Reporting UK Internet Hate Crime and Abuse

From Stand Up to Hate:

There is a common belief amongst UK internet users that anything can be posted or said on-line if the website is hosted abroad.

For instance it is believed that racism, homophobia, threats of violence, incitement to religious hatred etc cannot be acted on by the British Law enforcement agencies or the UK justice system if it is posted on You Tube, Facebook, Twitter etc, because they are American owned companies and therefore come under their “Free Speech Laws”.

Recently a number of convictions in the UK have proven this to be a common myth and a lie.

Material (videos, documents, music etc) posted on any site anywhere in the world by a person in the UK still falls under the “Obscene Publications Act 1959 and 1964” and therefore the person posting it is liable to arrest and prosecution.

http://www.iwf.org.uk/hotline/the-laws/criminally-obscene-adult-content/obscene-publications-act-1959-and-1964

Comments or posts deemed to be of a racist, homophobic, slanderous, religious hatred or violent nature are also breaches of UK law no matter where the site is hosted and are a breach of the UK’s “Communications Act 2003”.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/section/127

Both laws have been used to arrest and convict people posting on foreign hosted and foreign owned website.
This post outlines the laws and gives people the relevant information on how to gather evidence of a breach of these laws, how and where to report them.

Gathering Evidence and Making a Report

The more information you can supply the stronger the case the police and the Crown Prosecution Service will have to prosecute the person. If you follow the steps below they should have all the information they will need.

1) Record all relevant information about the item. This information should include; what website it is posted on, who posted it, the date of upload (if shown) and any comments.

2) Write down how the item makes you feel. This is a handy piece of information to give the police, they will ask.

3) If possible copy the source item. This may mean copying the image, video or music as it may be removed before the police see it and they will want a copy. If it's abusive comments please follow the instructions in point 4.

To copy an image right click on it then select "save image as".

To copy a video or music item, please Google the website name followed by "download". Select a website that will do the download rather than software and follow the instructions.

We do not advocate copyright theft and items should only be copied to aid the police in catching the culprit.

We will suggest some sites at the bottom of this article to help.

4) Take screenshots of the item. Still images in all cases will be of help. Please visit this site that gives full instructions on how to take a screen capture.


http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/general/ht/winscreenshot.htm
5) When you have done all this contact your local police department via the link below. You can do it via email or telephone. Give them the full details about the item and the evidence you have gathered.

http://www.met.police.uk/links/index.htm#uk

That's it

The UK law enforcement agencies have the ability and legal right to find where that person is located, so don’t worry about the logistics of how it’s done.


Don’t listen to lies; the incitement to religious hatred is a crime!

The incitement to religious hatred or religious intolerance falls under UK anti-Racism legislation. And thusly is also a breach of the United Kingdoms laws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_and_Religious_Hatred_Act_2006


Please check out a few news items that demonstrate how these laws have been used to arrest, prosecute and convict online hate promoters and abusers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319080/Unemployed-man-faces-jail-leaving-obscene-messages-internet-tribute-sites.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/12/racist_content/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bradford-west-yorkshire-11761181

http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/press_releases/101_09/

http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/c-13425/two-teens-arrested-over-facebook-hate/

From recent Norwich Pride Rally

Norwich Stop the War to demonstrate in London

As even more people are killed in the current conflict between Israel and Gaza, some in Norwich are organising in serious protest.

First there is a free performance tomorrow night - 

And then there is a coach to take demonstrators from Norwich to London on Saturday -

Norwich Stop the War will be taking a coach to the national demo on Saturday Here are the updated details: 

NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION FOR GAZA

LONDON SATURDAY 9 AUGUST

NORWICH COACH WILL DEPART THEATRE ROYAL 8AM RETURNING 5PM

TICKETS £12 / £10 concession / £15 solidarity
(Our main concern is to fill the coach. Anyone who wants to go and is
worried about the cost should speak to Rita. If you cannot come please
consider a donation)

Tickets can be purchased at Greenhouse, Bethel Street, Norwich or call
Rita on 01986 897082 or 07906093354.

If you have a list of contacts feel free to forward this to them.

Earlier this week Norwich Stop the War protested outside the BBC at Norwich Forum about their biased coverage of the conflict in Gaza (photo courtesy of Lottie Carlton)

Festival of Cultures 2014

Norwich MIND are holding their 10th Festival of Cultures 

Saturday 16th August, 11 am to 4pm

The Millennium Plain at The Forum
There will be music, dance, and foods from around the world, Time to Change Cinema, Health and Wellbeing info and Complementary Therapies.

