"A knock on the door to be accused of a non-crime hate incident from a year-old tweet is not what people fought and died for in the war"
Telegraph: 12th November 2024: Journalist Allison Pearson recounts in full her deep troubling encounter with the police about a year-old tweet
"9.40am: All my things were laid out ready for Remembrance Sunday. Black dress, black opaque tights, coat, a new poppy to go with the vintage enamel one that glints in my jewellery box awaiting its annual outing. I was still not dressed when Himself called up to say that there were police at the door for me. I did vaguely wonder what on earth they were doing here – something to do with our road being closed for the parade? But I went downstairs to greet them at the door and apologised to the two young constables standing outside for still being in my dressing gown. I wasn’t sorry for long.
PC S, the one on the left, who did all the talking, told me that they were here to inform me that I had been accused of a non-crime hate incident (NCHI). It was to do with something I had posted on X (formerly Twitter) a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes. Stirring up racial hatred, apparently.
WHAT? I stood there in my slippered feet trying to take in what the police officer had said; our market town was filled with the sounds of preparation for the forthcoming parade – a distant drummer, the metallic clang of barriers going up. Life going on as normal, but this wasn’t normal; it was far from normal.
“What did this post I wrote that offended someone say?” I asked. The constable said he wasn’t allowed to tell me that.
“So what’s the name of the person who made the complaint against me?”
He wasn’t allowed to tell me that either, he said.
“You can’t give me my accuser’s name?”
“It’s not ‘the accuser’,” the PC said, looking down at his notes. “They’re called ‘the victim’.”
Ah, right. “OK, you’re here to accuse me of causing offence but I’m not allowed to know what it is. Nor can I be told whom I’m being accused by? How am I supposed to defend myself, then?...”
UPDATE 21st NOVEMBER: Police drop investigation into Allison Pearson over tweet - read report HERE.
Watch PopCon Head of Campaigns, Andrew Allison, react to Allison Pearson's police visit
Read also articles below (prior to police dropping its investigation):
The Kafkaesque thoughtpolicing of Allison Pearson
Police Accused of Orwellian Tactics as Journalist Faces Remembrance Day Shock Over Year-Old Tweet
Telegraph journalist faces ‘Kafkaesque’ investigation over alleged hate crime
The dystopian police investigation into Allison Pearson