The Met Police have issued an apology to a Christian singer in the UK, who was ordered to stop “singing church songs outside of church grounds.”
Harmonie London, who boasts close to 300,000 followers on Instagram, was confronted by a special constable – a volunteer Met police officer – while she was performing on London’s Oxford Street last Sunday.
The singer and songwriter, 20, regularly performs on one of London’s busiest shopping streets, where people regularly join in with the musician. She often shares clips of the performances to her 325,000 YouTube subscribers:
However, she was stopped on Sunday by the officer, who told her: “No miss, you’re not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds, by the way.”
“Religion [is something] you’re allowed to do anywhere,” the young performer and evangelist told the officer.
“Unless you’re being authorised by the church to do this kind of song,” the female officer added.
A video of the incident has since gained huge traction and commentary on social media, and captures the gospel singer explaining to the officer that Article 9 of the Human Rights Act protects the right to hold religious beliefs.
After quoting Article 9, the volunteer officer, visibly agitated, sticks her tongue out at the young woman before walking away.
The officer’s behaviour was described as “disgusting,” “appalling” and “unprofessional” by droves of Instagram users — with many saying the officer should be reported.
“Keep doing what you’re doing and keep singing with your beautiful voice,” was one among dozens of encouraging comments.
The officer, Maya Hadzhipetkova, has also faced accusations of breaching the musician’s human right to freedom of expression and religion after footage showed she threatened to take away her instruments following London’s performance of Amazing Grace.
The Met police have admitted the officer was in the wrong, writing in a statement:
“The officer was mistaken in saying church songs cannot be sung outside of church grounds.
“We’re sorry for the offence caused and will take the learning forward.”
However, they insisted that the dispute was over unlicensed busking, rather than the type of music being performed.
Harmonie has insisted that none of the businesses in the area have asked her to move on, saying “there was no complaint” – while insisting her aim is to bring the gospel to the streets.
“I had my human right to sing the gospel, it’s not the same as busking,” she told Mail Online.
The Met added: “We’re reviewing body worn video of this interaction – it’s more than 40 minutes long. At the heart of this is a specific by-law related to busking. The officer knows she could have handled this differently and is speaking to her manager.”
Former Conservative Minister Ann Widdecombe is among those who have called for the officer to be struck off from the voluntary force immediately, adding: “She really has got the law completely wrong. And she was obviously enjoying herself rather too much trying to boss this woman around.
“And there really is no basis for saying that you can’t sing [Chrisitan songs]. I could walk down the street singing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ and I would be committing no offence at all.”
Harmonie, meanwhile, has vowed “I’ll continue to do what I do” – telling the Mail Online that she felt “humiliated,” “sad” and “bullied” by the altercation.
The central London street singer claimed that the same officer, before the video was filmed had “approached me before, harassing me, and I explained to her that it’s freedom of religion, article nine – I had my human right to sing the gospel, it’s not the same as busking.”
“I don’t approach people. I don’t force people to listen. I sing and they can choose to listen – and if they don’t, they can choose to move on. A big crowd formed, they were literally begging the police to leave me alone.
“I’m actually sharing the gospel. She went off but she was very argumentative. She came back, she literally marched up to me, stood in front of me and said stop your music now. She literally laughed at my human rights,” the singer told the newspaper.
She said at the time, she gave the officers documents she had printed from the Christian Concern website which explained her legal rights to perform, but the police “didn’t care” according to the musician.
“She wasn’t interested. She acknowledged, she knew, and another officer acknowledged that you do have freedom of religion and to express yourself.”
“i packed my stuff. I didn’t want to argue with them. They weren’t interested in anything I had to say. When I mentioned the human rights, that’s when she stuck her tongue out,” she explained.
“She acknowledged it, but to them it doesn’t matter. It was a very controlling environment. Another officer was making jokes saying ‘I’ll go and do some crime then, catch some criminals’ – trying to make a joke of it,” she said, regarding another interaction with a police officer which she posted to her social media.
“’I just felt very upset by the situation. It was quite humiliating. I felt downcast and sad. Even when I packed up she stood there saying ‘are you going’?” she said.
“She didn’t even want me to stand on the pavement. She was bullying me. She was kind of laughing, kind of like ‘Hey, I’m in this powerful position’. It was very intimidating.
“I’m 20, I’m a quiet person. Although I sing I don’t really like attention and that’s not the sort of attention I seek. I felt very humiliated and small. I felt like my human rights didn’t matter, especially when she was saying that ‘you can’t sing church music’”.
The singer has since returned to Oxford Street, where she has received support from the public, with people even kneeling on the pavement to worship while she sings.
“To be honest, I sing the gospel to glorify God. I’m just literally following the Bible, sharing the Good News. It’s just an opportunity to witness to non-believers as well,” she told the Mail.
Harmonie added: “At the end of the day I’m not there to upset people and cause a nuisance. I generally go there for 30, 40 minutes, sing gospel music, which is my choice of music.”
She said she wants her music to bring “love and peace” to passers by, adding that she did not want to call for any specific action against the police officer.
“People really enjoy it. I’m not there to cause offence or upset to the public. It’s just to bring love and peace to the public. I get hundreds of messages, people saying I prefer this to church, I went to church because of this. People are writing lots of things.”
“I will continue to do what I do,” she said.