The story and treatment of Marieha Hussain is one of the most alarming, ludicrous and unbelievable I’ve ever witnessed. It is a story of eye-wateringly blatant state racism, media complicity in that racism, police manipulation and cultural incompetence. And it is a story that must now end with the resignation of Stephen Parkinson, the current Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). His position is untenable as he has turned the @CPSUK into a free-speech threatening laughing stock.
On the 11th of November 2023 Marieha Hussain went on a pro-Palestinian march with her husband, young children and other family members. She carried the now-famous British free speech symbol, the coconut placard. Not seen however, is that on the other side of the placard is a cartoon of Suella Braverman as Cruella de Vil (The Hundred and One Dalmatians cartoon villain). It has the slogan “Cruella Braverman”.
The satirical intent was always obvious. Her poster elicited nothing but laughter and fanfare throughout the day. At one point during the rally, an unidentified male voice shouted out “Can I take a picture of your placard”.
Marieha happily obliged and held up the “Cruella Braverman” side of the poster. The man then asked her for the other side of the placard, to wit she happily turned the placard around to reveal the Braverman/Sunak coconuts image. The man then took a picture of Marieha with the coconut image. We still don’t know who took the picture, however, the picture swiftly ended up on the Twitter account of Harry’s Place, described in court (by Marieha’s barrister) as a “secretive political blog headquartered in Washington DC that has a particular interest in opposing any criticism of the Israeli state”. Harry’s Place published the picture on Twitter, they labelled it racist and tagged in the Met Police.
Within six minutes of Harry’s Place publishing the picture, the Met Police (via “Senior Media and Communications Manager” Chris Humphrys – who said in court that he knew Harry’s Place was an “anonymous political blog”) responded. Not long after (and while Marieha was still on the march) they issued the life-destroying tweet below – which quickly racked up over 4 million views on Twitter. It decimated Marieha’s life, ensured she lost her job, opened her up to enormous racist abuse and led to the media harassment of both her and her parents.
Side bar: To this day we don’t know what the parents of any of Britain’s bluechip actual racists do/did for a living. Yet thanks to the Daily Mail and others we know the names, professions, ethnic origins, house location, house price, etc of Marieha’s parents.
Some insight: Marieha’s father (who I will not name) was at the trial throughout but couldn’t stay to witness his nine-month pregnant daughter’s exoneration as he left to go and fulfil an appointment for one of his medical patients. Let that sink in. Marieha Hussain and her family are pillars of the community – a literal homelessness-to-success British immigration story we should all be proud and appreciative of. Yet they were torn down for engaging in that most British of the elements of humour: satire.
With her image now viral, her family details all over the media and a police-issued “wanted for hate crimes” notice with her face on it in circulation, on the 14th of November Marieha submitted herself to a police station for questioning.
The questioning session was extremely hostile and intimidating. The male officer shouted and behaved super-aggressively to Marieha, leaving her visibly frightened and her lawyer alarmed. Thanks to this trial, we now know that the police and CPS often source and rely on narratives related to culturally sensitive issues online (especially Twitter) to construct arguments. This played a big role in how this matter got out of hand. During Marieha’s questioning session the police officer pulled out the tweets of Sunder Katwala and said “well, he believes this is racist and he is a prominent ethnic minority”.
The many voices that said things to the contrary and gave actual context to back it up, were not evoked by the police. After the questioning session ended Marieha and her husband arrived home quite late at night. In the early hours of the morning (circa 2am) a random lone police officer showed up at their home and started banging on the door. Already in bed, Marieha and her husband again – understandably frightened – did not answer the door and the officer eventually left. They raised the issue with the police yet nothing became of it, they didn’t even offer an apology.
After the police questioning session, Marieha was left in limbo for months. We were hopeful, prayerful even, that glaring common sense would prevail, and she would not be charged. Alas it didn’t.
Bizarrely, Marieha didn’t find out from the police that she was about to be charged, she was informed by Al Jazeera’s Aina Khan (@ainajkhan), who was working a story on the case. The police had sent notice of Marieha’s charges to her old address (which BTW, she was forced to leave due to police and press harassment). It should be noted that the police threatened Aina Khan with contempt of court if she proceeded with the Al Jazeera piece she was working on it.
Well, to the redeeming credit of the very concept of journalism in this case, Khan not only proceeded with it but published it.
