A senior Scotland Yard officer has praised the 'common sense policing' of a policewoman who defended a Christian preacher's freedom of speech while being surrounded by a group of men in Whitechapel, east London. The viral video shows the constable telling the crowd, 'In this country we have freedom of speech,' after a man claimed, 'This is a Muslim area.'
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist was asked about the officer's 'commendable' actions at the London Assembly on Wednesday. He replied, 'Thank you for noting the great work of PC Moule who was in Whitechapel. My view is it was a good example of officers showing policing common sense without fear or favour and doing a good job.'
The encounter on Whitechapel Road appears to have been filmed last Monday, a day before the beginning of Ramadan. In the footage, a man holding a Bible preaches the Gospel just yards from the East London Mosque, one of the largest mosques in Western Europe. The officer tells the group, 'I understand that you guys don't want to hear it, so I would just recommend that you walk away and don't listen to him. He's not in your home.'
A man wearing a facemask replies, 'This is Whitechapel, this is a Muslim area.' People yell at the preacher, with one shouting, 'Talk about Jesus, don't talk about Muhammad,' and another shouting, 'Your God is a Jew.' One man accuses the preacher of 'spreading hatred' and physically shoves him in the back, causing him to stumble.
The officer continues to defend the preacher, explaining, 'You guys can preach about your religion the same way he is.' The latest census shows that 52.2 per cent of Whitechapel's 18,841 residents are Muslim. After the incident, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said on Talk's Jeremy Kyle Breakfast Show, 'She deserves to be honoured. She was calm, she was logical. Goodness me, what a credit she was to the Metropolitan Police.'
