Carl "Sargon of Akkad" Benjamin, now a candidate for UKIP, investigated by police over comments on Labour MP

BBC

Police are looking into remarks by UKIP candidate Carl Benjamin after Labour MP Jess Phillips accused him of malicious communications.

Mr Benjamin, who is standing in the European elections, tweeted that he "wouldn't even rape" Ms Phillips.

He has refused to apologise for the remark made in 2016, arguing that "any subject can be the subject of a joke."

Ms Phillips told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme she "cried in the street" after hearing a video by him.

She said that until then she "had been putting a brave face on it and pretending that it was all fine and that I could cope".

The Birmingham MP has called for people who "promote rape and sexual violence" to have a lifetime ban from running for elected office.

After the interview, UKIP's official Twitter feed posted: "The year is 2019, jokes you'd hear down the pub are now worthy of police investigation."

'Belittles you'

West Midlands Police said it had received a report of malicious communications relating to Mrs Phillips.

A spokesman said: "Officers have spoken to Ms Phillips and the comments are being investigated to establish if an offence has taken place."

The MP for Birmingham Yardley told Victoria Derbyshire she did not fear for her physical safety, but worried for her mental health after thousands of messages from Twitter users attacking her in the last year alone.

"Sometimes I would rather someone punch me in the face than the constant degradation you suffer as a woman in the public eye," she said. "It is constant, it constantly belittles you, it makes you blame yourself."

On Mr Benjamin, she said she could not understand how a person who wrote the comments online was allowed to run to be an MEP.

"It was one thing when he was just some idiot off the internet with a load of bros following him," she said.

"It is a different thing when he is standing on the same platforms that I am standing on, that he will potentially go to a Parliament himself as an elected representative when he has said these things.

"I just cannot believe our system is so weak at the moment that that's allowed to happen."

Ms Phillips has spoken out on behalf of rape and domestic violence victims in Parliament, and worked for the charity Women's Aid.

Mr Benjamin made the initial comments in reply to a tweet from her about rape and death threats sent to women online. His tweet, which said, "I wouldn't even rape you... feminism is cancer," has since been deleted.

The MEP candidate for the South West refused to apologise for the post at news conference in London last month, accusing media outlets of "smearing" him.

In a video posted later that month - which is still available online - he said: "There's been an awful lot of talk about whether I would or would not even rape Jess Phillips... I suppose with enough pressure I might cave, but let's be honest, nobody's got that much beer."

Mr Benjamin told Buzzfeed News it was humour, adding: "Any subject can be the subject of a joke. The alternative is a world devoid of humour, the essential tool we use to reduce the horror of events that are beyond our control."

Ms Phillips said she broke down in the centre of Birmingham after hearing the video.

Members of UKIP's Swindon branch said Mr Benjamin had only joined the local party recently and he should be deselected.

But the party's leader, Gerard Batten, defended his candidate, describing him as a "classical liberal" whose message had been "satirical" in nature.

The programme contacted Mr Benjamin for comment, but he did not return its request.

Well, this will prove interesting for Sargon's reputation.

So glad I live in the US. Imagine being investigated by police for an insult. Although if the left gets what they want it will be like that here as well.

No idea who this guy is but the UK need to relax a bit and realize that free speech is free and while the comment was somewhat distasteful it was not something that should warrant a police investigation or even something they should waste time on.

It's hilarious. This will only get him more support, obviously. People will feel sorry for him because of this interesting exaggerated response by their police force. In the UK they have very strict laws against saying the 'wrong' thing. Much worse than in the USA. But that doesn't mean the people agree with it. So I think this is exactly what he needed. If they want to get to him, they'll have to reason with him. But they can't. So they are trying every dirty trick shy of killing him. This is going to give him way more publicity, which he needs, after the social media tried silencing him.

For the record, I don't like Sargon of Akkad, I think he's a shit. But if you've been following the media they have been spamming hit-piece after hit-piece. This is what the Uk does, we have some of the worst media in the world. In the space of 2 weeks I've seen articles accusing him being a rapist, and a recent one accusing him of being pedophile, where if you actually go and check the context, he said nothing of the sort.

Basically the media decides who they like and you get smear campaigns against the others. It can be right or left. Jeremy Corbyn refusing to Kneel for the Queen because of his own personal ideals? Yea he's a monster, worst than Hitler. Wanting some control in third party countries? Yea, he hates your country. he's a monster.

