An anti-LGBTQ group calling itself Men of Bridlington has taken credit for cutting down a pride flag that had been flying outside the small English town's police station. It is being investigated as a hate crime.

Bridlington Police Station was one of eight stations in and around the city of Hull to fly the rainbow flag as a sign of support for the community.

John Ball, a member of the Men of Bridlington, according to Hull Live, sent an email to media outlets, police officials, and local politicians explaining the action and threatening to do it again.

The email condemns the police for, as it states, showing "bias towards fringe groups in society."

"Homosexuality is abnormal, perverted, anti-social, unnatural, and dangerous," it reads.

It also calls same-sex relationships "destructive of normal families," and "not natural."

The message also made a point to note that the flag had not been stolen, simply cut down, "as we respect other people’s property and do not wish to be accused of theft." However, it goes on to threaten the removal of the pride flag altogether if it is put back up, and states "we will also take whatever other action we consider appropriate and proportionate."

"We are treating these malicious emails as a hate crime. Everyone has the right to be safe and secure and to live free from fear or harassment," said Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Peach. "Hate incidents or crimes are based on ignorance, prejudice, discrimination and hate and have no place in our society."

"I was disturbed at the content of the email received by my office over the weekend. I’m extremely disappointed that the morons who write such rubbish would actually do something like cut down a flag which represents peace, tolerance and solidarity between all communities," said Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner Keith Hunter in a statement, reports the Bridlington Free Press:

This is something I take seriously because in 2018 we still have people who are targeted purely because of who they are, and Pride is about saying that simply isn’t acceptable, yet we get people who hold these views which are on the extreme of reality and they take it out on others... People who hold such hateful views as expressed in this email are on the extremes of society and they should be confronted and told this is unacceptable. Some people will come back and talk about freedom of speech so let me be clear on one thing, freedom of speech does not mean freedom to hate.