Please come along and join in with a great day.

The Forum & Millennium Library

From Norwich Millennium-Library:

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Norwich Central Library fire. Over 150,000 books were lost and library customers and staff spent many years using and working in temporary library set ups. 

The library fire was a terrible event for the city, but it's a testament to the good folk of Norwich and Norfolk that we could turn such a tragedy around - here we are in 2014, we're now in the Forum and the Millennium Library has become the busiest public library in the country. Not bad for a small city in a little corner of England!

British fascism weakened

From Searchlight by Sonia Gable:

The resignations of Nick Griffin from the chairmanship of the British National Party and James Dowson from the leaderships of Britain First are welcome and will weaken British fascism.

Griffin, who stepped down from his position on Saturday 19 July, had presided over the big growth and subsequent decline of the BNP since he was elected party leader in 1999. The party started its run of council election wins in 2002 (apart from one short-lived success in 1993) and at its peak had around 60 councillors. Griffin’s biggest victory was his election to the European Parliament in 2009, along with Andrew Brons.

But Griffin was always divisive. His period as chairman was marked by internal strife, which Griffin always survived but which weakened the party. He even managed to fall out with Brons, meaning that the two were unable to maximise the benefit of their election as MEPs – thankfully.

Whether Griffin went of his own accord or was pushed is unclear – probably a bit of both. There were always calls for his removal, but he had his own group of supporters in powerful party positions.

Griffin claims his departure was his own decision. In his resignation statement he says he had intended to hand over the chairmanship some time ago, and it is true that he did express that wish a few years ago. He says he stayed on to help the party through a concerted attempt to destroy it, and that his two aims – to make the party financially stable and to end “a four-year electoral drought” – have been achieved.

He may technically have ended an electoral drought by virtue of the re-election of one BNP councillor this year, but the party now only has two councillors nationally and its vote in this year’s European elections was derisory. Whether any more BNP councillors will be elected is doubtful. Strangely Griffin claims Brian Parker’s election to Pendle council was in June, when in fact it occurred in May: an indication of Griffin’s detachment from British politics?

Griffin remains as BNP president, a new position created for himself. He claims it will enable him to give his successor, Adam Walker, “advice and support” and that he will still speak at party meetings, write for party publications and generally play an active role. Whether Walker will want Griffin constantly looking over his shoulder is unclear.

Possibly more useful to Griffin is having a title behind him in his new role. Griffin has for several months preposterously claimed sole credit for Britain not declaring war on Syria and now intends to build on his “historic intervention” with “a very much harder campaign to expose and resist the latest neo-con campaign to herd the public into confrontation and conflict with Russia”.

Griffin has been friendly towards Russian President Vladimir Putin for some time. In December 2011 he visited Russia to observe the state parliament elections and declared that Russian elections were “much fairer than Britain’s”. And in 2007 Griffin went on a speaking tour in the USA that was arranged by a wealthy American far-right extremist called Preston Wigington, who has extensive links with Russian fascists.

During his period as an MEP Griffin built many links with European fascists with whom he now wants to “build a pan-European campaign for peace and to resist the utter evil of those who seem hell-bent on plunging us into another world war, against the last bastion of our race on the planet”.

In case anyone doesn’t quite get his meaning, Griffin spells out his target: “the neo-con drive to make the world safe for US oil giants, the internal banks, global corporations and Zionist supremacism”. Back to old-fashioned antisemitism then.

As for Walker, who succeeds to the leadership by means of Griffin appointing him deputy leader immediately before his resignation, he is hardly less divisive than Griffin. There is no love lost between Walker and the BNP’s treasurer Clive Jefferson, which bodes ill for the party’s future financial health.

And a party that really wanted to be taken seriously would hardly appoint as leader a man who last year was banned from teaching for life after he after he admitted verbally abusing three pupils and slashing their bicycle tyres with a knife.

To cap it all, Walker’s first public act as BNP leader was to insult Britain’s war dead by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honours Japanese war criminals responsible for the deaths of thousands of Allied troops and civilians during the Second World War.

Griffin’s claim that he made the party financially stable has an element of validity though the party remains heavily dependent on legacies from dead members, hardly a reliable source of income. The BNP would be doing even better financially had not Searchlight helped the sons of a dead BNP supporter prevent their father’s estate worth £389,000 going to the fascist party.

