New video shows FIVE police officers told busker to 'stop singing gospel songs'

New video shows FIVE police officers told busker to 'stop singing gospel songs'

WATCH NOW: Jacob Rees Mogg speaks with gospel singer Harmonie London

GB News
Holly Bishop

By Holly Bishop


Published: 01/02/2024

- 15:05

Harmonie London, a Christian busker, was told to stop performing by a number of officers

New footage has revealed that five police officers told the gospel busker to stop singing to passers-by on Oxford Street.

Harmonie London was told off by volunteer officer Maya Hadzhipetkova for performing Christian songs on a public street, in an incident that went viral earlier this week.


Hadzhipetkova told the singer that she could not “sing outside of church grounds”, before sticking her tongue out at her.

London, who has almost 300,000 Instagram followers, told GB News that the experience was “quite humiliating”.

She said that she was not busking, but was sharing the gospel, something that is “completely within [her] human rights”.

The Metropolitan Police has since apologised for “causing offence” to London, clarifying that the breach was due to unlicensed busking rather than the content of the songs she was singing.

However, now, new footage has emerged, which shows that five other constables were present during the incident.

In the clip, an officer is approached by London’s videographer, who scolds him for sounding “very silly”, to which he responds: “Hello YouTube, I’m apparently sounding very silly.”

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Police officer/Harmonie London/Maya Hadzhipetkova

Harmonie London was spoken to by five officers, new footage has revealed

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The videographer then tells the officer: “I would prefer you use our taxpayer’s money to catch murderers, rapists, paedophiles but you’re here after a busker which is really a council problem, not yours.

“All these officers are here wasting taxpayers' money. This is an embarrassment for you and a waste of police time. And I don’t think all police officers here are happy with this.”

The unnamed officer then replied: “I am not after anyone, she’s leaving, I am happy with that. If you were to walk away and stop engaging me in conversation I would walk away too. You asked me to speak with you.”

The new footage comes days after Hadzhipetkova told London off for singing gospel songs in the street. London shared the clip online, titling it: “Unpaid volunteer officer doesn’t like gospel songs”.

In the caption, she wrote: “Special constables are volunteer police officers who invest their free time to make a real difference to our city. You will get a tremendous amount of pride from giving back to the community.”

Maya Hadzhipetkov on London's Instagram pageHarmonie London shared the footage of the encounter on her Instagram accountInstagram

There are no laws against singing on pavements.

Speaking to Jacob Rees Mogg on GB News on Tuesday, Harmonie London said she felt that the special constable “targeted” her and threatened to seize her possessions.

It was quite humiliating, I never expected to be treated like that, especially as she said I'm not allowed to sing church songs outside of church. It was just quite shocking,” she said.

“I wasn't busking. I was sharing the gospel so when she came up to me and said ‘you're busking, you're not allowed to, I was actually sharing the gospel, which is completely within my human rights.

“She literally just came over and said, ‘You need to stop. I'm going to seize your equipment’ and she was very angry.

“I just felt a bit targeted just because she went out of her way, and I wasn't doing anything wrong.”

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