These stories always have another angle. It wasn't simply that he supposedly dropped an apple. When approached by an officer he was rude and refused to comply with the questions the officer had. The other thing in the story was that he had a heart condition and went into a store to get medicine for his disabled wife. I honestly don't see the relevance of the wife's disability nor the man's heart condition, other than to create some kind of sympathy for the man.

...I agree. Unless he was trying to plant an apple tree with it, it's litter. Organic litter, but still litter.

Indeed, the article is very disingenuous, in trying to create an air of "political correctness gone mad" they misrepresent that Keith Hirst was arrested not for dropping an apple core but for failing to give his name and address to a police officer when challenged.