Man get 4 months in prison for a wearing a t-shirt the state enforcers didnt like

[BrilloPad]

If things carry on at this rate sasguru will soon be stopped from calling us cretins.

Surely we should support his right to be predictable and boring.

[DodgyAgent]

There should be no line. Freedom of speech. He wasnt inciting anyone to do anything like Babar, or even causing a security problem like your example of being on a plane. He wore a t-shirt that some might find distasteful, though others may agree with it.

What you might not know about this chap and it takes a bit of digging around, is that Barry's teenage son died while in police custody 3 years ago. I suspect the police in charge of the lad were not to blame, just like the one who killed Ian Tomlinson who got away with it.

You see, when you stop people being able to speak up you lose your freedom. You are free unless you say something we dont agree with. Is that freedom?

for a whining git you make a very good point. Not only that but you have avoided using cliches and instead applied logic and evidence.

Beginners luck?

[Robinho]

Where's the line to be drawn do you think, eUK? Jokes about murdered police officers? Jokes about abducted children? Or perhaps we should just let people say whatever they want?

Yes.

[Old Hack]

Where's the line to be drawn do you think, eUK? Jokes about murdered police officers? Jokes about abducted children? Or perhaps we should just let people say whatever they want? When the genocide took place in Rwanda back in 1994, that started with hate messages being broadcast over public radio stations, and ended up inciting genocide. Shouting "bomb!" on a plane at 30,000ft is probably out too. So, perhaps context and intent need to be considered as well as the right to free speech? With rights come responsibilities and all that.

I don't think the UK's perfect by a long, long way. And you only need to look at cases like Babar Ahmad's being held without trial for eight years before finally being extradited to the US to answer charges about a website written here, but hosted in the US to question some of the decisions made by the UK's Courts in relation to free speech on UK soil. But when it comes to some muppet wandering around with a T-shirt containing a slogan revelling in the deaths of two young police officers only hours after their murder in the city in which they were killed, I doubt many right-thinking people would have a problem with the Courts responding to that kind of antisocial behaviour that is likely to incite public disorder with a custodial sentence.

Yet Muslims can stroll the streets of London with T-Shirts degenerating Soldiers and their families witout fear of prosecution?

Babar Ahmad may have sat in his cosy office writing his billious hate filled bollocks, but the site he posted it on, was hosted in the States. He must have fair sharted when he realised that rendered him liable to a spell of pokey state side.

I have seen far worse T-Shirts. Freedom of Speech means, the right to say what you like, when you like to. If that means mocking the deaths of Police Officers, then, whether you agree with it or not, it's what comes with the territory; it's what allows people to preach their hatred on marches, it allows the BNP to sprout their bollocks all over the place, but it also allows people to question other things, for example, the student fees, without fear of proesecution.

Thin edge of the wedge for me

[d000hg]

There should be no line. Freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech is stupid.

[escapeUK]

Thin edge of the wedge for me

Very well put. But I think we are beyond the wedge now and have been for some time.

I remember a lady who had strong antiwar convictions, she was arrested under a new law (by Labour) which banned unauthorised protest within half a mile of Westminster.

Do you know what she did? She read out the names of the 97 dead British soldiers who died in Iraq. This was in 2005.

So just to be clear, if you want to protest against the government around Westminster you have to get the governments permission.

[NotAllThere]

We're not quite at Iranian or North Korean levels of enforcement.

This isn't about a hate speech (though motivated by hate, I can't really see the police as a vulnerable minority), so in my view "the line" hasn't been crossed. Having said that, I've no sympathy for him at all and certainly won't lose any sleep over the "injustice" of his sentence.

[BlasterBates]

Actually it was "outraged" members of the public who called the police, so since this is an offence the police had an obligation to arrest him. It was the judge that decided to give him an extra 4 months.

His T-shirt did say "kill a cop 4 fun" , so it was a little more than poking a bit of fun.

I don't think you'd find that this would have been acceptable 20 years ago, or 30 years ago.

[doodab]

Actually it was "outraged" members of the public who called the police, so since this is an offence the police had an obligation to arrest him. It was the judge that decided to give him an extra 4 months.

His T-shirt did say "kill a cop 4 fun" , so it was a little more than poking a bit of fun.

I don't think you'd find that this would have been acceptable 20 years ago, or 30 years ago.

He got off lightly. Back in the 80s he'd have been beaten tulipless first.

[escapeUK]

Actually it was "outraged" members of the public who called the police, so since this is an offence the police had an obligation to arrest him.

Are you saying that outraging a member of the public is an offence that someone should be arrested for?