It was a cold January day in Oxford, where the chill in the air bites at your fingers, and students, bundled up in scarves and coats, are out braving the weather as they unwind after their final exams. Among them is Sam Brown, a 21-year-old English Literature graduate, who, in a moment of spontaneous wit (or so he thought), approached a mounted policeman and uttered the now infamous words: "Excuse me, do you realise your horse is gay?"
Now, let's pause here for a moment. What is one to make of such a statement? Is it a clever commentary on the equine's mane and tail grooming choices? Or perhaps an observation of the horse's trotting style? The possibilities are endless, but one thing is certain: Sam Brown had no idea that his comment would lead him straight into the jaws of PC culture gone awry.
You see, the police, ever vigilant in their quest to protect the public from the scourge of offensive language, decided that Sam's remark was more than just a joke. It was a "homophobic comment" that, according to Thames Valley Police, was likely to cause "harassment, alarm or distress." And so, in the blink of an eye, Sam found himself under arrest, charged under section 5 of the Public Order Act, and slapped with an £80 fine.
But our story doesn't end there. No, it gets better. Sam, refusing to pay the fine (because really, who wants to fork over £80 for a comment about a horse's sexual orientation?), decided to take his case to court. And in a twist that could only happen in the land of Monty Python, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) eventually dropped the case. Why? Because, as prosecutor Cariad Eveson-Webb couldn't quite figure out how to prove that the horse had taken offense.
Of course, Thames Valley Police stood by their decision to prosecute, insisting that Sam's comment was indeed offensive and could have caused distress to "people passing by." One can only imagine the poor, unsuspecting pedestrians, clutching their pearls in horror at the mere suggestion that a horse might be anything other than strictly heterosexual.
In the end, Sam spent a night in a police cell for a comment that, in a sane world, would have been brushed off as a harmless joke. But in the topsy-turvy universe of PC culture, where even the most flippant of remarks can be twisted into something sinister, nothing is ever that simple.
So, the next time you find yourself in the presence of a police horse, remember to choose your words carefully. You never know when your playful banter might land you in hot water—or, in Sam Brown's case, a night in the clink. Because in the world we live in today, even the horses have feelings, and they're not afraid to use the long arm of the law to protect them. Student fined for gay horse comment | Oxford Mail
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