A British police officer told a 66-year-old grandfather "in the name of Jesus, get in the car" as they arrested him for preaching.
That man has spent 45 years taking the Gospel to 50 countries – and he just spent up to 12 hours in a British jail cell.
What that officer said as he pushed him into the car is something no American Christian can afford to ignore.
Pastor Steve Maile Arrest: What British Police Did and Then Admitted
Steve Maile was standing in Watford town centre – singing Christian hymns and preaching from scripture – when Hertfordshire police surrounded him and locked his wrists in double handcuffs.
He can be heard on video telling officers, "There is no offense being committed here."
He was right.
Hertfordshire Constabulary later confirmed the assault allegation against Maile was dropped entirely – the only charge still under investigation is a public order offense tied to his criticism of violent Islamism.
Maile says police never told his family where he had been taken, kept him cuffed so tightly he later required medical attention and hand splints, and denied him bathroom access for hours.
"Within seconds they converged on me," he said after his release.
"I was so shocked, everyone was frozen with fear."
The Christian Legal Centre, now representing Maile, said the arrest raised serious concerns about whether British police treat Christian speech and Islamic speech by the same standard.
They don't.
https://twitter.com/HoodedClaw1974/status/2046130192540676452
UK Street Preacher Arrests: The Pattern British Police Don't Want You to See
Pastor Dia Moodley has been arrested twice – once in March 2024 for discussing the differences between Christianity and Islam, and again in November 2025 for saying the same things in public.
During the November 2025 arrest, Moodley spent eight hours in a cell and was banned from Bristol's city centre through Christmas.
In March 2025, a group of bystanders assaulted him while he preached – threatened to stab him – and police charged none of his attackers.
In London, the Metropolitan Police threatened Pastor Dwayne Lopez with arrest in 2024 for preaching from the Bible on Uxbridge High Street – because one person in the crowd said they were offended.
One complaint. That's all it takes.
Officers arrive under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, which criminalizes speech causing "alarm or distress."
No violence required or threat required.
Someone dials 999 because a pastor's words made them uncomfortable – and suddenly he's in handcuffs.
Christian Concern, which has defended dozens of street preachers in British courts, documented what they called "a concerning escalation in street preacher arrests" stretching back more than two decades.
The arrests happen. The charges get dropped. The pastors still lose months to legal proceedings and walk away with police records and bruised wrists.
That's the point.
Canada's Hate Speech Law Just Removed the Last Protection for Bible-Based Speech
On March 25, Canada's House of Commons voted 186 to 137 to pass Bill C-9 – the Combatting Hate Act – now before the Canadian Senate.
Buried inside is a clause that strips the one legal protection shielding Canadian Christians from exactly what just happened to Maile.
Canada's Criminal Code currently exempts religious speech from hate crime charges when expressed "in good faith" based on "a belief in a religious text."
Bill C-9 eliminates that exemption entirely.
Prime Minister Carney's Liberals needed the Bloc Québécois to push the bill through – and gutting that religious protection was the price of their votes.
Canadian MP Andrew Lawton called it an "assault" on religious freedom.
Defenders of the bill say it only targets "willful promotion of hatred."
That is the exact same assurance British officials gave for years – right up until they put Steve Maile in double handcuffs for preaching the Book of Revelation.
Socialist Democrats have spent years pushing the identical playbook in America: hate speech laws that treat biblical conviction as a public order threat, speech codes that treat Christian sexual ethics as targeted harassment.
The British call it Section 5.
The Canadians call it the Combatting Hate Act.
If radical leftists ever get the levers of power back, they already know what to call it here.
Sources:
- Christian Legal Centre, "Pastor Steve Maile Watford Arrest Islam Criticism," Christian Concern, April 23, 2026.
- Hertfordshire Constabulary statement, April 2026, via The Christian Post.
- ADF International, "Police Interrogate Christian Pastor," February 2026.
- Christian Concern, "The Three Big Threats to UK Street Ministry," January 2026.
- CBC News, "Contentious anti-hate legislation passes final vote in the House, now moves to Senate," March 25, 2026.
- Ryan Foley, "Canadian House of Commons passes 'hate speech' bill that would remove religious protections," The Christian Post, March 2026.
