The Bermuda Police Service is not investigating the presentation made by Washington speaker Ayo Kimathi which has been labelled a “hate speech” by some sections of the community.

Commissioner of Police Michael DeSilva said that officers would have to receive a complaint about the speech to launch an investigation.

Formal complaints have been made to the Human Rights Commission, which is investigating whether there was a breach of the Human Rights Act.

Mr Kimathi was this week placed on Bermuda’s stop list by Michael Fahy, the Minister for Home Affairs, for his speech which denounced homosexuals and interracial marriage.

Meanwhile, a petition has been launched to have Mr Kimathi removed from the stop list.

Mr DeSilva said police are aware of the presentation, but continued: “Our normal position applies, that when a complaint is received we will investigate it to see if any criminal offence has been committed, notwithstanding other government agencies have taken action they deem as fit.”

The Human Rights Act states: “No person shall, with intent to incite or promote ill will or hostility against any section of the public distinguished by colour, race or ethnic or national origins, use in any public place or any public meeting words which are threatening, abusive or insulting.”

It is also a criminal offence under section 11 of the Summary Offences Act 1926 to use “any threatening, abusive, insulting or offence words, gestures or behaviours” in a public place.

Additionally, Senator Fahy noted that Mr Kimathi was selling promotional materials at the event which was “outside of the scope of the permission relating to his visit to Bermuda”.

Footage has emerged online from the presentation and The Royal Gazette, which attended the full presentation last Saturday at Liberty Theatre, made recordings of those parts relating to the issues raised by Sen Fahy.

Mr Kimathi’s speech had included claims that “sexual perversions” such as homosexuality, rape, bestiality, and interracial sex, originated from white Europeans.

Former Progressive Labour Party senator LaVerne Furbert, who attended the event, has been an outspoken defender of Mr Kimathi’s right to freedom of expression.

On social media this week, Ms Furbert has criticised this newspaper for not reporting more about the African history element of Saturday’s presentation.

Asked by this newspaper whether she believed Mr Kimathi was unjustly placed on the stop list, Ms Furbert replied: “Of course. I believe in freedom of speech and I do not believe that because Mr Kimathi is anti-same sex marriage/homosexuality, that he should have been placed on the stop list. I also believe that, before Minister Fahy made that decision, he should have viewed the video first.

“Additionally, what is offensive to white Bermudians is not necessarily offensive to me as a black Bermudian woman.”

Ms Furbert said that while many believed interracial marriage was “fundamentally wrong”, she was not one of them — her son is married to an East Indian woman. She also said she was “unable to disprove” Mr Kimathi’s theory on the origins of sexual perversion.

Ms Furbert spoke out on Facebook about the fact that Sen Fahy, a “white Canadian man”, had banned a “black American man” from Bermuda.

Asked what she believed was the relevance of race in the decision, she replied: “It is a fact that Michael Fahy is a ‘white Canadian’ who has placed a black American on the stop list.”

Meanwhile, Bermudian Shannon Smith launched an online petition yesterday on www.change.org against placing Mr Kimathi on the stop list.

Mr Smith said he launched the petition “to provide anyone the opportunity to defend him if they so wish. He’s an idiot but I find the blacklist is excessive — it’s just not needed. I’m providing a neutral option for anyone in Bermuda to choose his fate.”

Leader of a black Muslim faction, Louis Farrakhan, was banned by Bermuda in 1985 owing to fears that his speech would incite unrest and were likely to break human rights laws.

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