If you're from the UK, very much use to this shit. The rise of the internet where we have alternate sources of information (and adblockers) is something they despise.

@uninspiredcup: Do you know if the dude could sue newspapers for libel in the UK? I actually don't think it's doable in the UK but I'm not sure. In the USA if the newspapers straight up lie (so not just a bad opinion) it can become worthy of a case.

I think in the UK you have to at least prove it's a lie. So he would have to somehow prove his innocence. Like prove he did not rape someone. Which sounds hard to do. But because he is a political candidate I think it would at least be easy to make the case that these lies are normally considered damaging to his reputation.

@KungfuKitten: No idea dude, just know our media are almost universally pieces of shit.

Some of the stuff they have done e.g. (Milly Dowler's voicemail) are horrific.

Imagine being investigated for saying your not going to rape someone, I watch sargon from time to time, he is one of the most transparent people in politics, he has to be he has thoasands of videos of his commentary on youtube for the public lol

He has addressed these comments over and over again, but the media will not stop on this tweet. They are stuck on it untill sargon apologizes for it. He refuses because he said it was a distasteful joke and if she wants a personal apology for the comment, he will happily give her one in person.

The problem is the media doesnt want that, they want a public apology to smear him over, the more they push it the more desperate they look. The main issue sargon is running on is freedomn of speech, so the media is really making his case for him. Bloody smear merchants he calls the media and they are.

Like i said i dont agree with everything sargon does, but hes a hell of alot better than your establishment politician. The man literally sits up a table and chairs for the public to sit with him and have open one on one dialogue. I cant think of a politician ever doing that. Count dankula and Sargon running for office is cool as shit and I would hope they win, too bad the media over there treats UKIP like a Nazi hate group.

Carl Benjamin (born c. 1979) is a British political commentator, anti-feminist, polemicist and YouTuber with the online psudonym Sargon of Akkad

Lmao.

@blackhairedhero: Um... your president wants to investigate SNL for making fun of them with a liberal Baldwin.

They are more concerned about the birth of a child than free speech.

@nintendoboy16: Trump has thin skin. To act as if he represents the right or to act like the right as a whole is anywhere near as bad as the left when it comes to censorship is hillarious. Obama use to be upset with how Fox News treated him( and rightfully so). But Trump is getting that same hate from CNN, MNBC, CBS, ABC and every other major news outlet.

Tasteless, sure. Criminal? Scary thought that one could be prosecuted for a tasteless joke.

Who the heck makes rape jokes? What a muppet.

@blackhairedhero: They are though. They bash the left for these action, yet, here they are doing the same. From minor such as trying to ruin celebs (James Gunn on the left, Hulk Hogan on the right) careers, to MUCH more major like acting violently to those who disagree with their views (Proud Boys, Antifa).

Ole Sargon. I remember when Metokur made a fool of him.

True.

Same with Piers Morgan. Widely reviled but they because of his connections we get a barrage of articles trying to turn him into a national treasure.

When the media here is so bad they literally base a Bond villain off of them, you know we're fucked.

@nintendoboy16: lol The guy who got James Gunn in trouble did it to prove a point. He didn't really give a shit about James Gunn or his comments. Regardless the list of the careers the left has tried to ruin is about 10x longer. And the proud boys were attacked first. They formed after Antifa to combat them. Let me ask you this. How often does the right try to silence someone speaking at a college campus? Now how often does the left do it?

They killed Princess Diana, too, can't forget about that one.

@blackhairedhero: true

Cause he says a lot of stupid shit.

You mean 10x more right wingers have tried to ruin their own careers by saying stupid shit.

oof, he wore a "Kekistan" shirt in real life. Embarrassing.

I wonder if these hardcore right wingers know if they are using memes started from World of Warcraft.

@zaryia: No I mean triggered lefties who demand people lose their job because they got their feelings hurt. That's far more likely to happen with the left.

@zaryia: Right wingers are the only ones that can meme.

@mandzilla: george carlin made rape jokes

Indeed, metaphorically and literally chased her to the grave.

And then once she's dead, be the voice of solidarity. The Peoples Princess, make money off that corpse. It's not enough to kill her, gotta prostitute her soul as well.

