Shouldn't The Gay Couple Have Been Arrested For Harassment?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2593217/Christian-preacher-wins-13-000-wrongful-arrest-telling-gay-couple-Bible-says-homosexuality-sin.html

/// At 7pm the unnamed gay couple approached him and asked what he thought of gay people. ///

/// He said it did not matter what he thought, only what God believes, telling them: 'whilst God hates sin He loves the sinner'. ///

/// Mr Craven then claimed the teenagers began kissing in front of him and taunting him with crude and suggestive sexual acts. Shortly afterwards the preacher was arrested. ///

[sp1814]

No.

[naomi24]

No one should have been arrested - but I'm at a loss to understand why the gay couple behaved in the way they did.

[CJHorse]

No-one should have been arrested. The teenagers should have been told to grow up and sent to bed (not together) with no supper.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

Then let me put it another way, do you agree with their actions towards the preacher?

[mcnal71]

why am I not surprised. reprehensible. but that is the way of the modern world, all decency is irrelevant. all core human values are being eroded at an alarming rate.

[andy-hughes]

Should the gay couple have been arrested? No.

As advised by CJHorse, the police officer should have warned them to act their age not their shoe size, and sent them on their way.

The arrest of the preacher was utterly unmerited, and his further treatement was disgraceful, and i am delighted that he has won his case. The shame is the cost to the public purse, and the ordeal he has been put through.

This sort of nonsense does nothing to further the cause of gay rights, and as for the police's already flimsy reputation, this simply adds to the argument that the public have lost trust in the police service.

[sp1814]

AOG

It's not possible to answer your question, as we only have have one account of what happened.

I find the sequence of events odd.

He was preaching.

Two blokes snogged in front of him.

Then they went and reported him to the police.

There are bits missing.

Now...what did he say? "You two perverts will get your just desserts in hell?" "You are an abomination...and the Daily Mail was right when they said that finding the gay gene gave 'abortion hope to mothers'".

Who knows.

If he was trotting out the usual fundamentalist claptrap, I would not shed tears over his arrest personally.

[joko]

if the preacher is standing around preaching hate etc why shouldnt he be challenged?
why is he allowed to say whatever he wants, but they are not?

i think the preacher deserved what happened to him. if he doesnt want to be challenged then he shouldnt do it in public

[Svejk]

it wouldnt surprise me if gay people faced an almighty backlash in this country soon.

[naomi24]

SP, according to the preacher, the two men did rather more than snog in front of him. As for your speculation about what he might have said to them, what's that all about?

[Baldric]

///denied food, water and access to medication in 19 hours detention///
Speaks volumes for our thin blue line, doesn't it?

The Gay couple should have been charged with incitement at the very least!

[Booldawg]

a couple of immature kids deliberately seeking a reaction. Next!

[youngmafbog]

And I wonder what would have been the case if it were a Muslim preacher?

Don't get me wrong I think the bible basher is the usual fruit, but he is also entitled to his opinion too. Seems these gays were simply out to provoke and as such should have got a clip round the ear and sent on their way.

All they have achieved is for many people to say - "that is the problem with gays" which puts back the clock on all the work done by gays that simply, and rightly, want equality.

[sp1814]

naomi24

We only have his word.

Regarding my speculation...is it not fair to play a bit of Devil's advocate, seeing as the story is being spun to us?

[naomi24]

ymb, good post.

[sp1814]

youngmafbog

I know you're not advocating physical attacks on gay people, but I assure you, when gay people *are* attacked! it is usually more than a 'clip round the ear'.

[Sqad]

YMB

\\\\such should have got a clip round the ear and sent on their way. \\\

Whether hetero or homo that would have been an appropriate response 30 or 40 years ago, but of course........totally inappropriate for today......much easier to dish out £40,000 of tax payers money.

[naomi24]

SP, no, it isn't at all fair to speculate in the way you have. To suggest that he might have said ........

//"You two perverts will get your just desserts in hell?" "You are an abomination...and the Daily Mail was right when they said that finding the gay gene gave 'abortion hope to mothers'". //

....... is horrible.

[Baldric]

I wonder, just out of curiosity, was the Police Officer gay?

[Baldric]

Or thinking back to an old News Story, perhaps his horse was!