This is highly irresponsible journalism, an uncritical profile that omits information about the true nature of its subjects character, politics and activities. https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1322702373790339074

Despite his choice of branding, Jeremy Davis’ twitter account @littleboats2020 (stolen valour, much?) seems to be about a lot more than just boat crossings.

One quickly finds a laundry list of far right talking points, with BLM being a particular target of his ire.

I’ll educated indeed.

The second man profiled is “Active-Patriot” (real name Alan Leggett) is described by @hopenothate as one of Tommy Robinson’s “most ardent supporters.” https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2020/08/24/far-right-seek-to-exploit-migrant-arrivals/

Most of his streams involve standing outside a harbour shouting “this is what they don’t want you to see” whenever a suitably brown person walks past and the cops don’t let him past the security gate.

But sometimes he engages in a little light trespass to mix things up.

Other streams involve him walking around near accommodation he believes to be housing “illegal immigrants” (actually legal asylum seekers) and harassing every non-white person who walks past and telling them to go home.

But his most frequent genre of content is tweet after tweet of news reports about unrelated crimes, all of whom happen to have a Black or Asian suspect or perpetrator.

You see “Active-Patriot” is deeply concerned about the “decline” of the “indigenous population” of Britain and thinks the Conservative Party won’t stop it because they’re pandering to BAME people.

This is perhaps unsurprising as he frequently describes the arrival of non-white people in Britain as both an “invasion” and as “replacement”, the latter being an allusion to the rebranded “white genocide” neo-Nazi conspiracy theory.

This is unlikely to be a coincidence as he retweets far-right groups like the Traditional Britain Group, whose conference has hosted the Alt Right’s Richard Spencer, the BNP’s Mark Collett, Generation Identity’s Martin Sellner and eugenicist crank Edward Dutton.

The final person profiled is “local father” Steve Laws.

For some reason @SueM1tchell felt his blue-collar background and the number of his children were more relevant to the story than the criminal charges he’s currently facing in relation to his “protests.”

These aren’t the kinds of charges one might face from legitimate protest – resisting arrest, etc. – instead he’s charged with stealing a boat.

He admits to taking the boat and that it didn’t belong to him, but is trying to claim legal salvage.

It’s unclear what happens during Laws’ migrant hunting trips in the channel, but if this footage that seems to show him interfering with the operations of an RNLI lifeboat is anything to go by then the safety and legality of his activities should be in doubt.

In addition to his migrant hunting activities, Laws is a spreader of Covid-19 conspiracy theories who thinks lockdown measures are part of a plot to bring in communism.

Steve Laws, like the other two, seems to think asylum seekers pose a terrorist threat. But he also tweets things like this.

I know who I suspect the bigger threat is.

Even a cursory glance through their Twitter feeds will demonstrate that @SueM1tchell’s profile gives a misleading impression of the character of these men and of their attitudes to race, Muslims and immigration in general.

Perhaps this is because all three respond with hostility to journalists who mention them in an even faintly critical tone. Even the Daily Mail’s coverage wasn’t sympathetic enough for them.

But they seem to have a friend at the BBC.

A common theme in the “activism” of all three is talking about asylum seekers as though they are criminals or “illegals”, an implication which carries through into the BBC article without @SueM1tchell feeling any need to correct this misinformation.

In addition to being a puff piece that these vigilante nutcases can find no fault with, @SueM1tchell’s article helps launder the far-right lie that asylum seekers are “illegal immigrants.”

It’s disgraceful.