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Bridget

Posted: Nov 10 2006, 03:59 PM

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I've received this news alert yet the link contains sweet FA about this case. Anyone else heard anything?

QUOTE

BNP leader Nick Griffin and fellow activist Mark Collett are cleared of inciting racial hatred following a retrial at Leeds Crown Court.

For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

Bridget

Posted: Nov 10 2006, 04:03 PM

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QUOTE

Times Online November 10, 2006

user posted image

Nick Griffin and Nick Collett at court today - it was their second trial on the same charges (Scott Heppell/AFP/Getty Images)

BNP leader celebrates acquittal outside race hate trial
By Philippe Naughton

The leader of the far-Right British National Party attacked Tony Blair and his "toadies in the BBC" today after being acquitted on two charges of stirring up racial hatred.

Addressing supporters outside Leeds Crown Court, Nick Griffin also demanded the resignation of Colin Cramphorn, the Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire police, for wasting police time and money pursuing the case while the 7/7 bombers were preparing their atrocities on his patch.

The not-guilty verdict in the retrial of Mr Griffin, 46, and the BNP publicity manager Mark Collett, 26, sent their supporters into a frenzy of cheering outside the court, where BNP members started chanting "freedom, freedom" as they waited for Mr Griffin to emerge.

After leaving the court, Mr Griffin took up a megaphone to attack the Government, the Crown Prosecution Service and the BBC, whose undercover report on a meeting in a Yorkshire pub two years had prompted the charges.

Mr Griffin, of Llanerfyl, Powys, Wales, was found not guilty on a charge of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred and an alternative charge of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred. Mr Collett was found not guilty on four similar charges.

"Something's just happened to show Tony Blair and the government toadies in the BBC that they can take our taxes, but they cannot take our hearts, they cannot take our tongues and they cannot take our freedom," Mr Griffin declared.

Mr Collett, a former Leeds University student and head of the BNP youth wing, said that the score after the retrial was "BNP 2 - BBC nil".

He added: "I was hauled over the coals for describing Asian criminals as Asians and their white victims as white. That is not a crime - that is the truth.

"The BBC have abused their position. They are a politically correct, politically biased organisation which has wasted taxpayers� money to bring two people in a legal democratic peaceful political party to court over speaking nothing more than the truth.

"And even if we had gone to jail, I wouldn�t have minded going to the jail over truth."

During the retrial, the jury of five men and seven women heard extracts from a speech Mr Griffin made in the Reservoir Tavern, Keighley, on January 19, 2004, in which he described Islam as "this wicked, vicious faith" and said that Muslims were turning Britain into a "multi-racial hell hole" and described .

The court heard that Mr Collett addressed the gathering on the same evening, saying: "Let�s show these ethnics the door in 2004."

Mr Griffin has told the jury that his speech was not an attack on Asians in general, but on Muslims. The defence also argued that since he was speaking at a private meeting, he could not be accused of trying to stir up hatred among the public - although neither men seemed careful to moderate their language after today's court victory.

During the 2004 speech Mr Griffin had drawn attention to the reported problem of Muslim gangs attacking young white girls in the area, and he blamed Islam and the Koran for their behaviou

Dave52	Posted: Nov 10 2006, 04:43 PM
Group: Members Posts: 379 Member No.: 118 Joined: 14-July 06	Just in case anyone was in any doubt about the deep rooted racism in this country. Speechless...

The Antagonist

Posted: Nov 10 2006, 06:33 PM

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Snowmail ponders the question of whether this decision is a victory for free speech or a defeat for the legislation designed to protect minorities, instead of the real question of whether it represents a major victory for Neo-Nazis, a couple of whom were recently picked up with the single largest haul of 22 chemicals ever found, some rocket launchers, an NBC suit and a 'masterplan':

QUOTE

BNP leader cleared - a victory for free speech?
=====================================
It's either a victory for free speech or a defeat for legislation designed to protect racial minorities. But the BNP leader Nick Griffin has been cleared of racial hatred in a Leeds court. One wonders whether the case itself has not been of more value as "oxygen of publicity" for the BNP than any real contributor to racial harmony. We'll have the latest at seven.

All UK mainstream media is entirely beyond redemption.

Bridget

Posted: Nov 11 2006, 01:23 PM

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Guardian audio here

QUOTE

Cabinet rethinks race hate laws after jury frees BNP leaders

user posted image

Nick Griffin and Mark Collett celebrate with supporters.
� Defendants met with cheers and anger
� Second trial follows acquittal in February

Martin Wainwright
Saturday November 11, 2006
The Guardian

Race hatred laws may have to be revised following the acquittal of the British National party's leader, Nick Griffin, for the second time on incitement charges, senior government figures said last night.