As it is, the party managed to make a profit of £160,000 in 2013 despite increasing staff costs, by spending very little on campaigning and avoiding paying past legal expenses, a policy that resulted in Griffin’s personal bankruptcy at the beginning of 2014. The BNP is still insolvent but to a lesser extent than before and to some extent the insolvency is technical – the result of provisions rather than actual debts, though the party still owes too much to HM Revenue and Customs.

One interesting point is the revelation in the 2013 accounts that the party has set aside £56,467 as a “future wage guarantee fund”. A note to the accounts states that “certain funds have been set aside to meet future guaranteed salaries, these funds will be applied over the next four years”. Whose salaries are being guaranteed is not revealed. It may be members of Griffin’s family: Griffin’s daughter and her husband have positions in the party. Or it could be salaries of key Griffin allies or even Griffin himself who, since losing his seat in the European Parliament and being declared bankrupt, appears to have no means of support.

A full analysis of the BNP accounts will appear in the next issue of Searchlight.

One man who had a huge impact on the BNP financially was James Dowson. Over the three years he was associated with the BNP he raised nearly £2 million for the party, and for a period in effect owned the BNP, a conclusion I reached after analysing the BNP’s finances. The money went to Griffin’s head and he spent far more on profligate legal actions and other ventures, resulting in the BNP’s and his own insolvency. After parting company with Griffin, Dowson went into business with the former BNP councillor Paul Golding and a small bunch of Islamophobes to form Britain First, which has punched its way into the news by invading mosques to distribute so-called British Army Bibles.

No doubt it was Dowson’s fundraising that paid for the Bibles and activists’ travel to the group’s target mosques, and his departure, announced on 27 July, is therefore welcome. Britain First’s importance has been greatly overstated, in some instances by anti-fascists looking for a raison d'être after the demise of the BNP. Nevertheless Britain First certainly had the ability to cause community tension.

Interviewed by the Mirror, Dowson, who professes Christianity, albeit of the rabid anti-Catholic Orangeman variety, said: 

No matter how many times I told him [Paul Golding] I did not want decent Muslims intimidated, he just continued doing it.

I have come to the conclusion that no matter how hard I tried, you cannot escape from the fact that the group is being overrun with racists and extremists. I think he is fooling himself and lots of people that Britain First is a Christian group. Sadly, it has just become a violent front for people abusing the Bible.

We can only agree with Dowson's conclusion about Britain First’s false Christianity, except for the fact that it was never anything else. Dowson was misguided (at best) in being taken in by Golding and his Islamophobic comrades.

In his resignation statement Dowson announces his “retirement from all political activities forthwith”, claiming that he wanted to concentrate on his family. Dowson has a history of moving from one extremist venture to another so we can only wait and see whether he really has retired. If he really is a Christian, I hope he takes some time to consider the true meaning of Christian love. Be a Christian evangelist and moral crusader by all means but gentle persuasion is better than force. Imposing faith by violence is intolerable whoever does it. And fascism and racism are wholly contrary to Christian principles, whatever some fascists and racists might claim.

Grumpy Cat against racism

Spotted at Brighton anti-EDL rally:

Britain First chased out of Stevenage by Royal Anglian Regiment

From EDL News by Gary Hasting:

There is fresh embarrassment for paramilitary fascist organisation, Britain First, after they tried to hijack a Freedom of the Town ceremony dedicated to the Royal Anglian Regiment and were marched out of the town this afternoon.

The regiment marched through Stevenage after returning from a tour of Afghanistan and were being honoured by locals when Britain First turned up and started handing out their hate literature.

According to eyewitnesses, a couple of Anglian marchers told the leafletters in no uncertain terms where to go, then it all got a bit heated and one Britain First activist was given a slap. Soon afterwards two large men took their leaflets off them and told them to sling their hook.

A Facebook user asked Britain First what happened today on their Facebook page but the post was deleted.

Last week the Anglians politely asked Britain First to remove their photos from their Facebook page, Britian First refused and deleted their request without replying.

Britain First have spent the last few weeks raising money for Christian extremist and Britain First founder, Jim Dowson, by setting up stalls that look identical to Help for Heroes and pocketing cash people thought was going to Armed Forces Charities.

Last February a WWII veteran took them to task when they were caught scamming pensioners in Eastbourne. Story here and video here.

