Really Free Speech
For free speech. Against far-right lies and intimidation
Active for Plymouth HATES Free Speech
Categories: General

Three years ago we published our first article, exposing a new far-right party: Active for Plymouth. Now they are barely active at all. But AFP didn’t leave without a fuss! In fact they did everything in their power to shut us down – all the way from calling the police to threats of violence against people they think write for us. We are still here, and we will not be silenced.

The far-right have no problem with hypocrisy. They still act like they are the “defenders” of free speech, accusing critics of everything they themselves have been dishing out. For the record, no-one involved with this website has ever threatened AFP. We have never published their personal information – only PUBLIC photos from facebook, public names, public statements. We wrote about on them here for anyone to read. That’s all they’re afraid of – the truth.

Today, we are publishing some of the things did to try and shut us up.

Legal Threats

The first thing Jason Shopland and his party did, was threaten us with the law. To start with he called the police, hoping they’d do his dirty work for him. Here he is posting about a crime report:

A series of facebook posts by Jason Shopland. "As they are trying to cause slander and posting Hate in the form of untruths with promoting Terrorism we have reported it to the Police. We do not like reporting things to the Police but this is just a pure hate post as the party the author supports is a little unhappy that we are standing in an election" (screenshot of hate crime report follows)

When that didn’t work, they threatened us with lawyers. We’ve never heard a word from any of these solicitors. It was just an empty threat to intimidate us into silence:

A facebook post by Jason Shopland with text and two screenshots. "Had a talk to a Barrister and got a response from the Police. I am meeting the Barrister next Wednesday and unless the post is taken down in the next 24hrs and we recieve a full apology then I have instructed them to file a case against [redacted]. The Barrister said it's an open and shut case so ££££££ are on the way [smile emoji]". First screenshot: email from Carlyn Gough. "Dear Jason. Thankyou or taking the time to speak to me about your matter today. You now have my direct contact details and if you decide you would like to go ahead with the [screenshot cut off here]". Second screenshot: Email from truevision at gmp dot police dot uk. "Good Morning, Thank you for your report to True Vision. We have forwarded it to Devon and Cornwall Police and recorded this as a hate incident - TVH=277-19-0100-IR Thank you for taking the time to report this matter [screenshot cuts off here]"We have never called the police even after getting threats. We know which side they are on and we don’t grass. Safety comes from strong communities, not from calling the police.

Playing the Victim

We know that the far right are hypocrites. They complain about facebook taking down their posts, but here is a video of them telling their followers to report our posts to facebook!

They have to justify the hypocrisy to their followers. They do it by making their “enemies” out to be the worst people possible. A united front of the meanest, most violent people you can find. That way their supporters don’t pay attention to anything we say. To them, everything is an “attack”. If we name them that is “doxxing” and a “threat” (even though their names are on the ballot papers!). This is how they prepare people for violence. When anything happens to us, their supporters will think we had it coming.

Here’s the latest nonsense from their page:

Post from Active For Plymouth facebook page: "Watching Coronation Street last night and the story about Maria and the trolls, is something I have experienced myself. [Redacted] and socialist group in Plymouth posted misinformation about me and even made up web pages to dox and sickly even brought my kids into the equation by posting photos of them on web pages to get at me as they don't like me saying what I feel, they branded me with all types of absolute crap with no evidence and basically hear say. These people are truly sick and I feel for people on all sides who are like me, not a major elected/ and or politician and just a citizen expressing free speech. The people who post hate and misinformation must be in fear of the words of others but its time that society held them to account by either doing the same to them or the law should deal with them and the situation". Posted 28 June

For the record, we have never “brought their kids into the equation”. Read the rest of this site! We have never mentioned anyone’s kids. None of us are members of the Labour Party or the Socialist Party. All we have ever done is post things that Active for Plymouth wrote themselves, or pictures they made public on social media. But to them, the truth is “hate and misinformation”.

