Recent Judicial Decisions
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6303600708 |
| Author | W. H. D. Winder |
| Published date | 01 July 1963 |
| Date | 01 July 1963 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
W.
H.
D.
WINDER,
M.A.,
LL.M.
Legal Correspondent
of
THE
POLICE JOURNAL
RE£ENT
JUDI£IAL
DE£ISIONS
PUBLIC ORDER
Jordan v. Burgoyne
The Public Order Act, 1936, is an Act to keep public order in
public places, as the Divisional Court stressed in this case ([1963] 2
All E.R. 225) when allowing the prosecutor's appeal against a
decision
of
London Sessions quashing the defendant's conviction
of
an offence under s. 5
of
the Act. The defendant was inclined to
elevate his case into a cause celebre in the sense that, if he were
convicted, then there would be some inroad into the doctrine
of
free
speech.
"It
is nothing of the sort ", said the Lord Chief Justice in
ruling that the defendant was guilty.
"A
man is entitled to express
his ownviewsas strongly as he likes, to criticise his opponents,to say
disagreeable things about his opponents and about their policies, and
to do anything of that sort. But what he must not do
is-and
these
are the words
of
the
section-he
must not threaten, he must not be
abusive and he must not insult them, '
insult'
in the sense of ' hit by
words'
". The Lord Chief Justice concluded that it was a perfectly
clear case.
At a public meeting in Trafalgar Square there was a crowd of
several thousand people. The speakers' platform was divided from
the crowd by a line
of
police. A group
of
young people positioned
near the speakers' platform contained many Jews, supporters of the
campaign for nuclear disarmament and communists who intended
to prevent the meeting. During the address of one speaker, the
police stopped the meeting on four occasions to restore order. After
that address, the defendant read a prepared speech which aroused
considerable dissent in the crowd, there was complete disorder, and
a general surge forward by the crowd towards the speakers' platform.
At that point the police stopped the meeting. The Lord Chief
Justice said that, having read the speech, he could not imagine any
reasonable citizen, certainly one who was a Jew, not being provoked
beyond endurance, and not only a Jew but a coloured man, and
quite a number
of
people who were told that they were merely tools
of the Jews, and that they had fought in the war on the wrong side,
and matters
of
that sort.
July 1963 352
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