LONDON, July 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com)
Exasperated with the numerous arrests of Christian street preachers for speaking against homosexuality, a UK advocacy group has written to the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (of London) demanding that guidance be issued to beat officers to put a stop to the problem.
The last straw was the arrest earlier this month of visiting US street preacher Tony Miano for preaching that homosexual conduct is a sin.
“As you might be aware, this is the position adopted by all the major churches in the United Kingdom,” said Andrea Minichiello Williams, the head of the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), in the letter to Sir Bernard Hogan Howe of New Scotland Yard. “I hope we can agree that preaching the Gospel on sexual ethics (absent extenuating circumstances) is a lawful activity.”
Williams said that not only was the arrest unlawful, so was officers’ questioning on the content of Miano’s preaching.
CLC is asking for the dismissal of the officers involved – PC Green, PC Bailey and PC Rutland – and referral of the incident to Independent Police Complaints Commission. “We assert that such officers are unfit to remain within the Police Force,” said the group.
Miano was arrested and detained for several hours after police received a complaint by phone from one woman with whom he said he had tried to engage in dialogue. Miano said that while preaching on “both heterosexual immorality and homosexual immorality,” he was approached by the woman who, he said, “turned, glared at me and told me to ‘f-off’.” Police subsequently arrived and told him he was “guilty of using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult.”
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