Viral video shows police arresting London street preacher for ‘breaching the peace’: ‘Don’t take my Bible away!’

Police in London arrested a black street preacher as he spread the Gospel outside Southgate Station. Video of the incident has since gone viral.

At the time of this writing, the original Twitter video has been viewed more than 1.8 million times.

What are the details?

The incident took place Sunday after police approached the man, who had a Bible clutched in his hands, and berated him for "disturbing people's days."

When the man refused to stop preaching, police arrested him. The preacher's name remains unknown at this time.

As two officers approach the man, one of them asked, "What are you doing here?" The man responded that he's simply preaching.

"You're preaching," the officer repeated. "I'm going to require you to go away."

The preacher, looking surprised, responded, "You can never!"

"OK," the officer replied, "then I will arrest you for breach of peace, plain and simple."

The preacher balked and insisted that he isn't disturbing anyone with his preaching.

"You're posing problems," the officer insisted. "You're disturbing people's days, and you're breaching their peace. If you won't go away voluntarily, we will have to arrest you."

The preacher refused to leave and said that he's just doing his job.

"I need to tell [people] the truth," he fired back.

"Jesus is the only way, the truth and the life, and nobody—" he added, but the officer interrupted him.

"I appreciate that," the officer offered, "but nobody wants to listen to that. They want you to go away."

The officer made good on his threat and cuffed the man, and the second officer snatched the Bible from the his hands.

"Don't take my Bible away!" the preacher begged.

The officer responded by telling the man that he "should have thought about that before being racist."

What 'racist' comments?

Judging by the video's contents, it is unclear what "racist" statements the man made.

Faithwire reached out to London's Metropolitan Police for comment on the video.

A department spokesperson said despite the officer's remark accusing the man of being "racist," no racist language had been used by the preacher.

"[N]o language of this nature was used in the presence of officers," the spokesperson revealed. "The initial report suggested some Islamophobic language had been used. However nobody has made a formal allegation to this effect and no language of this nature was used in the presence of officers."