Police Threaten to Arrest "Openly Jewish" Man in Public Yards Away from Pro-Palestine March as His Presence was "Antagonizing"

[Turd Fergusen]

An antisemitism campaigner has been threatened with arrest yards from a pro-Palestine march as a Metropolitan Police officer said his presence was "antagonizing".

A video clip, posted on social media, showed Gideon Falter being told by police he was "quite openly Jewish" and causing a "breach of peace".

The chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) was wearing a kippah skull cap when he was stopped from crossing a road near the demonstration in the Aldwych area of London last Saturday.

An officer told him: "You are quite openly Jewish. This is a pro-Palestinian march. I am not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence."

Another officer said: "There's a unit of people here now.

"You will be escorted out of this area so you can go about your business, go where you want freely or if you choose to remain here because you are causing a breach of peace with all these other people, you will be arrested."

The clip showed the officer saying Mr. Falter's presence was "antagonizing".

He said: "Despite being told repeatedly that London is safe for Jews when these marches are taking place, my interactions with police officers last Saturday show that the Met believes that being openly Jewish will antagonize the anti-Israel marchers and that Jews need protection, which the police cannot guarantee."

He added: "Instead of addressing that threat of antisemitic violence, the Met's policy instead seems to be that law-abiding Jewish Londoners should not be in the parts of London where these marches are taking place.

Full Article:

Police threaten to arrest 'openly Jewish' man yards from pro-Palestine march as his presence was 'antagonising'

The head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism was stopped from crossing a road close to a pro-Palestine demonstration in London last Saturday.

news.sky.com

 

[Symmachus]

"Ma'am, I can see that you're very openly black, and the white supremacist protesters over here may perceive your presence here as antagonizing or disruptive. We'll have you escorted over here, away from the white supremacists, so that you can go about your business. If you continue being present here, you run the risk of being arrested."

If that sounds horrible, then why does that somehow make sense with a Jew near a pro-Palestine gathering?

 

[Exodus]

The only sense I can make of this is in the U.S police are public servants who are there to "protect" and serve, and while it is ridiculous and shouldn't be happening let's all be honest here, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this Jewish man is potentially putting himself at risk in such a situation, so are we asking the police who might be a handful vs hundreds of protesters to act as a body guard and stop the crowd if they get rambunctious and start "trying" to arrest after the fact? Or do we use common sense to protect the individual and remove him from a potentially fatal situation?

I am by no means stating what's happening is right or fair by any stretch of the imagination, but if I have to strategically keep the peace and everyone safe, I can easily see this as a reasonable strategy. Though how it has even gotten this bad and why this is even happening is a completely different story, I'm just focusing on the scenario at hand.

 

[DaveL]

The only sense I can make of this is in the U.S police are public servants who are there to "protect" and serve, and while it is ridiculous and shouldn't be happening let's all be honest here, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this Jewish man is potentially putting himself at risk in such a situation, so are we asking the police who might be a handful vs hundreds of protesters to act as a body guard and stop the crowd if they get rambunctious and start "trying" to arrest after the fact? Or do we use common sense to protect the individual and remove him from a potentially fatal situation?

I am by no means stating what's happening is right or fair by any stretch of the imagination, but if I have to strategically keep the peace and everyone safe, I can easily see this as a reasonable strategy. Though how it has even gotten this bad and why this is even happening is a completely different story, I'm just focusing on the scenario at hand.

I'm sure it's often easier to appease fascists and bigots by oppressing the innocent. But what's easiest isn't necessarily right.

 

[thuumpr]

Had to read because the headline made as much sense as arresting a black man watching a KKK march...

But then I saw the pic.

 

[Turd Fergusen]

It is interesting and somewhat telling that they choose to blur the identity of the police officer, who I'll point out is being quite openly police.

Too bad this guy wasn't around to arrest Kyle Rittenhouse for being openly innocent of anything.

 

[Blunderbuss Firozabad]

Gideon Falter is hardly some regular Yosef who took a wrong turn on the way home from Shabbat services.

In a rough but easily relatable comparison for Americans, Gideon would be like an early Al Sharpton.

My guess is the officer couldn't remember the name of Gideon's group, CAA, and instead made that unfortunate statement.

CAA litigates a lot, protests often, and is criticized for conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

Imho, Falter creates antisemitism with his groups antics:

"...on April 27, when another pro-Palestinian march is scheduled.
"... the Met emailed Falter about what it described as his intention to “protest” next week and offered to meet with him to discuss ways to “ensure we can police the event as safely as possible.""

"Falter rejected the idea that he was staging a protest, saying he was planning to go for a walk as a “private individual” and others might choose to join him."

He's just kind of a dick.



Gideon has received an apology from the Metropolitan Police for the events of last Saturday.

London police apologize after threatening to arrest ‘openly Jewish’ man near pro-Palestinian protest

The Met deleted its first apology from its social media accounts and issued a second statement.

www.nbcnews.com