With thanks to Exposing Britain First

Best Moments of Antiques Roadshow at UEA

From The Tab Norwich by Maisie Anteney-Tipper:

The UEA graced the nation’s screens on Antiques Roadshow (broadcast in January). Here’s our 10 favourite moments

De dum, de dum, de dum, de dum… we know you’re humming the Antiques Roadshow Theme Tune already. This week, it graced our glorious campus, and we’ve picked out our best moments.

1. This 1950′s kitchen set

It’s better than any kitchen in Norfolk Terrace…this guy chooses to keep it in his garage.

2. This cabinet collection of crazy canaries

Have you ever seen a better display of Norwich pride? This man also had a booootiful accent to match

3. This man’s beard

Undoubtedly a priceless antique in itself

4. This man serenading us with…something

He found this trumpet in the desert in Afghanistan. Sing along if you know the words!

5. This death mask

Not many universities can claim their Vice-Chancellor owns Gladstone’s death mask.

6. This pricey bird

This tiny bird statue was valued at £5000 – that’s over 3000 LCR jägerbombs!

7. This lady’s terrifying toy box

As if your essay deadlines weren’t giving you nightmares already. These lovely ladies include real human hair wigs and were valued at over £1,500

8. This near-catastrophic accident

Just after being valued at over £300 each, the smaller dolls in the collection were knocked over! Could have made a nice find for a loan-struck student.

9. This masterpiece

Who needs an art department when you’ve got masking tape?

10. And of course the best moment…getting to see our beautiful campus in all its summery glory

If you missed Antiques Roadshow don’t panic – click here for some clips

Norwich Cathedral peregrine falcons webcam superstars

From the BBC:

A webcam set up to watch peregrine falcons living on a cathedral tower in Norfolk attracted 100,000 visitors a day over the breeding season and that amounted to nearly four million views.

The Hawk and Owl Trust set up the camera at Norwich Cathedral in 2011 and 10 chicks have fledged in that time.

The technology improved this year and more people logged on to see the camera footage, the trust said.

Over 88 days from 17 March viewers saw 3,568,265 three-minute sessions.

High-speed crash

This number of three-minute viewing sessions was 71% higher than in 2013.

Nigel Middleton, from the trust, said: 

At the peak over the first 10 days of June people were seeing over 100,000 views per day.

During the whole period we served video to around 112,000 unique addresses, some 35% higher than 2013 with 87% of viewers from the UK, 3% from the USA and 1.6% from Spain.

The remaining 8.4% were distributed over at least six continents.

Web traffic started to rocket in March when the first egg of 2014 arrived
All four of the brood fledged but two chick died once leaving the nest.

This year, four chicks fledged but two died, one as a result of a high-speed accident when it crashed in a wall near the nest site.

A survey of breeding peregrines in the UK - the sixth to be carried out since 1961 - is currently under way by the British Trust for Ornithology, which is based in Thetford.

Experts say peregrine numbers have recovered from the detrimental effects of pesticides in the 1950s and 1960s. In 2002 their numbers reached a high of 1,492 occupied territories but at that time there were none in East Anglia.

WWI at The Forum Monday 4th August

The Day We Went To War

FREE event at The Forum

The Day We Went To War

Monday 4 August 2014

10am - 6pm

On 4 August 1914 Britain declared war on Germany and entered into a dreadful conflict which changed the world forever.

Exactly 100 years later a FREE event is being held at The Forum to reflect upon the sacrifices made by soldiers, civilians and communities.

Visitors to this one day exhibition can ‘take the King’s shilling’ at a recruiting office, discover how to research their family military history, view wartime documents, letters, posters, photos and much more.

Roll of Honour

The Fusion Screen will show the Norwich Roll of Honour, in memory of the 3,500 Norwich people who lost their lives in WW1.

The names will be displayed on the screen throughout the day and into the evening. The space will provide an opportunity to remember those lost and for quiet reflection.

A memorial wall will be in the main Atrium of The Forum where people can post the name of a family member who served in the war.

Lord Mayor

The Norwich town crier will officially start the day’s events at The Forum at 10am and The Lord Mayor, Councillor Judith Lubbock, will be attending too.

The Day We Went To War is an event organised by Norfolk Library and Information Service, the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, the Norfolk Record Office and The Forum.

Other WW1 events

This historic anniversary will be marked in a variety of ways in Norwich.

Lights will be dimmed across the city centre at 10.30pm and a candle lit service is being held at St Peter Mancroft, opposite The Forum, from 11pm until midnight.

More details of what’s going on around the city on Mon 4 Aug can be found at the Visit Norwich website.

Photos from Norfolk Record Office

Norwich Pride Parade, 2014