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

Crap, we have laws like that?

[Olix]

Eeerk, I didn't realise we had laws like that in the UK... I need to step up my "move to sweden" plan.

Re:Crap, we have laws like that?

[Das Modell]

Eeerk, I didn't realise we had laws like that in the UK... I need to step up my "move to sweden" plan.

You know what the funny thing is? All those Muslims who were inciting terror, violence and treason in the streets didn't get any prison sentences. They were standing in a public place in plain sight, saying things like "behead those who insult Islam" and "Europe is the cancer Islam is the answer." The guy in TFA was posting anonymous comments on the Internet. This is an obvious instance of "reverse" apartheid where Muslims have more rights than everyone else. It's a growing trend in many countries.

As for Sweden, the government actually shut down a site that published the Mohammed cartoons. They're as totalitarian as everyone else, and their society is on the brink of self-destruction. I suggest picking a different country to move to.

Re:Crap, we have laws like that?

[Instine]

Yes - I agree it must be even handed. Seeing banners stating the pope must be killed, etc.. isn't making me feel comfortable, and I'm not catholic (or religious). But what you don't see in the same tabloids that you saw that in, is that many of these people ARE on charges, and ending up in the dock, or being watched by various agenceis. So its actually more even handed than the papers would have you believe.

Bad Summary

[Inverted Intellect]

Bad submitter, bad!

TFA doesn't say anything about what crime in particular he was jailed for, and his sentence may have been partly or completely due to his having 33 images of child pornography on his computer.

TFA is also very lacking in details, and doesn't say anything about the reason for the search warrant, and the aforementioned lack of explanation for his sentence.

it's there too

[Anonymous Coward]

It's available in Sweden too, labeled "racial hatred incitement" ("hets mot folkgrupp")...

Re:Potty mouth vs. murder

[edxwelch]

The guy sent an appology because he didn't want to be charged, not because he was sorry.
Maybe if you read about the murder of this guy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/mersey side/4730559.stm) you can imagine what the family had to go through.

Re:Doing Time For Words

[kirun]

There was a bit of noise made when the law was changed recently, as previously only racial groups were protected from hate speech, and this was extended to religious groups. The law was basically the government trying to salvage some Muslim votes after the Iraq war, rather than addressing an urgent issue - since we have in the UK a credible third party (the Liberal Democrats), a small swing of votes away from Labour to the Lib Dems as a protest vote can hand the seat away to the Conservatives - this happened at least in the Shipley constituency at the last election - the Tories took the seat from Labour even though the Conservative share of the vote was down.

Back to the main point, the protest was quite high-profile, with several comedians claiming that it could stop them satirising religion (no more Monty Python and The Holy Grail, etc.). As it has happenes, religion is still (currently) satirised and criticised, despite the occasional violent protest.

incitement to violence

[rs232]

While such comments are totally unacceptable, the establishment does seem to be very selective in who they punish. For instance why are the people who made these statments not being locked up. Does political correctness only apply to white anglo-saxon protestants.

"I believe the whole of Britain has become Dar ul-Harb (land of war)," the Syria-born Mohammed said. Therefore, "the kafir (non-believer) has no sanctity for their own life or property," - Omar Bakri Mohammed

was Re:Crap, we have laws like that?

Re:Trolls

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

The story to read is this one.

Re:Lock up racist government terrorists first

[Scrameustache]

Would reading Huckleberry Finn also be a crime in Britain since it contains the N word and an aborted lynching scene?

Reading a book with the word "nigger" in it (oh GROW UP already, it's just a damn word), is nowhere, not anywhere, not even close to being near what that jerk did. That jerk went on a board set up in support of a guy that was murdered and he claimed it was great, and the the victims' family ought to be murdered too.

I'm pretty sure the point of the aborted lynching scene is NOT that all niggers must burn, and that you wouldn't make anyone genuinly feel threatened for their safety by reading your book.