Violence and Doxxing

After failing to sue us, they tried to make a hitlist of anti-fascists in Plymouth, searching for names and addresses:

Post by Jason Shopland: "Info on PLYMOUTH Antifa members. Closed group. To join you MUST be someone we know." Link to group named "ANTIFA (Who they are they) Plymouth. Closed group with 8 membersScreenshot of the Group History of the group above, showing that its original title was: "ANTIFA (Who they are and Names+Adds details) Plymouth". Dated 5th May 2019

So far as we can tell, they were too disorganised to find out anything about us. Next came the threats of violence from their supporters, all encouraged by Jason Shopland who “liked” everything they had to say…

A facebook comment by Syd More, circled: "String them up"

“String them up” – Syd More

A screenshot showing Jason Shopland has liked the comment saying "string them up"

Jason Shopland shows his support…

A facebook comment thread. Syd More: "invite them to a secret protest then beat the shite out ov dem init". Active for Plymouth: "Syd More It's ok! I have a good feeling that Plymouths motorcycle club wants a good talk with them [wink emoji]". Syd More: "Active For Plymouth good lads in that club they don't take shit.". Active For Plymouth: "Syd More [wink emoji] they did not seem happy with [name redacted]. We are trying to find his address for them so they can write him a letter [wink emoji]"

“invite them to a secret protest then beat the shite out ov dem” – Syd More

Facebook comment by Pete Wilkes: "Excellent. Please reveal all ANTIFA scum, we will do the rest"

“reveal all antifa scum, we will do the rest” – Pete Wilkes

A screenshot showing that Jason Shopland "liked" the comment above

Shopland liked the comment above…

Facebook comment by Pete Wilkes: "Please expose names and faces. Police won't do anything so let the non member supporters take over. Problem solved. Start with the Herald office and Labour HQ"

“Police won’t do anything so let the non member supporters take over” – Pete Wilkes

Facebook comment thread. Pete Wilkes: "Stupid idiot, you need a following of people not in your party who can find these Labour scum and have a 'chat' with them". Stephen Williams: "dreams do come true... [smile emoji]". Pete Wilkes: "Stephen Williams let's turn his dreams into nightmares". Stephen Williams: "already located his location..isn`t fb great.". Stephen Williams: "bound too have a routine.."

“let’s turn his dreams into nightmares” – Pete Wilkes

Facebook comment by Robert Dupon: "Smash those antifa nonce supporters face in"

“Smash those antifa nonce supporters face in” – Robert Dupon

Screenshot showing that Jason Shopland "liked" the comment above

Shopland shows his support again…

Who are the people making these threats?

This is Syd More’s facebook. And some pictures:

Syd More. He has a long grey beard and mustache. His hair is bald and he's wearing a biker jacket with patches

Syd More. He has a long grey beard and mustache. His hair is bald and he's wearing a biker jacket with patches

This is Pete Wilke’s facebook. And his face:

Pete Wilkes. He has short hair, beard, and mustache

Stephen Williams we’ve already written about

And finally Robert Dupon, aka “Urbanexboi”. This is his youtube channel. This is his personal facebook, this is his facebook page. His website seems to be offline. And his picture:

Robert Dupon. He is clean shaved with medium-short hair

It’s not just locals that AFP are after either. Here’s them calling for attacks against Owen Jones…

Meme posted by the facebook page Active For Plymouth - a speech bubble of Owen Jones saying “These rightwinged fascist thugs beat me up!”, next to a woman celebrating and smiling

Speech bubble of Owen Jones saying “These rightwinged fascist thugs beat me up!”, next to a woman celebrating and smiling

Some of those threats were from 2019 after our first article came out. But Jason Shopland still hasn’t forgotten about us. Here’s a post from earlier this year, saying violence is the only way to stop us speaking out:

Facebook post from the page Active For Plymouth: "Violence is the answer! If we were allowed to commit violence on the people who stalked, hurt, doxed, or trolled us or our families, or you were allowed to hurt people such as proven paedophiles! Then these crimes would not happen [wink emoji]"

“Violence is the answer!” – Active For Plymouth

For the record, we have no problem with violence against child abusers. But how sick is it, that they think writing a few articles is as bad as child abuse? They’ve shown no respect for victims of Child Sex Abuse, putting doxxing and CSA in the same sentence. That’s how low they will sink, just to get back at people. It’s another example of playing the victim – accusing us of a whole list of things we have never done, and then associating us with child abusers.

So far as we know AFP aren’t involved in anything like this, but the wider far right has a bad record when it comes to abusers in their own ranks: see this article, and also this one. To be clear we aren’t accusing anyone in Plymouth, only asking anyone reading this who has contact with the far right to please be vigilant and do what you can to stop this, as the far right is rife with abuse.

Conclusion

The threats may look bad, but here’s the thing: we are still here. Their threats didn’t work. That’s why it’s important to stick together. The more of us who speak up, the less they can do about it. We felt safe because of the friends and supporters who stood by us, who will always have our back. Bullies expect victims to cower and hide. The best reply is always this: speak up even louder!

 

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