Sargon of Applebee's

Not something to be proud of lmao. Basically like "who is the biggest clown".

But don't care either way, I was just laughing at how many of those far right idiots often use World Of Warcraft memes.

And now the far right shits on Dutchess Meghan due to her genetics (Half black).

@zaryia: Weren't you bragging about the success of leftwing comedy shows? Comedy is comedy. It"s just the right wing Gen X and millenials are much more funny and actually witty while the left just gets offended by everything.

Lmao what.

No. No. No. A corny meme stolen from WoW and twisted by some 14 year old who hates blacks is not on the level of an Emmy winning comedy show with real writers and budgets.

The left and center own comedy atm by all measures.

Yeah the thing about a joke is that it's, well...a joke. The other side of that is bullying and poor taste, which is more of what the right wing does.

How to spot the difference? When called on it, the people making the joke generally go "Yes, it was in poor taste, I apologize" because their intent was to amuse, to entertain. When called on it, the bully generally goes "I was just joking, jeez you people have no sense of humor". Notice a trend here? Genuine comedians and jokers show empathy and understanding, even when their humor was ill-timed or in poor taste; bullies tend to be sociopaths who thinking joking is an excuse to be a dick. The former, no matter how scandalous, use it as a tool to entertain; the latter use it as a weapon to diminish one's status.

You can't make a joke and then say that joking is your excuse. You either own up to the joke, or you're a piece of shit.

And you're god damn right the left and center own comedy; right-wing just come off as idiot assholes.

@mrbojangles25: yeah all the trevor noahs and john olivers are so funny, cus being super PC is hillarious. Especially when its comming from multimillion dollar corporations like NBC and ABC. Liberals arent funny, they are actually sell outs now, it used to be the evangilicals right wingers who were the prudes, I dont know why they switched but they did. Proabably because these corporations in cable news are overwhelmingly liberal with the exception of fox.

They dont play edgy shit on TV that leans right, it exists but its on the internet. Alot of this has to do with all the buzzwords and identity politics that have infected everything over the last 10 years where everyone acts so damn sensitive

Copy pasting outplayed jokes doesnt even pass as humor. Memes are the worst. Trevor Noah and John Oliver are funny. Memes are popular within echo chambers. But there is a reason they have by and large not really fallen into hte mainstream and people used to argue that memes died when they hit the mainstream. When they do reach the mainstream people only tend to laugh at them, not with them. Memers are a joke. They repeat a joke over and over and when people call them out for how unfunny they are they tend to respond with "We were just being ironic". Zero originality, Very little thought, and the jokes often lack any kind of punch line or build-up due to their nature. Just macros... extremely lazy, extremely pathetic.

Edgy humor has always been extremely popular. Look at the success of Simpsons and South park. The fact that they have are coming from multimillion dollar corporations has no impact on that. The source has no impact on the merits of their jokes.

Right Wingers are STILL the prudes, at least in the US. It isnt democrats trying to ban porn in the US.

Multi-million dollar companies generally have a lot more to lose as well, so they have ethics they need to subscribe to

*waits for laughs to stop*

Yeah I know, but think about it; what's to stop an individual millionaire or billionaire from financing a hate machine under the pretense of comedy? Not much; where do you think the Alex Jones of the world come from? You get these rich assholes who want to get richer they they set up their own fake businesses to peddle their shit. They don't care about viewership, they only care about getting their message out.

But a large company that depends on viewership? There's a lot to stop them from flying off the handle. They need to play by the rules, actually produce content that makes sense. I won't dispute that there's bias, but not to the degree of more privately-owned places.

@zaryia: Its a little more then one meme. The young left just isn't funny or witty. The right has come up with every worthwhile slogan and meme. I don't know what you will do when your God Colbert retires. Comedy from the young left is non existant.

Meanwhile in the real world.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2018/11/17/which-saturday-night-live-cast-delivers-the-best-ratings-in-44-seasons/amp/

Nobody is watching your Emmy nominated comedy. It's rewards by lefties for lefties.

@Maroxad: lol did you say Trevor Noah was funny? Lol really?

@mrbojangles25: The left says mean shit all the time it's just the right doesn't care because it's not witty or funny. Ohh look a white people are racist joke. Ohh look more white privilege jokes. It's basic comedy that could be written by a 12 year old.

I'm sorry but this like comparing Vine videos to Oscar Nominees.

