Graham Linehan: Laws must be enforced, but arresting a middle-aged man over anti-transgender tweets is not why people join police
It's hard to believe that arresting people over comments on social media is why recruits sign up, and it's hard to grasp why the Met didn't carry out the task in a less confrontational way.
Wednesday 3 September 2025 17:51, UK
A police officer once admitted to me that he joined up "for the fighting", but I probably shouldn't go there. He was a one-off.
It's fair to say that almost every young man or woman in the UK who swears the police oath wants, hopes and expects to spend most of their time catching villains or at least keeping people and property safe.
I can't imagine many are motivated by the prospect of arresting a middle-aged man for something he wrote on social media, four months earlier, and who was 5,000 miles outside Britain at the time.
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Especially during a period of violent immigration protests, spiralling shoplifting and continuing knife crime.
And where was the imminent threat to life that required the arresting officers to be carrying guns?
If anyone was in danger, it was Graham Linehan, who was rushed to hospital with stress, but I doubt he saw the funny side.
Ok, the law on inciting violence exists and has to be policed, but there are different ways of policing.
Did they think Graham Linehan was a flight risk? He hardly seems so.
He could have been arrested at home or even invited with a solicitor for an interview at a police station.
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Or the officers could have waited three days to a time when they knew exactly where he would be.
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He is due at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday in another case.