Bernadette “Bernie” Spofforth, was caught up in Nice Britian Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s crackdown on on-line speech.
The Gateway Pundit reported that British authorities have warned that “keyboard warriors” will probably be arrested.
Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley lately informed reporters, “We are going to throw the complete drive of the legislation at individuals. And whether or not you’re on this nation committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from additional afield on-line, we’ll come after you.”
“You might be responsible of offenses of incitement, of stirring up racial hatred, there are quite a few terrorist offensives concerning the publishing of fabric.”
As an attack on children attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England was unfolding, Spofforth weighed in on social media.
Spofforth’s submit on X, which she has since taken down, learn, “Ali Al-Shakati was the suspect. He was an asylum seeker who got here to the UK by boat final yr and was on an MI6 watch record.”
“If that is true, then all hell is about to interrupt unfastened.”
Spofforth’s got here underneath police investigation after which accused of sharing misinformation and misidentifying the assailant.
The mom of three was ultimately arrested for her post.
She was accused of allegedly “inciting racial hatred and spreading false information by way of written means” and detained for 36 hours.
Throughout the investigation, and whereas she was out on bail, she was unable to reply to messages or questions concerning the incident.
In an replace submit on X, she shares that police have now determined to take “no additional motion.”
She additionally shared that after she found the knowledge was incorrect, she deleted the submit, one thing Starmer claimed just some years in the past ought to finish the matter.
Spofforth mentioned on X:
My title is Bernadette Spofforth. Most of you simply know me as Bernie. Firstly, thanks for your entire messages, and I’m so sorry I haven’t responded or replied to any of you, however I couldn’t. I’d have been locked up in a cell once more for breaching bail circumstances if I had.
However I wish to let you recognize, although, that on the fifth of September, the police issued what’s referred to as an NFA, and meaning no additional motion and no prices as a result of I hadn’t completed something unlawful.
My supposed crime, based on many journalists and social media activists, was a submit on X that they incorrectly claimed I had made up, and which they determined was the reason for the riots in South Port and all throughout the nation.
In actuality, although, I had simply copied and pasted a reputation and a sentence from one other submit on X. And unusually for me, I didn’t examine the supply, however I added the road, If that is true, there will probably be hell to pay. And what adopted from that deleted submit was a concerted effort on social media to attempt to have me arrested and despatched to jail by those that don’t agree with me.
Now, what I’ve skilled over the previous few weeks that I’d prefer to let you know about is nothing compared to the struggling of these households in Southport, and I’m not evaluating the 2.
However I’m simply an extraordinary individual, and I believe it’s best to understand how extraordinary individuals have been handled.
So on the eighth of August, the police turned up mob-handed, 5 of them, three police automobiles and a jail van. And as an alternative of a easy voluntary interview, they searched me, arrested me, and held me for 36 hours in a concrete cell with a concrete mattress like a terrorist.
They held me although I informed them that the proof they wanted had already been discovered by information consultants. I defined my submit was political, as nearly all of my posts are, and my submit was aimed on the authorities and its failing insurance policies. I had not and wouldn’t make one thing up. However maybe the authorities and the activists didn’t truly care in regards to the fact. They only needed me punished for example to you. Lastly, I used to be launched on bail. There actually was nothing to take to magistrates and nothing to cost me with, nevertheless it didn’t finish there.
As a result of my bail circumstances included that I couldn’t interact on social media, they didn’t need me to talk to you about something in any respect. Which meant I couldn’t let you know of the harm completed to me by these reporters and activists, and that it had been so full I couldn’t go away my home, that reporters had been mendacity in look forward to me in my backyard, and that day by day I had hate mail. I’ve nothing to realize from making one thing like that up, however others did acquire. Journalists gained their clicks, my detractors gained my silence, and the authorities gained the silencing of you as a result of so lots of you had been afraid to talk. I had expressed my very own views on the state of the nation and its failure to guard harmless residents, and that’s nonetheless authorized.
However it’s very clear {that a} vocal a part of our society needs the opinions of extraordinary individuals such as you and like me, suppressed. They are saying they assist free speech, however they imply solely the speech they agree with. They are saying they assist dialog, however solely the dialog that agrees with their worldview. And so they say they need equality, however they don’t imply for individuals who suppose otherwise to them.
Now, I deleted that submit as a result of I discovered it was incorrect. Keir Starmer mentioned just some years in the past that if individuals make social media posts in error after which delete them, that ought to be the top of the matter. However plainly’s not the case.
It looks as if it’s been determined it’s higher to cease questioning.
It’s simpler to ban dissent, and that manner, you may cease the general public spreading unapproved information amongst ourselves.
And many individuals nonetheless consider that if they permit the federal government to micromanage their lives and be their single supply of fact, then issues will probably be okay. Till someday they don’t agree with their authorities, and so they discover it isn’t okay as a result of they will’t communicate of it.
With out free speech, there is no such thing as a democracy. And with out democracy, there actually is barely tyranny. And to be handled as a legal when you recognize you’re harmless by the authorities, journalists, an activist is terrifying and reputationally devastating. The method is the punishment, and it’ll silence thousands and thousands. And after we are silent, that’s the finish of our free speech. So to those that celebrated my arrest, don’t take pleasure in it an excessive amount of as a result of it may simply occur to you.
And the distinction between us is that I’d struggle for you. And for all those that stood up for me and did struggle for me, thanks. You held my line whilst I couldn’t. Thanks.
Watch:
”IF THIS IS TRUE” – I’m Bernadette Spofforth… you recognize me as Bernie.
And that is the story of how the State silenced an extraordinary citizen, by way of arrest and bail circumstances, to make sure solely State fact was heard.
With particular due to @sdavieslaw @speechUnion pic.twitter.com/p7ouXnl6qR
— Bernie (@Artemisfornow) September 18, 2024