Man Arrested For Photo of Burning Poppy On Facebook

Barence writes "A British man has been arrested for posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook. The poppy is a symbol of remembrance for those who died in war, and the arrest was made on Remembrance Sunday. 'A man from Aylesham has tonight been arrested on suspicion of malicious telecommunications,' Kent police said in a statement after the arrest. 'This follows a posting on a social network site of a burning poppy. He is currently in police custody awaiting interview.' The arrest has been criticized by legal experts. 'What was the point of winning either World War if, in 2012, someone can be casually arrested by @Kent_police for burning a poppy?' tweeted David Allen Green, who helped clear the British man who was prosecuted for a joke tweet threatening to blow up an airport."

Comments

He also used some words...

[slim]

As well as the picture, he published the words "How about that you squadey cunts". (A squaddie being British slang for a low-ranking soldier). This at a time when emotions are heightened with the Remembrance Day.

The Criminal Justice Act says:

(1) A person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress, he— (a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or (b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting, thereby causing that or another person harassment, alarm or distress.

So that's the legal justification for arresting him.

I think it's an unjust law -- I believe in free speech -- but it's the police's job to uphold the law as it's written, not how it *should* be written.

Freedom of speech in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

Most UK subjects do not realize that we don't actually have it. Speech is not protected in the UK and that won't get fixed until the people in the UK realize that, because of the cultural cross-contamination from the US most UK subjects think we have the same protected speech as you fellows across the pond.

Re:What's a poppy?

[Chrisq]

Why is there no mention for those of us not in the UK what the symbolism of the poppy is. Is it like burning a flag? And why has nobody made the joke "Looks like the inmates are running the Aylesham"? Come on, it's easy.

The poppy is the symbol of remembrance of soldiers who have died in war. Burning the poppy is probably equivalent of the Westboro baptists "Thank God for dead soldiers" posters in terms of disrespect, upset to service family members, etc. In my view not nice but should not be criminalised

Re:better yet

[cusco]

Molotov. The Molotov Cocktail was invented and named in Finland when the USSR invaded that country. Without any antitank weapons the Fins quickly learned how to take out a Soviet tank with gasoline bombs. Finland up to that point had been neutral, but seeing how Germany had dealt with other nominally neutral countries in the past they decided that they needed to secure that strategically important flank. Molotov apparently tried his best to get Finland to ally with them but eventually the Kremlin got tired of waiting and invaded. He got the blame, as he was still assuring the Fins that the USSR would never invade them while tanks were rolling across the border. Very likely if the Kremlin had waited a few weeks the Germans would have done the same thing and Finland would have been on their side. The Finnish people put up an incredible resistance to the 800 pound gorilla before bowing to the inevitable.