African street preacher taken into custody as his Bible is forcibly stripped away for 'breaching the peace'

Article By Asia Johnson // Global News // EEW Magazine

The arrest of an African street preacher in London may be done and over with, but the online backlash and outrage continues to spread.

In a video of the encounter, officers force the passionate yet peaceful exhorter to stop before taking him in to custody, and charging him with “breaching the peace.”

“What are you doing here?” the officer asked the older gentleman near Southgate Underground station in London.

“I am preaching,” he said.

“I am going to require you to go away,” the officer rebutted.

“Never,” the man refused.

“Well then, then I will arrest you for a breach of peace,” the officer told him.

“What breach of peace?” asked the man, confused.

“It’s what you’re doing at the moment,” the officer said, explaining. “You’re causing problems. You’re disturbing people’s days, and you’re breaching their peace. If you won’t go away voluntarily, we will have to arrest you.”

The preacher doubled down, answering, “I will not go away because I need to tell them the truth because Jesus is the only way, the truth and the life.”

The officer said, “But nobody wants to listen to that. They want you to go away.” He handcuffed the man, and another officer snatched the Bible out of the preacher’s hands.

 “Don’t take my Bible away!” the man cried out.

“You should have thought about that before being racist!” the officer accused.

Faithwire reached out to the Metropolitan Police for more information surrounding the incident. The police admitted that, despite the officer’s comments accusing the preacher of being “racist,” nothing of this nature had been said by the Christian man. They also noted that “no language of this nature was used in the presence of officers.”

As far as the arrest goes, authorities confirmed it was for “breaching the peace.”

According to Faithwire, many have called on the police to apologize for the incident. Christians and atheists alike have expressed their outrage.