I cant believe that someone has been sent to jail for 12 weeks simply because they posted a joke, a very very sick and badly timed joke but to jail someone for that IMHO is extremely draconian and frankly I find it very shameful.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...?newsfeed=true
Wait, so when some teenage girls dialed 999 after having a brick thrown at them in a kebab place I happened to find myself in, the police couldn't send any resources. Of course no prosecutions happened despite the damage to the shop as the owner and I ended up chasing them away (I did however get free kebabs for the next few months!).
They have time to deal with harmless sad types?
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
My dad had someone threatening him on his doorstep, he is 72 and the other person was in his late 30's. The police refused to send anyone and when he complained they coerced him into dropping the complaint. Police are pandering to public opinion.
12 weeks... it's nothing. 3 months.
he might learn some compassion in those 12 weeks.. IF he serves them all.. which he might not.
Mean time.. April's mum can cry herself to sleep wondering not only where her little angel might have been hurt, or worse, howe she died..... but also how anyone could ever joke about it.
Focus on the people... and the common good.
Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
Police don't sentence people. They just arrest and provide evidence.
It's not about the time you serve its about the effect its going to have on the rest of his life... and people do have the right to free speech even if it is badly timed and sick..
This.
More often than not i re-post Sickipedia jokes on Facebook - my life should be royally screwed up because of different tastes, or perhaps more to the point, because a parent let her 5 year-old out alone at half-seven?
What about Mock the Week et al on tele? Frankie Boyle is basically Sickipedia on the waves - the tax payer even funds that - yet nothing?
What happened to Freedom of Speech, eh?
Kalniel: "Nice review Tarinder - would it be possible to get a picture of the case when the components are installed (with the side off obviously)?"
CAT-THE-FIFTH: "The Antec 300 is a case which has an understated and clean appearance which many people like. Not everyone is into e-peen looking computers which look like a cross between the imagination of a hyperactive 10 year old and a Frog."
TKPeters: "Off to AVForum better Deal - £20+Vat for Free Shipping @ Scan"
for all intents it seems to be the same card minus some gays name on it and a shielded cover ? with OEM added to it - GoNz0.
Not totally free, you don't. Not in the UK, not even in the US (where constitutional protection is very strong), not in any country on earth. There are ALWAYS limits. Defamation laws are a limit on free speech. Some terrorism laws are a limit on free speech. You can't shout "fire, fire" in a crowded theatre and expect to escape prosecution from any injury or death that results unless there was a fire. You could end up wife a "life" sentence, never mind a few weeks, for that grossly irresponsible bit of free speech. So free speech is restricted there, by law, too.
And there are limits on being grossly offensive. As this sad little jerk found out.
Besides, some limits are a good thing, and exist in human nature without even needing the law. I can think of quite a few things that, if you exercised your right to free speech to say them in some pubs I could mention, would get you dragged outside and given a blooming good hiding for your "free" speech.
None of this should be taken as me endorsing the penalty this moron was given. It does seem extreme to me, too. But then, I wasn't in the court, didn't hear all the evidence and don't have full facts to go by.
It is also perhaps somewhat contradictory that so much that is grossly offensive goes unpunished, and other things don't.
All I'm saying is that the notion of free speech, without limits, is utterly illusory. The law constrains it, and rightly or otherwise, this was the law limiting the right to be grossly offensive. Speech is free up to a point, and only up to a point. Beyond that, it's a meaningless slogan.
Oh, and anyone that thinks laws on free speech here in the UK are draconian ought to to try criticising the regime in any one of a large number of authoritarian regimes. Some of what I've said before, publicly and even on these forums, about politicians and government policy would have earned me a lengthy trip to the Gulag in many of those regimes.
Which is the real sticking issue, for me.
It's not as if he text the girl's mother the joke.
Kalniel: "Nice review Tarinder - would it be possible to get a picture of the case when the components are installed (with the side off obviously)?"
CAT-THE-FIFTH: "The Antec 300 is a case which has an understated and clean appearance which many people like. Not everyone is into e-peen looking computers which look like a cross between the imagination of a hyperactive 10 year old and a Frog."
TKPeters: "Off to AVForum better Deal - £20+Vat for Free Shipping @ Scan"
for all intents it seems to be the same card minus some gays name on it and a shielded cover ? with OEM added to it - GoNz0.
One of the cases this article mentions is the unfortunate fellow who posted to facebook that 'All soldiers should die'.
Well that's not very nice. But should it be criminal?
Everyone looks to the very clear protection of the right to free speech within the US constitution. The problem is that constitution is open to interpretation by a Court, who have made some significant errors.
But surely in this case, the right to criticise government and soldiers fighting an unjust and corrupt war should be protected?
Not in the US. A 1919 Supreme court ruled that a man who did nothing but speak out against the WWI draft could be convicted of espionage. I mention it because it was from this ruling that the quote about shouting fire in a crowded theatre comes. Rather less black and white, when you think about it.
Youre right saracen you cant go around inciting racial hatred etc.. and it even says that you cannot abuse the freedom to speech and if you do you shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as defined by the law.
My understanding is that he posted it onto his status update and he didn't send it to the family etc...
Sorry, but no, that wasn't the source. The source of the point I made was a case in the Queen's Bench Division in 1881. R v Martin, to be specific. It's a UK case, not a US one. And the shoutee was convicted under s.20 of the Offences Against the Person Act .... and lost the appeal, too. It's a classic law book case.
You should update wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoutin...rowded_theater
In very poor taste, but should be not criminal as far as I'm concerned. Agreeing with the guardian ewww...
Seriously though, personal offence is and will always utterly subjective, thus has no place in any objective legal system, there isn't room in our prison system to incarcerate all the people who 'grossly offend' me, even at just 3 months each. To contrast with another recent example, mocking 2 slightly older girls whose job it was to protect little girls like April, getting lured into a trap and murdered in cold blood was not a criminal offence. http://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/new...joke-1-4959458 Surely he should get 24 weeks? Mocking two dead people is twice as bad, no? The whole thing is ridiculous, unenforceable and ultimately a waste of our already limited judicial resources. I hope this judge never sees a Frankie Boyle/Chubby Brown DVD or the police and courts will be tied up for years. I'm not some numpty who believes speech should be absolutely free, there should be law's against abuse, harassment and alike, but when it comes to dead little girls I'd rather our judicial system focused on the little girl not what every ignorant scrote on the internet has to say about her.
Slightly tangentially, but speaking of police have a read of this and some of his other posts to find out exactly why your 999 calls aren't getting answered; http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com...five-big-lies/ You'll have to excuse his slight angst over his pension, but according to a couple of cops I know he's spot on.
I disagree on this point, the best time for a very very sick joke is as soon as possible.
Vodka
Terbinator (11-10-2012)
As in he published it publicly on the internet most likely (due to lack of privacy settings). There's a difference between having a private joke between friends in the pub and posting something publicly. People unfortunately don't realise when they update their status or 'tweet' about something this is the same as buying a billboard in central London, having the quote in bit writing next to their name and mug-shot.
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