Oh Tommy Tommy - You’re Nicked

Just after 1400 hours today, the Metropolitan Police put out a Tweet telling “Officers working as part of the policing and security operation for the March Against Antisemitism have arrested a 40-year-old man on the Strand. He refused to comply with a direction to disperse under Section 35 of the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act”. There was more.

“We have been in frequent contact with the organisers of the march in recent days. They have been clear about their concerns that the man’s attendance, and that of those who were likely to accompany him, would cause fear for other participants. The same view has been expressed by others”.

No surprise that the individual nicked was Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson. He protested that those arresting him were “an embarrassment to the Police”, and claimed he was at work. But he knew what was going to happen, having already told his followers “Met Police attempting to intimidate me and stop me from reporting on the antisemitism march happening today in London”. He’s doing journalism! It’s THE TROOF!

Also, the Met had a Section 35 dispersal order in force for the area around the march. Lennon knew this as they had told him, and he had Tweeted it out. So the inevitable happened. “The [Met Police] are literally attempting to police 'freedom of the press' and arrest me for causing 'alarm and distress' For reporting on today's antisemitism march and criminalise my journalism”.

He became more strident. “Am I about to be arrested for supporting the Jewish people and Israel? Am I going to be arrested for journalism? For hating antisemitism? For being an ally to Jews?” No, he was going to be arrested as the march organisers didn’t want him there.

Then came the Being Nicked moment. “Attacked by police & tear gassed”. Or maybe not tear gas. “they send the whole squad, pepper spray you, and drag you away”. Would Sir have been resisting arrest? Then came the Tweet from Urban Scoop, where Lennon’s videos appear. A mildly threatening Tweet.

“Press enquiry: [Gideon Falter] did you order the [Met Police] to bar notorious Zionist and Jew supporter [Tommy Robinson] from reporting on and supporting and [Campaign Against Antisemitism] today in London? I look forward to your response”. I bet he does. In the meantime, others out there on the far right piled in to register their support for The Great Man, not least has-been Laurence Fox, pro-am thug Paul Golding, motormouth Hatie Klopkins, “Father” Calvin Robinson, and sensitive soul Doug Murray The K.

But for members of the political and media establishment, there were no dispersals or arrests. For them, the world was as excellent as ever. One such was disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who showed that past excursions across the anti-Semitism line were no barrier to a Buller Man rocking up to bolster the numbers.

As Gary Dunion pointed out, “In Johnson's novel '72 Virgins' the character Sammy Katz has a ‘proud nose and curly hair,’ and the eyes of an ‘unblinking snake.’ He ‘relied on immigrant labour,’ kerbcrawled for ‘a bit of black,’ and sent his son ‘pathetic presents, every five years, of low-denomination bills.’”

Also there, so I’m told, was self-promoting TalkTV host Julia Hartley Dooda, who had no problem writing a Muslim bashing piece for the Express, and recently said she stood by it. Anti-Semitic caricatures and Muslim bashing are no problem for paid-up members of the media and political establishment.

And all is not lost for Lennon either: the arrest will have raised his profile just at the right moment. Why so? “48 hours after being given my voice back on [Elon Musk]’s platform and after our re-emergence on the streets of the UK I received letter from the attorney general who is pursuing a contempt of court case against me for the documentary SILENCED which was leaked … They want to send me to prison for two years”. He also helpfully included a link to his legal fund. Will he skip the country? Who knows? And who cares?

Stephen Lennon is not an innocent journalist. And he may soon be off the streets for a year or so, grift or no. Just rejoice at that news.

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