The Offence
The offence is created by section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986:
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he -
- (a) uses towards another person threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or
- (b) distributes or displays to another person any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,
with intent to cause that person to believe that immediate unlawful violence will be used against him or another by any person, or to provoke the immediate use of unlawful violence by that person or another, or whereby that person is likely to believe that such violence will be used or it is likely that such violence will be provoked.
(2) An offence under this section may be committed in a public or a private place, except that no offence is committed where the words or behaviour are used, or the writing, sign or other visible representation is distributed or displayed, by a person inside a dwelling and the other person is also inside that dwelling.
This offence replaces the offence under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1936.
Read more about this topic: Fear Or Provocation Of Violence
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“One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offence never contemplated by government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate, penalty?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Isabella. Yet show some pity.
Angelo. I show it most of all when I show justice;
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismissed offence would after gall.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)