(UK) How woman with coconut placard was tracked down, taken to court - and acquitted
Source: BBC
How woman with coconut placard was tracked down, taken to court - and acquitted
14 September 2024
Ashitha Nagesh
Community affairs correspondent@ashnagesh
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Her account was told to Westminster Magistrates Court this week during her two-day trial on a charge of a racially aggravated public order offence.
She was accused of this offence of which she was found not guilty on Friday because of what was on the other side of that placard.
It was a drawing of a palm tree with coconuts falling off it; pasted over two of those coconuts were the faces of Ms Braverman and of the then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
At the heart of this case was the word coconut - and whether it could be considered racially abusive.
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The word coconut didnt fall out of a coconut tree, to quote Kamala Harriss mum, Mr Abbey told me after the trials first day, adding that the word fell out of our experience as former colonised people.
The term emerged as a way of critiquing those who collaborated with our oppressors, he said.
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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgwew5v4qyo
The photo of Ms Hussain holding her placard was posted online by an anonymous blog (Metropolitan Police)