You're embarrassing yourself.

@zaryia: No just stating facts. Those memes are watched by more people then your award winning comedy shows who nobody watches anymore.

It's ok though. Apparently they keep them on the air anyways.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thewrap.com/samantha-bee-sponsors-full-frontal-tv-ratings/amp/

And when you cant make your own jokes just steal them and then blame straight white men for why nobody wants to watch your shit.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/movieweb.com/amp/netflix-cancels-5-star-rating-system/

You're giving your opinion that you think Memes > Emmy Award winning Comedy Shows.

This like saying a Vine > Oscar Award winning Movie

It's stupid. One is a niche picture/video made by some kid in his basement another is watched by millions, with real script writers, and have high quality and budget.You guys settle with unfunny clickbait memes made by 14 year olds because your tv shows and movies all flop. And most right wing comedians.

‘Saturday Night Live’ Ratings Rise, Tie Season High With Host Adam Sandler

https://deadline.com/2019/05/saturday-night-live-ratings-host-adam-sandler-1202607558/

I can't believe we are comparing memes to quality TV lmao. Only the alt-right.

@zaryia: No it's a fact that the memes are watched by more people. What comedy is funny is an opinion.

Yes SNL had to bring back a comedian who was actually funny to offset the consistent record lows they received.

Again this doesn't bode well for leftwing millenials and comedy.

1. Can you post proof that more people watch right wing memes than the number of people watching center or left TV shows in total?

2. I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, all you have to do for a meme is click once or click a tweet. Not sit there for 30+ minutes.

3. We were talking quality, not viewers. A full production with script and director and Emmy awards > Some kid spamming WoW memes on every social media link. This is like saying a 4 second Vine > Oscar movies because more people saw it. It's a completely different playing field. The right fails at comedy.

It's easy to make a random gif people click on. It's not so easy to make a successful tv show or movie. The right isn't funny, hence their comedy shows flop miserably.

@zaryia: Pewdiepie gets higher ratings then any leftist comedy show. Hes so far ahead its not even fucking close. This goes back to my point. The funny millenials are all right wing. You say all the right wing comedy shows? Um theres barely been any. Tim Allen had one and it had the highest ratings in it's time slot and they still pulled it. Meanwhile Samantha Bee is tanking and yet she still has a show.

Pew has 94 million subscribers. Shit one man alone beats all the tonight host combined.?

Pewdie pie isn't a right wing comedian, nor is his "show" a comedy show. And you think he's funny? Yikes. He if tried to make it on tv he would last a day at most.

You can keep your basement youtubers, i'll take the Emmy productions with real script writers and what not.

@zaryia: Hes classified as alt right according to you lefties ....

And hes funnier then Trevor Noah for **** sakes. He probably wouldn't last a week on TV because they would pull him for being offensive. Doesn't change the fact he has more viewers then all your Emmy award winning programs combined!

As for pure comedy can lefties even do standup anymore? Most standup comedians are ashamed to call themselves leftist.

I'm not a lefty. And that's just idiots. His "show" isn't political or really comedy. It's mostly him playing video games and acting like a fool while he does.

Pewdiepie is not a right wing comedy show, lmao. Not even in the slightest imagination.

Most stand up comedians are center or left leaning. Not many overtly conservative ones. This has been true for decades.

Again I'll take an award winning high quality production with amazing writers....over guy in his mom's basement on youtube playing video games (not even political or comedy so why even compare?)

Right Wing comedy tv shows, comedians,and movies almost always flops. You guys should stick w/ "being good at memes" lmao. Yikes.

MDE was one of the best comedy shows on adult swim in years and had a huge following. But enough liberals complained about the jokes saying it was hate speech and got it pulled. South Park is one of the only exceptions left because it started in the 90's, before this progressive SJW culture took over cable TV. They are too huge to pull, people would be pissed, even matt and trey talk about how they fear being canceled ( #cancelsouthpark). and south park isnt even conservative, they shit on both sides, they are more libertarian than anything. funnier than trevor noah

South Park is basically center, which is what I said.

Center and left comedy shows and comedians thrive. Right leaning ones usually flop, and they are forced to "meme" (lowest of the low) or youtube (washed out hacks).

@zaryia: lol Wrong!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5557163/amp/South-Park-creators-reveal-REPUBLICANS.html