WATCH the moment Met Police officers threaten a group of Christians with arrest after they were accused of committing a hate crime.
The gospel preachers were approached and asked to move on by a group of police officers on Uxbridge High Street, West London earlier this month.
The police’s intervention came after a member of the public allegedly complained about homophobic comments being made by the preachers.
However, the evangelists pleaded their case in the clip, arguing that they were simply “preaching their religion“.
The clip begins with a male Met Police officer mid-conversation with the group, stumbling over his words as he explains: “You might be committing criminal offences as well.”
One of the Christians asks for an example, reasoning that they are entitled to preach from their bible, to which an off-screen officer suggests: “Making homophobic comments.”
The first officer then replies: “If you’re making members of the public harassment (sic), alarm, distress, it’s a criminal offence.”
The Christian behind the camera then retorts: “I’m aware of that, we’ll not be doing that, what we’re doing is preaching our religion.
The officer then asks him: “Could you just tell me what words you were saying?”
He says: “They asked me what I’ve been preaching, so we’ve been preaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The video then cuts to the preacher having an argument with a female officer who demands the preacher provide her with his name.
Another off-screen Christian argues that the preacher was talking to a different officer moments ago, to which the female officer replies: “Now he’s talking to me.
“So, unless you want to be arrested as well – because you will be – you provide me your name now.”
She goes on to threaten the man and members of his group, saying: “You’ll spend the night in the cell, and we can do it that way”.
She continues, “The problem is sir, you don’t want to talk, that’s the problem” when another member of the preacher’s group asks to talk to the original officer who approached them.
The footage was shared to social media yesterday with the caption: “A group of black Christians are advised to move on by the Met Police for professing their faith or get arrested.
“Apparently their actions might ’cause harassment, alarm & distress’ which is a ‘criminal offence’. I assume they have Muslims in mind.”
The clip has since gained over 7,100 likes and more than 1,300 comments from users left stunned by the officers’ behaviour.
One said: “’Spend the night in the cell’ for preaching about Jesus Christ, our lord and saviour. Wow this country has really fallen.”
Another added: “Hate crime laws = mandatory respect for religion and should be repealed immediately.”
A third replied: “The British police are soft. You can take them easily.”
A fourth wrote: “It’s offensive that Christians are being prevented from expressing their faith in public.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman today said: “Officers were responding to a report from a member of the public that a group of people were making racist and homophobic comments.
“The Met does not tolerate hate crime and officers responded to investigate this. We have watched the body-worn video of the full exchange.
“This showed officers informed the group of the allegations, explained what constitutes a hate crime, and asked them what they had been discussing. There were no arrests.”
