A proposal for the widening of a Metropolitan police bill to cover writing of abusive slogans on public walls was made today by Barneit Janner, M.P. and British Jewish communal leader.
The bill, which is now in committee, would increase the maximum penalties for threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior in public places. Mr. Janner, who called such slogan-writing “one of the most cowardly and vicious things that can possibly be done,” cited his experiences as an M. P. for Whitechapel when the Fascist movement made “that type of attack on my own Jewish people, ” a “very serious one, indeed.” He said that recently the walls of Buckingham Palace “were actually used for swastikas and anti-Semitic word scribbling.”
David Benton, Joint Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Home Office, replied that since “slogans are generally either in threatening, abusive or insulting words and the marking up of them on a wall is behavior,” such activities would be covered in the current bill.
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