Gordon Brown, the chancellor, and Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, said the laws may have to be looked at, while a spokesman for John Reid, the home secretary, said he would be "taking soundings" from cabinet colleagues about changing the laws.

"Mainstream opinion in this country will be offended by some of the statements that they have heard made," said Mr Brown. "If there is something that needs to be done to look at the law then I think we will have to do that," he told BBC News 24. Lord Falconer told the BBC that it was time to rethink the race hate laws. "What is being said to young Muslim people in this country is that we as a country are anti-Islam, and we have got to demonstrate without compromising freedom that we are not," he said.

The government was twice defeated in parliament over its attempts to introduce laws on incitement to religious and racial hatred before getting an amended version of the act on the statute books.

Mr Griffin walked free from court yesterday to cheers and abuse as the wider storm broke over his acquittal.

There were sobs of relief in the public gallery from the Cambridge University graduate's wife, Jackie, and their three daughters, while his co-accused, Mark Collett, the BNP's publicity chief, trembled as he denounced a "waste of a million pounds of ... people's money". Both men were greeted by about 150 flag-waving supporters outside Leeds crown court but Mr Griffin's speech was drowned by 50 protesters from the Anti-Nazi League and Leeds University, where Mr Collett studied. Outside the court, BNP security men surrounded Mr Griffin as he claimed the verdicts showed the "huge gulf between ordinary real people and the fantasy world, the multicultural fantasy world our masters live in".

An all-white jury of seven women and five men took three hours to clear Mr Griffin, 46, and Mr Collett, 26, of words and behaviour which were either intended or likely to stir up racial hatred.

As in the previous trial in February, which ended with acquittals on five charges but deadlock on three, the case stemmed from speeches at private BNP meetings in West Yorkshire which were secretly filmed by the BBC.

Although Mr Griffin was shown denouncing Islam as "a wicked, vicious faith" and Mr Collett repeatedly called asylum seekers "cockroaches", their defence asserted they were not speaking in public but to like-minded partisans. The jury also returned to court halfway through their discussions for a second viewing of the speeches, which contained long passages of relatively uncontentious material.

"The bits which have hit the headlines are in there, but there's so much other stuff which gives a different context," a BNP supporter said at the trial. "The jury's seeing all that which people outside haven't." His optimism proved correct.

Mr Griffin, from Llanerfyl, mid-Wales, was admonished by the trial judge, Norman Jones QC, for passages in a blog which "abused" the court's decision to let him use a computer in the dock.

Mr Griffin and Mr Collett, of Rothley, Leicestershire, said after the verdicts they would have welcomed going to jail "for speaking the truth".

After the first trial, Mr Griffin said the publicity had seen BNP membership and donations rise.

The Crown Prosecution Service defended its decision to seek a retrial as "realistic and in the public interest".

After the verdict the BBC said it had a duty to investigate matters of public interest and the programme had caused "widespread concern".

Weyman Bennett, general secretary of Unite against Fascism and Racism, said: "It's a tragedy that a fascist and racist organisation can hide behind free speech ... But how do you prove intent without getting inside Griffin's head?"

Compare and contrast:

QUOTE

Man guilty of inciting race hate at protest

Vikram Dodd
Friday November 10, 2006
The Guardian

A man was yesterday convicted of inciting racial hatred after calling for the killing of British troops during a protest against cartoons held to be offensive to Islam. At a February rally outside the Danish embassy in London, Mizanur Rahman, 23, had said soldiers should be brought back from Iraq in body bags, and also called for September 11-style terrorist attacks against Europe.

A jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behaviour with intent to stir racial hatred. Jurors were deadlocked on a second charge of inciting murder. The crown indicated it would seek a retrial.

Along with Rahman, a website designer from Palmers Green in north London, 300 people protested over a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, published in a Danish newspaper and reprinted in European papers. His counsel, John Burton, told the jury it was not enough to be "offended, shocked and distressed" by what Rahman said: "It is a matter of whether a serious crime has taken place." He compared Rahman's remarks to those made from soapboxes at Speaker's Corner. During the short trial Rahman apparently apologised, saying: "I didn't think about what I was saying."

Labour MP Shahid Malik, who had called on police to act after the protest, said outside court following the verdict that "a free society ... does not give people the freedom to stir up racial hatred".

