A student at Balliol College was arrested and detained in custody for a night after he verbally abused a police horse early on Monday morning. Sam Brown, a third year English student, had his fingerprints taken and was released with a fine of £80 following the incident which took place on Cornmarket Street.
Brown was fined for “causing harassment, harm or distress”, after he repeatedly called the officer’s horse “gay”.
Brown and his friends, including former Balliol JCR President Daniel Konrad-Cooper had emerged from the Cellar Bar and were surprised to encounter two mounted policemen.
Brown inquired, “How do you feel about your horse being gay?” of one of the policemen, stating that his colleague’s was clearly not gay. After repeated comments on the sexuality of his horse, and despite warnings from the policeman about his behaviour, Brown’s offer of an apology to the horse was rejected and he was handcuffed and taken by the officers to the police station.
The arrest was made at 2.20am on Monday morning, and Brown was in a state which he described as “pissed out of my head”.
Bertie Wooster, he isn't.
A spokesman for Thames Valley Police confirmed Brown’s arrest and detention, and stated that the point of the action taken by police “shows that we will not tolerate drunken behaviour which causes alarm or distress”. He stated that Brown received five verbal warnings about his behaviour and the potential consequences, and that police asked his friends to take him away and calm him down.
The spokesman also said that the “homophobic comments” were not only offensive to the policeman and his horse, but any members of the general public in the area.
Nicky Ellis, the VP (Welfare and Equal Opportunities) said “Obviously it’s very hard to judge without having been there, but if the comments were made in a certain way, they may well have come across as homophobic, and if so, it is important that the police take this seriously”.
Poor horse. The only way to restore his self-esteem (not that there's anything wrong with that) is to put him out to stud. However, he may be so traumatized, he'll need to go on the dole for Viagra in order to feellike a stallion again.
(Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the heads up.)
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