Censorship is a growing industry in the West. Kicking into high gear during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government’s censorship apparatus in the United Kingdom was on display when independent reporter and activist Tommy Robinson was attending a rally in support of Israel.
After weeks of rallies supporting Hamas in London, a massive march against antisemitism was held. Among the estimated 100,000 people who showed up in support of Israel was Tommy Robinson.
There to cover the march with his videographer, the independent journalist ran afoul of a left-wing Jewish organizer of the rally, who demanded he depart. Police then confronted Robinson over his attendance at the rally, eventually arresting him and laying charges for failing to comply with an order excluding him from the march.
Rebel News’ Chief Reporter Sheila Gunn Reid travelled to the U.K. to cover Tommy Robinson’s court appearance, where he’s fighting back against these charges. Follow along with live updates on X or on the page below:
In Westminster Magistrate’s Court this morning for the trial of @TRobinsonNewEra. He was arrested, pepper sprayed and banned from London by police when he attended a pro-Israel rally. Hamas supporters are welcome. Tommy is not.
Live posts from the courtroom to come.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
We’re in courtroom 1 today. I’m told this is a high security terrorism courtroom. Five journos are here, including one from Sky News who had a humiliating interaction with @TRobinsonNewEra outside of the courthouse. I’ll post that later.
Check for it at https://t.co/zwVkDULj3Z
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Tommy’s lawyers have successfully argued that he need’nt read his address in open court as it will endanger his family.
He has been subject to no fewer than 12 Osmon Warnings – a warning that someone is threatening to kill him.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Court is just getting underway. Tommy’s team is finished setting up the video of the pro-Israel demonstration which will be shown in court today. Tommy is in the prisoners docket. He seems sadly comfortable in the courtroom. https://t.co/zw55bYnAO9
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Last hearing, the Evening Standard insisted they have access to @TRobinsonNewEra address.
Today no journalists argued against keeping Tommy’s address secret. They kept their weird voyeuristic tendancies to themselves.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
There are about 30 supporters of @TRobinsonNewEra in the audience here today
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Tommy’s arrest, pepper spraying and banning took place on Nov 26. The police claim he was given a dispersal order after the organizer of the protest told them he didn’t want Tommy there.
They say Tommy didn’t want to leave and became resistant.
Oh but there’s video. See it at…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
This is wild for me as a Canadian. But it should be more of a warning to hear these UK laws read in open court.
You can be issued a dispersal order if your presence may cause members of the public alarm or distress.
If some left-wing crybully can’t keep his soy-powered…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
I should note the organizer of the march against anti-Semitism where @TRobinsonNewEra was arrested was @GideonFalter. The police did his bidding against Tommy and now he’s mad at the police. Fickle. https://t.co/OwW7DRSn0T
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Sounds like they found some body cam footage of Tommy’s arrest. Police previously couldn’t find any. It’s a “miracle”.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Hamas marches full of Hitler Youth 2.0 fill the streets of London each week. But @TRobinsonNewEra was the one receiving a dispersal order and banned from London for making a Gideon Falter feel uncomfortable.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Police offer involved in the arrest says he was concerned about a “right wing group” and the crowd laughs.
Officer says he thought back to Remembrance Day, with drunkenness, fireworks and anti social behaviour.
Says people were “afraid to come to London” and “worried about…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Officer reads his notes from the day:
“Concerned a right wing group would attend the march [against anti-Semitism]” and would cause a “clash between the two parties”.
Was worried about drunkenness, shouting, aggression against the police and fireworks. Says that sort of…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
This is the officer who issued the dispersal order. He claims to have given it “a lot of thought” and considered the right to free assembly, free expression before issuing it. To be “proportionate.”
Claims he kept the order banning Tommy as small as possible, geographically…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
(LOL the Sky News reporter who started her day off by putting on her bad idea jeans and challenging Tommy Robinson on who is is a journalist has left the courtroom. Probably for the best, she didn’t know why she was here anyway)
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Tommy’s lawyer gets the officer to admit he should have been careful and considerate when restricting rights.
Officer, however, says he took two days to deliberate before issuing a dispersal order.
Context:https://t.co/SkYeAccpy3
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
There’s a problem with the dispersal order, it doesn’t seem to be properly signed or in effect.
Officer: there’s a problem with the paperwork”
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Tommy’s lawyer: Do you have confidence there was a proper order in place?
Officer: (shrugs) no
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Officers that day were told to deal with criminality and not peaceful assembly.
The officer -the one who issued the clearly flawed dispersal order- was 4 miles away from the protest at the Israeli embassy.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Tommy was attending the protest as a journalist and as a supporter of the Jewish people. The officer is shown a document about how to deal with journalists at protests.
Officer said he would need to see a press card.
But Tommy’s lawyer shows him police advice which says…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Had a quick talk with @TRobinsonNewEra on my way into court to cover his latest trial, pepper-sprayed, arrested and banned from London for reporting at a pro-Israel protest.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Oh ok. The officer explains he has dyslexia to excuse his paperwork errors.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
On break for 15 mins.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
I’m not sure dyslexia will make you edit a document after the arrest of @TRobinsonNewEra to make a dispersal order valid, retroactively.
But I suppose that’s up to the judge today. But this is a mess.
Mr Bean levels of police work. https://t.co/OTniZLhBNa
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Next officer is testifying by CCTV.
