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Nelson BNP councillor cleared of leaflet racism
A PENDLE councillor from the British National Party has been cleared of all charges after he was arrested for handing out leaflets believed to racially aggravate public order.
Coun. Brian Parker was arrested with three other men on November 19th, for handing out two leaflets. One was written by the BNP entitled "Islam – a threat to us all" and the other by Preston Pals, holding Muslims responsible for the heroin trade in Britain.
After his arrest, bail was postponed four times before it was found on July 6th there was "currently insufficient evidence to prove a realistic prospect of conviction."
Coun. Parker said: "The police want to portray me as a criminal but if they look back at my record, they can see it is clean. I was unfairly targeted for speaking the uncomfortable truth."
He believes his arrest was part of a stitch-up by a senior Government minister: "The Crown Prosecution Service found in September that there was no crime committed in handing out the leaflets, and yet I was still arrested in November because a senior Government minister put pressure on the police."
He maintained the leaflet, entitled "Islam – a threat to us all", was a standard BNP leaflet and does not contain unlawful material. The other leaflet, "The heroin trade, a crime against humanity", was not intended to stir up racial hatred, but inform the Muslim community of the heroin problem and encourage members to sort it out.
After his arrest, Coun. Parker was imprisoned for a day and interviewed twice under caution.
He believes that throughout the investigation, he was unfairly treated and intends to complain to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
He said: "The police took a very heavy-handed a approach to my arrest and with no evidence, their only aim was to inconvenience my life for as long as possible. They took several items from my possession, such as computers and mobile phones, and these were not returned for eight months, which was unacceptable."
The items were only returned to Coun. Parker and the three men arrested with him on July 7th after they protested outside the police station.
Coun. Parker said: "It was only after I threatened the police with legal action that they decided to return my possessions."
The arrest does not appear to have deterred Coun. Parker from handing out leaflets in the future. He said: "We will still put leaflets out and if the police get upset by the uncomfortable truth, then that is their problem and not ours. We are not doing anything wrong."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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