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METaween strike again: Darren Grimes under police investigation after David Starkey interview
[Telegraph] Commentator to be interviewed on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred over comments made by historian.Mr Grimes, a conservative commentator, has been asked to attend a police station to be interviewed under caution after publishing a podcast in which Dr Starkey said slavery was not genocide because there are "so many damn blacks". It has been warned that the investigation, by the Metropolitan Police, will have a "chilling effect" on free speech, while Mr Grimes has described it as an "abuse of taxpayers money". Mr Grimes is accused of a public order offence of stirring up racial hatred by publishing the interview on his podcast on July 2, The Telegraph can reveal. He has since apologised, while Dr Starkey's career lies in ruins, with the historian set to lose all his academic titles and book deals. Mr Grimes said in a statement: "At a time when many in our country are facing uncertainty and financial hardship, I cannot imagine a more contemptible way for the Metropolitan Police to abuse taxpayers' money and the trust of citizens then by investigating this vexatious claim." He said the threat of arrest has "serious repercussions for freedom of expression". His solicitor, Luke Gittos, of Murrays Partnership, said it was an "unprecedented use of Public Order legislation". Mr Grimes is being supported by the Free Speech Union (FSU), which has described the accusation against him as "absurd". The interview provoked furious backlash when it was published on the YouTube channel Reasoned UK in the summer. In the days after making his comments during a discussion of the Black Lives Matter Movement, Dr Starkey lost his academic positions at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Canterbury Christ Church University. HarperCollins, which had been expected to publish two more of his history books, said it was cancelling their release. Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2020-10-12 |
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