Remembering the Heretical 2, Ten Years Later

Back in 1980, during my first semester at the University of Tuebingen, I met a delightful English girl who lived in my dorm, and who was also in her first semester there, though she would only stay for one year as an exchange student. (I can't remember her name, for the life of me.)

She told me that she'd considered becoming an interpreter, but learned that after several years working in the field, they tend to start suffering from memory loss.

I suspect something similar happens to newsmen, after covering so many thousands of stories. With over five million words on my odometer, more and more, I'll read blog items I wrote several years ago, and not recall them at all, or I'll forget articles I wrote years ago on subjects I haven't written on in 20 years. When I stumble upon the articles (but not always the blog items), I'll recognize them as my handiwork, and the thought processes and issues are certainly familiar.

And so it was that a couple of Englishmen, Yorkshiremen (I think they both were), the writer Stephen Whittle (pen name Luke O'Farrell), and his publisher, Simon Sheppard contacted me in 2008. They had been convicted of violating England's Hate Crime laws for things they had merely written. While awaiting sentencing, they fled to America, where they sought asylum. Unfortunately, they encountered a federal prosecutor and judge, neither of whom was familiar with American law, but who considered British law just grand. They summarily sent the H2 back to England, where they were promptly put in the hoosegow.

During the same period, I was doing quite a bit of work on America's own growing, unconstitutional body of hate crime and civil rights laws, and the regime of double and even triple jeopardy prosecutions they rationalized.

While digging in old folders from 2009, I not only found work I recognized once I read it, but a post-prison letter from Whittle/O'Farrell from 2013 that I'd completely forgotten. I had been setting it up with some hyperlinks, as preparation to sending it to VDARE as a blog item, and posting it to my own primary blog, but must have then been distracted by some new, world-historical emergency or writing job, and then completely forgot it. (That was a very ambitious year, and I forgot more than one major project. A professional acquaintance I mentioned my issues to at the time suggested, "You must be spreading yourself too thin.")


The Heretical 2:
Asylum Seekers the Refugee Industry Won't be Fighting for
VDARE
July 31, 2008

Following my article, "Debate Community' Organizes to Silence Critic–Me!," a reader wrote me about writer Stephen Whittle (pen name Luke O'Farrell), 41, and his publisher, Simon Shepherd, 51, "the Heretical 2."

They were convicted earlier this month in the UK for writing articles that "incited racial hatred." Yes, convicted for writing articles! [While out on bail, awaiting sentencing–NS] They fled to the US seeking asylum and are now sitting in the Santa Ana, CA jail awaiting their immigration hearing. As far as I can tell, their story has gotten zero US media coverage.

What I find frightening is that Canada has similar thought crime laws and some groups are trying to get them passed in our country. I think it's imperative that Americans find out about their case, as it may be a sign of things to come if such laws are passed in the US.

Whittle and Shepherd are not sweethearts. They engage in Holocaust-denial (see the last paragraph of the linked essay), they don't love Jews (not even me!), and fail to properly celebrate racial minorities.

[British] Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford told the jury … "People in this country are entitled to be racist and they are entitled to hold unpleasant points of view, but what they aren't entitled to do is publish or distribute written material which is insulting, threatening or abusive and is intended to stir up racial hatred or is likely to do so."