Despite using Sunder Katwala’s tweets as proof that “coconut is racist” during questioning, the police were unable to find anyone with any significant expertise who would advise and testify in court that “coconut is racist”. In their desperation police officer Shrenick Shah contacted – wait for it – Professor Kehinde Andrews (@kehinde_andrews). You read correctly: they contacted Europe’s first and only Professor of Black Studies, a renowned anti-racist intellectual, to testify that “coconut is racist”.
Kehinde sent the police an extensive letter informing them both how and why coconut is not racist. He also demanded that the police share his advice with the CPS so they could stop wasting everyone’s time. Unfortunately, the police and CPS didn’t heed Kehinde’s advice. As fate would have it,@mybcu has decided to curtail the Black Studies undergraduate course. If Marieha Hussain’s Coconut Trial proves anything it proves that Birmingham City Uni should be massively expanding the Black Studies course and aggressively pitching it to the police forces and the CPS. Believe me, if they wish to ever be taken seriously again, they desperately need it.
The above takes us up to the point of arrests and charge. Things get even more insane from there – especially at the pre-Coconut trial hearing and the actual Coconut Trial. I’ll continue the thread later. In the meantime, please watch the Channel 4 News report by@symeonbrown
https://youtu.be/uiKnxUUh3r8?si=fW-P1AAJcnM3E0nv
Written by @nelsabbey
Following the initial story, during the legal proceedings, London Metropolitan Police admit to the courts that anonymous far-right pro-israeli accounts were used to police the city’s pro-Palestine marches.
‘Coconuts’ trial: London protest arrest prompted by tweet by ‘secretive’ pro-Israel blog
by MEEye
Marieha Hussain, 37, pleaded not guilty to racially aggravated public order offence at Westminster Magistrates Court
The London Metropolitan Police has told a court that it has used “anonymous right-wing” accounts to police the pro-Palestine marches that take place in central London.
Marieha Hussain, 37, pleaded not guilty to a racially aggravated public order offence on Thursday at the beginning of her two-day trial at Westminster Magistrates Court.
Police charged Hussain after she held a placard depicting former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and then Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who are both British Asians, as coconuts during a pro-Palestine march in London.
Chris Humphreys, a senior media and communications manager for the London Metropolitan Police, told a court on Thursday the police had used Harry’s Place and other accounts that post protest-related pictures to inform its policing of pro-Palestine marches.
During proceedings, Humphreys explained his role within the Met’s operations room in Lewisham and said he managed a team of three to four officers tasked with “responding to social media commentary” related to the protest.
“Images come to our attention when the Met’s own social media account has been tagged,” Humphreys told the court.
“Other ways images come to our attention is when accounts that frequently post protest-related images appear that warrant a potential investigation.
‘Are you aware that Harry’s Place is a secretive political blog headquartered in Washington DC that has a particular interest in opposing any criticism of the Israeli state?’
– Rajiv Menon, Marieha Hussain’s lawyer
“Or when images posted get a ‘significant response’ with a significant number of views.”
Humphreys said the Met typically posts a “holding response” acknowledging receipt of the reported image and that “any further outcome will appear later on”.
Rajiv Menon, Hussain’s lawyer, asked Humphreys about the role of Harry’s Place and how it informed its policing decision to find Hussain and prosecute her for holding the coconut sign.
“Are you aware that Harry’s Place is a secretive political blog headquartered in Washington DC that has a particular interest in opposing any criticism of the Israeli state?”
Humphrey responded to Menon and confirmed the Met had issued a holding response under Harry’s Place’s original post related to Hussain.
He added, “Harry’s Place is an anonymous political blog.”
‘Racial slur’
Opening the prosecution’s case on Thursday, prosecutor Jonathan Bryan said the term “coconut” was a “well-known racial slur which has a very clear meaning”.
“There were people present who were likely to have been caused harassment, alarm and distress by seeing what was on that placard,” Bryan told the court.
“You may be brown on the outside, but you’re white on the inside. In other words, you’re a race traitor – you’re less brown or black than you should be.”
Menon responded to the claim and said the placard was “not abusive” but a political criticism of former Prime Minister Sunak and Home Secretary Braverman.
“It was a pictorial attempt to criticise the policy of Rishi Sunak and particularly Suella Braverman and their race politics, given what was happening at the time in the country.
“There is nothing gratuitous or gross in any way about the placard. This placard was political speech.”
District Judge Vanessa Lloyd also rejected the prosecution’s request to cut down on the number of expert witnesses being called by the defence.
While proceedings were taking place, activists protested in support of Hussain outside the court. Between 30 and 40 people stood outside the court holding Palestine flags and chanting in support of Hussain.
The trial continues.