He sounds like he’s in a sewer talking into a coffee can. But I’ll do my best.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
I think we picked up a half a dozen more in the gallery over the break. Must be 35 people in here
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Officer says there were about 100k people by 1pm at the Nov 26 march against anti-Semitism wherein Tommy Robinson was arrested, pepper sprayed and banned from London while reporting.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
This is the officer who saw Tommy Robinson at a coffee shop. Says a woman told him she left because she didn’t like the person inside.
Oh ok. Lock him up then.
I’m joking but that’s what they eventually did.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
This is the officer who served Tommy Robinson with the dispersal order as Tommy finished his breakfast.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
The officer says he engaged with Tommy while Tommy was arguing with the press. Says Tommy called a “female member” the press “a disgrace.”
This all happened around 1:20 in the afternoon of Nov 26.
Tried to read dispersal order to Tommy. Says Tommy was angry, was “a lot of…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Officer is asked what he told Tommy about dispersing:
“I explained to him that his presence would cause harassment and distress to other people.”
“Although he said he was a journalist, I’m not sure that the wider public know that he was involved in journalism.”
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
24 officers plus the evidence gathering team and other metropolitan patrol members were involved in the arrest of Tommy.
Maybe 40 people.
To take away one journalist from his breakfast because he might report on something and make someone nervous.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Oh another 2 or 3 men ( so maybe 4 of 100k in attendance) complained Tommy might attend the march.
Lock him up!
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Officer said people were shouting “shame on you”
He said he thought they were shouting it at Tommy until he realized it was at him.
Crowd laughs.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Tommy = Tommy Robinson
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Lunch break now
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Court’s back in the trial of Tommy Robinson, arrested and pepper sprayed for trying to attend a march against anti semitism as a journalist and as someone who is pro-Israel.
Court is being shown footage of Tommy’s arrest.
He’s saying repeatedly “I’m a journalist” to the…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
There were about 40 police involved in the arrest of Tommy Robinson. He’s peaceful but terse in the video, despite the outrageous behavior of the London cops who took him away because he might cause someone “harassment and distress.”
Says he’s a member of the press,over and…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
That was the miraculously found body camera footage.
The police officer said Tommy Robinson was shouting in his previous testimony.
He was not. He was calm, despite the police-induced chaos he was in. He was raising his voice to be heard amidst the mob of police and…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
This police sergeant, a supervisor, admits he is unfamiliar with the Home Office guidance on the antisocial behaviour law, although he was enforcing it.
The officer is not from London, so he didn’t know where, geographically, the [quite possibly illegal] dispersal order even…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
The dispersal order says that Tommy Robinson must be informed by an officer that he must leave a defined area immediately “without reasonable excuse” but that’s not what the police officer told him.
He said to Tommy Robinson that he had to comply with the dispersal order…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
In the video, Tommy Robinson asks the officer “where are you taking me?”
Which Tommy’s lawyer points out is Tommy complying.
Next in the video,Tommy turns to another officer asks the same.
Again indicating ongoing compliance.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Lawyer asks the officer for a reasonable excuse for not leaving the area and not complying with the dispersal order “apart from the fact that you live there?”
Officer can’t come up with one.
(Work. It’s work. And that’s what Tommy Robinson was doing.)
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
When Tommy tried to explain to an officer he was trying to work ( in other words, offer a reasonable excuse as per the mandatory wording of the dispersal notice), another officer replied “I don’t care.”
It’s on video.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
There were 35 seconds between the presentation of the dispersal order and the arrest of Tommy Robinson
In those 35 seconds, Tommy is moving with officers, not resisting.
Repeatedly asking where he is going and where they are taking him. Never not complying.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
One of the “reasonable excuses” to not comply with a dispersal order is for the purposes of work.
Tommy Robinson told the officers over and over he was at the march against anti-Semitism as a journalist.
He’s seen on camera over and over saying “I’m at work. I’m at work.”
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Next police officer is also testifying remotely. I’ll do my best but, again, he sounds like he’s in a dungeon yelling into a pipe which leads into a pillow.
So much cctv tech in this city and this is the best the courts can do?
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
This officer says, despite video WE’VE ALL SEEN, that Tommy Robinson was refusing to walk.
This is the actual arresting officer.
Says he decided Tommy was not complying with the dispersal notice.
(In 35 seconds from service to arrest)
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Follow along with my trial posts and support my trip here to cover @TRobinsonNewEra as he fights to hold the police accountable after being arrested at a pro-Israel protest for being pro-Israel at https://t.co/zw55bYnAO9 pic.twitter.com/Z8m8Rx5C21
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
This officer is also asked what would be a reasonable excuse to not comply with a dispersal order.
He does not say the obvious: work.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Officer thinks a minute and a half passed between Tommy Robinson being offered the dispersal notice and arrest.
(It was 35 seconds)
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
This is the second officer that Tommy Robinson asked “where are we going?” which indicates compliance.
This officer argues that Tommy Robinson steadying himself on a railing amounts to resistance. Although, he let go of the railing on his own.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Officer says he doesn’t know if Tommy Robinson told him he was working as a journalist when he issued the dispersal order.
(He did. Multiple times)
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
Thank you for this important criticism.
I have curly hair and it lightly rained on me as I jumped on the tube to head to the courthouse. But work was calling and I must go.
Now back to the trial. https://t.co/Kz4XNXo3Hv
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 22, 2024
