US says UK human rights have worsened in past year | Hacker News Reader

US says UK human rights have worsened in past year

bbc.co.uk

6 pointszimpenfish7 comments

On the one hand, accurate; on the other, shameless given current USGOV.

Blind telling the blind they're going the wrong way? Feels a bit hypocritical coming from someone who's been going down a very similar path recently, but I guess that just goes to show just how bad it is, or it's an attempt to try and deflect attention away from oneself.

In the UK the police seem to be very involved in arresting or intimidating people simply using their right to speech, which I think is the worst human right violation. There was a store that had a sign about “scumbag thieves” that was forced to take it down by the police. I guess this is what happens when you don’t have a fundamental (constitutional) right to free speech in your legal system.

https://metro.co.uk/2025/08/09/shopkeeper-told-police-take-s...

> There was a store that had a sign .. that was forced to take it down by the police.

That literally didn't happen, at least according to your own link.

  But Mr Davies has remained defiant he will not change the message despite being advised by police to reword it.

The article has all the elements of clickbait, hinting at police seriously overstepping their mark on the basis of a self reported anecdote by a shop owner about a supposed remark by an unnamed officer.

This story is in several media and the police, as is clearly reported in the linked article, did tell the shop owner to remove or rephrase the note for all we know. [1]

There are more and more stories like this one where police on the beat are taking upon themselves to intimidate people only for the police force to backtrack when challenged. Granted, at this point the story is "self-reported" as you say but it is making noise because it isn't the first "anecdote" and many have been documented on film so it is very plausible.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7077dn8xryo

Again, as reported by the shop owner ...

As noted, (both in the first link and again in this second link) the police do not consider displaying the sign in question to be an offence.

  North Wales Police, however, said it did not appear Mr Davies had committed any offence.

  "It would be up to the shop owner to decide whether he displayed such a sign in his store," the force said.

Yes, that's what I wrote. Not sure why you complain so much...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com