PSNI probe into ‘f**k the Pope’ Tesco tannoy outburst ‘a waste of police time’

Jimmy Spratt – a long-serving policeman, now retired– made the comments after an individual grabbed a staff microphone at a store in Ballymena and shouted “f**k the Pope”.

It is being treated as a “hate incident” by the PSNI – which means they do not regard it as an actual crime.

In recent years there has been a significant growth in “hate incidents” – which officers look into and record in their official statistics, even though they fall short of breaking any law.

Mr Spratt (who was also DUP MLA for South Belfast from 2007 to 2015) condemned the person who shouted those remarks over the tannoy, but also questioned whether it was worth tying up police time over.

Mr Spratt told the News Letter: “I think it’s a waste of police time. They’d do better trying to enforce some of the Covid regulations.

“Quite frankly I think that’s an area they are lacking in, given the manpower situation and all the rest of it.”

When it comes to the incident, he said: “I don’t condone any of that sort of behaviour. We have to respect each-other, and respect each-other’s religions, and that’s the way it should be. But unfortunately we’ve people around like that. I’d certainly condemn that sort of behaviour.”

He added: “Quite frankly I think a big firm like Tesco could’ve dealt with it, apologised, and said: ‘The tannoy thing shouldn’t have been exposed for any member of the public to be able to lift, and we’ll ensure at our stores this won’t happen again’.

“I think that’s effective way of dealing with it, and stop wasting police time.”

He estimated responding to a call such as this would take two officers (plus their vehicle, which nowadays is effectively a high-tech “police station on wheels”) out of play for perhaps 45 minutes.

Police said the outburst was made at about 10.20pm on Tuesday at the Larne Link Road store, and that it is being treated as a “hate incident”.

The News Letter asked the PSNI if any crime had been committed, and if not, why it was investigating.

It said: “A complaint has now been made to police and we are conducting an assessment to ascertain if the incident reaches the threshold whereby any criminal offences may have been committed.”

In 2019/20 the PSNI logged 2,300 “hate incidents” for the year. However, out of those, only 1,582 were crimes.

There has been a push lately to class more activities in NI as ‘hate crimes’. The News Letter has looked into this process in far more detail than any other outlet. See some of the stories below:

Click here: Hate crime: Dissent over gay marriage ‘could see you before NI criminal court’

Click here: Hate crime review: Presbyterian Church calls for guarantee that quoting the Bible will not be illegal

Click here: Church of Ireland document states there are males, females – and ‘non-binary’ people

Click here: Hate crime review: Top British QC fears ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of speech and religion

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