Three Years in Prison for Posting Hatespeak

Vainglorious Coward writes "In the UK, a man has been sentenced to three years in prison for posting inflammatory messages to a website. Pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred on a site dedicated to the memory of a murdered black teenager, the 30-year old accused stated that he was not racist, and had intended to stir up an argument on the website, but did not believe in what he had written. The defending lawyer described her client as 'isolated and living in a fantasy world, spending hours on his computer in his room where his persona could be as he made it, good or bad.'"

Comments

Exactly

[SuperKendall]

Getting arrested in front of your son will not have "lasting repercussions"? I guess we have different definitions there.

I guess we do because being put in jail only overnight is not that big a deal. If you think a child is that fragile of mind, I guess you don't have kids. Also I'm pretty sure they guy brought his kid along as a "shield" thinking it would make him less likely to be arrested, which is really pretty despicable even if very minor child exploitation.

And the point here is thus: I have the right to walk up as close as the Secret Service will allow anyone to Cheney (or Bush, or Rumsfeld, or any of 'em) and tell them I think they suck in any number of ways.

Sure you do. And then overzelous police have a right to haul you off (public nuisance laws if nothing else), then you have a right to a trial by jury. Seems great so far.

Basically this guy is just blowing the incident all out of proportion because a police guy went overboard. The officer arresting should be reprimanded. But suing over it? Bad taste.