Opening the prosecution case, David Perry QC said Rahman had carried placards saying: "Annihilate those who insult Islam" and "Behead those who insult Islam." Mr Perry told the jury the meaning was "clear and unambiguous".

matt	Posted: Nov 11 2006, 02:43 PM
Group: Members Posts: 3,034 Member No.: 157 Joined: 12-September 06	what ? does Gordon Brown work for the same party as the others...i'm confused here (not really) media and government bang on and on about muslims like they control the weather, then says there's injustice towards them ? does Brown work for the same government that talks of the evils of islamofascism whilst bathing in the blood let by the true fascism they operate under ? and griffin, was he holding a white champagne bottle ? typical, and so obvious...so glad they got that union flag in the shot too just goes to show the *"huge gulf between ordinary real people and the fantasy world, the neonazi fascistic fantasy world our masters and would be masters* live in"**

Bridget

Posted: Dec 21 2006, 03:32 PM

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QUOTE

Exclusive: inside the secret and sinister world of the BNP

Guardian reporter Ian Cobain joined the BNP and became central London organiser. He found:

� Encrypted lists of middle-class members
� A network of false identities
� The covert rulebook

Thursday December 21, 2006
The Guardian

The techniques of secrecy and deception employed by the British National party in its attempt to conceal its activities and intentions from the public can be disclosed today.

Activists are being encouraged to adopt false names when engaged on BNP business, to reduce the chance of their being identified as party members in their other dealings with the public.

The BNP has also been instructing its activists in the use of encryption software to conceal the content of their email messages, and to protect the party's secret membership lists.

Party members are also employing counter-surveillance techniques, including the routine use of rendezvous points at which they will gather before being redirected to clandestine meetings.

BNP activists are also now discouraged from using any racist or anti-semitic language in public, in order to avoid possible prosecution. In a BNP rulebook, issued only to activists and organisers, they are instructed that they should avoid acting in a way which fits stereotypes of the far right, and "act only in a way that reflects credit on the Party".

The techniques, adopted as part of the campaign by Nick Griffin to clean up his party's image, were discovered after a Guardian reporter who had joined the party undercover was appointed its central London organiser earlier this year.

During seven months inside the BNP, the newspaper also discovered that the party is planning a recruitment drive in some of the most affluent areas of the capital, largely in an attempt to broaden its support base and shake off its image as a party which appeals purely to the white working class.

In an attempt to achieve the degree of political legitimacy which it believes it needs to win more votes, the extreme rightwing party is attempting to establish itself in affluent areas of the capital such as Belgravia, Chelsea and Knightsbridge.

The BNP already has significant numbers of members living in those areas. They include Peter Bradbury, a leading proponent of complementary medicine who has links to Prince Charles, Richard Highton, a healthcare regulator, and Simone Clarke, principal dancer with the English National Ballet.

There are also dozens of company directors, computing entrepreneurs, bankers and estate agents among the 200 members and lapsed members living in central London. One member is a servant of the Queen residing at Buckingham Palace, while a number are former Conservative party activists.

While leading BNP activists say that up to 100 new recruits are joining each week, most are joining in its traditional white, working class strongholds - and a significant number of new members lapse within a couple of years of joining.

The party is now attempting to recruit many more well-heeled members, and aims to organise them into a branch which it hopes to use in its attempts to dispel the widely held view that it remains a party of thuggish, working-class racists.

The campaign has been launched at a time of growing confidence among the party's leaders, who believe they may be on the brink of an electoral breakthrough which could see them win many more council seats, and even capture their first parliamentary seat.

The Guardian was able to witness the success which the BNP's leader, Nick Griffin, has enjoyed in his efforts to persuade his followers to avoid the use of racist language while pursuing electoral gain. Its activists often shun such words as "black" or "white", even when talking at party meetings. Many of its activists have accepted the need, in Mr Griffin's words, to "clean up our act, put the boots away and put on suits".

Mr Griffin signalled the importance of its attempt to mobilise new middle-class recruits last month. Writing in a party publications, he said: "To win electoral power, and to keep it, a political party needs to be rooted in a broad-based movement that is constantly developing and expanding the social and cultural bases of its support."

The BNP has more than 50 council seats nationwide, including 11 in Barking and Dagenham in east London, where it is the official opposition to Labour. It has rarely gained much support outside east London, West Yorkshire, parts of Lancashire and some Midlands cities, however. While the party does not believe it can win many central London seats, it does hope to win seats on the Greater London Assembly, in elections which will be fought under a system of proportional representation in 2008.

The BNP is also targeting the parliamentary seat of Jon Cruddas, a contender for Labour's deputy leadership, who held Dagenham with a majority of 7,600 last year. The BNP candidate won 2,870 votes, 9.3% of the total, but only half of the constituency's electorate turned out to vote.

Some BNP leaders believe the party is close to a seat in parliament, a presence in towns halls across the country and a greater degree of political legitimacy than at any stage in its 24-year history. "But first," one told the Guardian's journalist, "people must stop seeing us as ogres."

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