No further action to be taken against Zack Polanski over guillotine T-shirt post

The Metropolitan Police said no further action would be taken against Green Party leader Zack Polanski due to a photo shared on social media.

Reform England leader Nigel Farage reported Polanski to the police after he shared the words of a man wearing a black T-shirt with a picture of a guillotine: “We’re only planning for Nigel.”

But in a statement on Wednesday the Met said it would not pursue the case because “a thorough investigation was deemed disproportionate and not a reasonable use of police resources”.

A spokesman for Reform UK criticized the police decision to take no further action against Mr Polanski, saying: “Once again we find ourselves living in two-tier Britain.”

Police said an offense should be registered in relation to the wearing of the T-shirt and, due to what happened in Bristol, the case was handed over to Avon and Somerset Police to consider what to do next.

The statement made by the Met said: “Officers reviewed the reports and carefully considered whether further action was required. The following conclusions were reached during this review:

“It is unlikely that sharing the image online would amount to a criminal offence. “Officers took into account other offenses, including telecommunications, public order and sedition, in reaching this conclusion.

“The photo in question was the 18th photo in a post consisting of 20 photos. The person mentioned in the reports received, directly or in statements made on his own behalf, publicly stated that he had not seen the photo in question while accepting the invitation to cooperate.

“When the issue was raised, steps were taken to have the post removed from his account.

“The post has since been shared (collaborating, reposting or sharing) by approximately 130 accounts. The image has also been shared multiple times on other social media platforms.

“We should not treat individuals differently simply because of their public profile, and so any investigation must take into account the actions of more than 130 individuals and organizations, not just the individual named in the reports.

“Given that his actions were unlikely to ultimately amount to a criminal offence, it was accepted that such an extensive investigation was disproportionate and not a reasonable use of police resources.

“Accordingly, no action will be taken regarding the image being shared on the internet.”

More to follow…

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