced posts without consequence.
This case is not an example of preventing ‘freedom of speech’ as a small minority of people will claim.
It is about standing up for what is right and protecting our communities from fear of violence. After all, freedom of speech is not freedom to spread racial hatred.
Rich Tompkins
According to UK law, Tompkins is correct. But this raises a critical issue: What qualifies as “racial hatred”? Are racial jokes included? What is the objective measure of “hatred” and “stirring up hatred”? In principle, free speech includes all speech except direct, credible and imminent incitement to violence.
Ricky Jones
On 8 August, Labour councillor Ricky Jones was captured on video at an “anti-racist” protest in London saying: “We need to cut… [disgusting Nazi fascists] throats and get rid of them.” Despite claims that Jones’s comments went unpunished, the Labour Party suspended him and police remanded him into custody within 24 hours.
Jaswant Narwal, chief crown prosecutor for CPS London North, confirmed that they charged Jones with “encouraging violent disorder.”
Like Kay, Jones did not mention any specific race – although it is unlikely he had minority “Nazi fascists” in mind – so it seems fair and logical that the Metropolitan Police would charge him with violent disorder. Notably, however, they did not charge Jones with “stirring up racial hatred” like Northants Police did with Kay.
Bernadette Spofforth
On 29 July, Bernadette Spofforth posted on X, misidentifying the Southport child murderer as “Ali Al-Shakati.” A week later, Cheshire Police arrested her for “stirring up racial hatred” and sending “false communications.” She maintains she did not do so intentionally and deleted her post as soon as she learnt the identity was incorrect.
Despite prefacing her post with “if this is true,” Spofforth’s caveat did not prevent her arrest. Chief Superintendent Alison Ross linked Spofforth’s “malicious and inaccurate communications” to “violent disorder.” Violence erupted at a mosque in Southport hours after Spofforth’s post. She was one of many to misname the suspect.
[JJ Starky embedded a short video clip of the police van set alight in Southport. We were unable to find a copy of it to include here. Please see his article if you wish to watch the video clip.]
Spofforth never encouraged violence. Nor did she mention race or religion. Cheshire Police based their arrest on a subjective interpretation of her intentions, as well as a subjective interpretation of their effects, with no objective measure of proof.
The way they enforced the law effectively means that it doesn’t matter if Spofforth unknowingly misidentified the suspect – the mistake justifies arrest if they so choose.
Cheshire Police’s use of a “false communications” charge, made possible by the relatively new and highly controversial Online Safety Act 2023, adds another layer of concern. This appears to be one of the first instances in which it has been used. UK police can now arrest any person for sending communications that cause “non-trivial psychological harm.” It remains unclear whether this law can apply to objectively verifiable or debated information.
Nick Lowles
On 3 August, following riots and protests, Nick Lowles, head of the “anti-racist” charity Hope Not Hate – which routinely tries to de-platform their political opponents for “misinformation” – posted on X that, “reports are coming in of acid being thrown at a Muslim woman in Middlesbrough.”
Cleveland Police quickly denied any such reports, and Lowles corrected his statement afterwards.
Days later, footage surfaced of what appeared to be men of Middle Eastern descent attacking others of Anglo-Saxon descent in Middlesbrough (obviously the footage is not enough to confirm a racial motive):
[JJ Starkey embedded two short video clips in his article. We were able to find one of the videos, see below. Please see his article if you wish to watch both video clips.]
Spofforth’s and Lowles’ cases are very similar. Both seemingly unknowingly shared false information that was followed by violence. Yet, Cheshire Police arrested and charged Spofforth while Cleveland Police (or the Metropolitan Police) did not arrest or charge Lowles.
Other Cases of Note
Elsewhere in the UK, a judge denied bail to an 18-year-old who was reportedly observing a riot in Belfast, equating mere observance with active participation. After he refused bail, District Judge Rafferty said anybody involving themselves as a participant or curious observer, except for exceptional circumstances, would be remanded into custody.
Meanwhile, the authorities in Newcastle granted early release to a convicted murderer after just six months, while another man in Hartlepool received a two-year sentence for swearing and gesticulating at police officers.
Thoughts
What seems clear is that some police departments have enforced the law equally while others have not. They’ve done this by two means. First, some police forces have used different laws to charge different people for similar alleged crimes. Second, they’ve relied on heavily subjective laws. So, where there is a biased hierarchy, there follows biased two-tier policing and sentencing.
When you construct laws in the subjective, this is bound to happen.
In 2006, Tony Blair’s government successfully passed the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. This allowed police to charge and the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute anyone, “who uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting, is guilty of an offence if he/she intends thereby to stir up racial hatred, or having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.”
In 2023, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak supplemented the act with the Online Safety Act 2023, which – as outlined above – allows for the charging, arrest, and prosecution of anyone for sending communications that are perceived to cause “non-trivial psychological harm.“
What objective measure of proof is there to define “abusive,” “insulting,” “stirring up,” “hatred,” “non-trivial,” or, indeed, evaluating if one’s X posts directly caused material violence? What’s insulting to one could be fair criticism to another.
Because our speech laws are so loosely defined, there’s little wonder why there is such inconsistency. It all rests on interpretation. In effect, we’re at the mercy of our local chief superintendents and whatever their political convictions may be.
Of course, we can’t expect the “liberal legacy media” to be honest about this. They at once say two-tier policing is a myth and a reality. Something that makes sense given they’re guilty of two-tier reporting while loudly proclaiming their impartiality.
We have given ourselves a very complex problem because we allowed the state to micromanage speech. But we could fix it rather easily: abolish all subjective speech-related “crimes,” grow up and reinstate what is, and always should be, cherished as an essential human right – that being freedom of speech bar direct, credible and imminent incitation to violence.
About the Author
JJ Starkey is a pen name for a former political strategist who is now a part-time citizen journalist based in the UK. His work has been published in The Salisbury Review, Off Guardian and The Conservative Woman. He is the proprietor of the Substack pages titled ‘The Stark Naked Brief’ and ‘Project Stark’.
Featured image: Nottinghamshire Police arrested 15 people at a protest in the city’s Old Market Square. Source: Independent
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