A video of a street preacher being apprehended has left Christians and non-Christians alike outraged.
The footage of a man being arrested over a charge of “breaching the peace” has received over two million views and thousands of comments on Twitter.
This afternoon an African Christian preacher was arrested in London for preaching about Jesus Christ. This is very sad to see. What happened to freedom of speech? pic.twitter.com/BId74SOgun
— Obianuju Ekeocha (@obianuju) February 23, 2019
“What are you doing here?” the police officer questions the man who was preaching the Word nearby Southgate Underground station.
“I am preaching,” the man answered, after which the cop stated, “I am going to require you to go away.”
“You can never,” replied the preache
After the officer told him he was going to be arrested for disturbing the peace, the man questioned, “What breach of peace?”
“It’s what you’re doing at the moment,” said the policeman. “You’re causing problems. You’re disturbing people’s days and you’re breaching their peace… So if you won’t go away voluntarily, we will have to arrest you.”
“I will not go away, because I need to tell them the Truth,” the street preacher boldly declared. “Because Jesus is the only way, the Truth and the life.”
“But nobody wants to listen to that,” the officer retorted in frustration. “They want you to go away.”
“Oh, you don’t want to listen to that. You will listen when you’re dead,” said the man.
Moments later, the cop and his colleague proceeded to arrest the professing Christian while abruptly ripping his Bible from his hands.
“Don’t take my Bible away. Don’t take my Bible away!” the preacher yells.
“You should have thought about that before being racist!” the officer who took the Bible responded.
The Metropolitan Police were later questioned for comment on the incident, and they admitted that the Christian man did actually not make any racist comments, contrary to the implications made by the policeman’s comments.
They said that “no language of this nature was used in the presence of officers.”
The preacher was subsequently ‘de-arrested’ and no further action was deemed necessary, though many argue that this innocent man’s release was not enough. The Internet is demanding an apology from the officers who made false accusations and breached the man’s freedom of speech.
“The police have closed down freedom of speech and become Christianophobic,” said one former chaplain and clergyman, Reverend Dr. Gavin Ashenden. “If we fail to protest we will lose our freedom under the law.”
Despite Internet-wide pleas, an announced public apology to the street preacher has yet to be made by the Metropolitan Police.