West Mercia police won’t investigate Nick Griffin over tweet showing grotesque Jewish spider urging forward horde of zombies to destroy civilisation as it is not “racially offensive language”
West Mercia Police have declined our request to investigate the former leader of the BNP after assessing that his tweet suggesting a giant grotesque spider with a star of David on its head urging forward a horde of barbarians – whom he appeared to say should “burn in hell” – to destroy civilisation did not qualify as “racially offensive language”.
Nick Griffin posted the tweet on 6th December 2021 before deleting it. In it, he wrote: “If anyone had told me 5 years ago that I’d post this, I’d have said they’d gone mad. But now the world has gone mad (thanks to its current masters) so this is where I have to stand. All other differences must be left aside until the #GreenResetters burn in hell.”
The text accompanied an image of a giant grotesque spider with a star of David on its head urging forward a horde of zombies waving flags and banners in favour of LGBT rights, Black Lives Matter, feminism and equality – essentially representing different minority groups apparently under the influence of the Jews – against a Saracen and Christian crusader, presumably representing Western and Islamic civilisations. The clear message is that Christianity and Islam must unite to repel Jewish subversion of civilisation.
The tweet from the notorious figure was originally reported to Gloucestershire Police and then transferred to West Mercia Police, which declined to investigate, logging the case merely as a “hate incident” rather than a crime, despite the explanations that we provided for the numerous antisemitic tropes in the image, ranging from Jewish power to parasiticism and Jewish inhumanity to the corrupting influence of the Jews.
Nevertheless, the police force appears consistently to have looked only at the text of the tweet, explaining that “for an offence to be made out under section 127(a) of the 2003 [Communications] Act the accused must intend for the words to be grossly offensive to whom they relate or must be aware that they may be taken as such. The post was not considered grossly offensive, although it was not pleasant, and would shock and offend, however, there was no use of racially offensive language in the post and it was not directed at one particular group or person.” The police repeatedly failed to address the image in their assessments. Had they done so, they would surely have found that the provisions of the act were made out.
We are considering further legal options.
Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The notion that a giant grotesque spider with a star of David on its head urging forward a horde of liberal zombies and minority groups to destroy civilisation did not qualify as ‘racially offensive language’, and the claim that the tweet ‘was not directed at one particular group or person’ are plainly absurd. Rather than double down on their errors, West Mercia Police should have engaged with our analysis properly. Had they done so, they would have concluded that this tweet from a prominent and notorious racist merited investigation. It is left to us to explore other legal options.”
