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(Not satire – it’s the law!)
As I’ve said before, words are important. Really important. But is it only me that thinks we shouldn’t go to jail for them?
When I was a nipper, many years ago, I visited London with my dad and my brother and he took us to Speaker’s Corner.
“Britain’s one of the only countries in the world you can stand up and say what you like without fear of breaking the law,” he told us.
Well, OK, he may not have been entirely right about that but you get my point.
As most people have heard, last month, a man called Barry Thew was jailed for a total of eight months for wearing a home-made T-shirt containing an offensive anti-police sentiment in the immediate aftermath of the tragic deaths of PCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes.
He was found guilty of “displaying writing or other visible representation with intention of causing harassment, alarm or distress”. For this particular crime, he was given 4 months in prison (he received the other 4 months for another matter).
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not supporting this man or his sentiments. But I am supporting his right to express them – so long as he is expressing them in words, not actions.
I just can’t accept that people are going to prison for their use of words – however offensive they might be.
In Barry Thew’s case, it’s even more problematic because he actually made and was wearing the T shirt before the terrible and tragic deaths of the two brave police women – so his sentiments in fact had nothing to do with them at all.
In fact, his son died 3 years ago while in police custody and – rightly or wrongly – he blames the police for his son’s death. That’s why he was wearing the T shirt.
There is a real problem with sending people to prison for expressing offensive sentiments before the event that causes them to be offensive has happened.
For example, if someone can go to prison for saying this:
Does that mean if I say this ……
Kill a blogger 4 fun! One less blogger. Perfect Justice.
…… and at some time in the future a blogger tragically dies, I too am liable to go to prison?
I think as UK law presently stands, the answer must – bizarrely – be yes.
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Tell me I’m wrong and insult me as much as you like, but please – respectful comments only about the murdered police officers. Thanks.
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Related articles by Tom Pride on this subject:
One little word so powerful it lost the Tories the last election (and probably the next)
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Fewer Affordable Homes is More Affordable Homes.
Church of England accused of homophonaphobia
Police question disability activist about ‘criminal’ posts on Facebook – UPDATE
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Tripling Fees Makes Them More Affordable. Destroying the NHS Will Save It.
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Yes I totally agree Freedom of expression is a basic right in a free Society, The guy who wore that t shirt was a total prat and I deplore what he wrote on his t shirt. but he has the right to express his opinions. Once you start denying the right to freedom of expression you are on a slippery slope to a repressive and totalitarian state
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I have every respect for the majority of the police force in this country, and found them to be very much on the side of freedom and liberty to express opinions, particularly when policing the anti-austerity march in London on the 20th of October. My ‘Proud to be a Pleb’ banner raised a smile and the occasional thumbs-up from the constabulary as we passed them on the march.
However, I feel no compulsion to stop saying exactly what I think to be true of the high echelons of CaMoron’s government including the Lord High Filth himself. I chose to insult them, nay, say pretty horrendous things about them because I feel empowered to do so, as it genuinely reflects what I think. I have never been moved to do this to any politician before, or indeed to anybody else whosoever. But I am reaching the limit of my ability to trust this loathsome government, who do not display any interest in governing for the common good of the majority. Quite the contrary; they openly defend the ‘rights’ of the top 1% at the expense of the 99% below. I will do everything in my power to stop these bully-boy fascists (I use the term with good reason) gaining any more power and any more time in office.
I have a particular loathing for the one called Duncan Smith, who I genuinely believe is suffering from a strange psychosis that makes him enjoy hating people in a lesser position than himself. The people have done nothing to deserve this sub-human streak of filth in a position of power, and I genuinely believe he ought to be tried for crimes against society, and if found guilty, and put to death.
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Thanks…this question has bothered me a lot
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Reblogged this on adeybob's Blog and commented:
A plague of a question.
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Here in the Netherlands we all have the right to free speech, unless the speech suggests spreading hatred.
I’m not impressed by the T-Shirt. If the guy would be promoting killing cops on the internet and yelling it off the rooftops convincing people to follow him and shoot cops at sight. I’d say: Yes, arrest him. But for a t-shirt? Please. That’s ridiculous.
And no, you shouldn’t go to prison for the sentence you just typed there. There’s plenty of other stuff on this blog that the cops might come and get your for one day 😛
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Big hammer, to crack a nut I say?
A person who, in my mind, is probably pretty damn sore and up-set at losing a loved one in “Police custody?”
To then go to jail, is going to sting!
Policing is a tough job, that’s the reality.
I’m sure, dying in custody is tough for families left behind in just the same way as it destroys lives for dead police officers.
Free speech, but only for those who speak from the “script” eh?
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I agree. We should be able & display whatever we like without fear of prosecution. The boundaries should fall short of threatening serious harm or death. In other words calling lawyers sharks or police officers pigs should be well within the law however, threatening to bomb, kill or inflict serious injury shouldn’t be allowed. Some of what Abu Hamza propagated should have been punishable. Similarly banners expressing a death wish to a specific group of people such as gays, Christians, Jews etc. should be banned.
Ultimately we can’t trust the enforcers of legislation to exercise it in accordance with the spirit of the law but rather the letter which often results in the smaller fish filling the net as the big ones swim.
The flip side is of course, are we really suffering from a legislative hangover with the legislative printing press second only to the Bank of England’s printers?
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At risk of causing offence by the action I wouldn’t have arrested him over his right to ‘freedom of speech’ on his toss-brained idea of a moronic tee-shirt slogan.
Oh no, I’d have done him for being in possession of a deliberately offensive face with the purpose of causing night terrors to minors and those of a nervous disposition. And jailed the maggot-minded low-life for that instead.
(Besides which, surely this is a case of incitement to violence anyway? I think so)
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I think someone should get a criminal rord for encouraging people to kill police officers, yes. Please remember police officers are people too, with families. Bloggers don’t go to work every day confronting threat, risk and harm. It should be in the hands of the magistrates what the most appropriate sentence is.
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Fine line. Yes, free speech. But finding the death of anyone to be funny isn’t just bad taste.
Jail for bad taste? No, I don’t think so.
But we do jail people for inciting racial hatred, don’t we? I think that’s quite right too.
Incitement to hatred of police? Is that really any different from racial incitement? Kill them just because of who they are? Isn’t that wrong too?
A tee shirt making fun of the death of a black or Asian youth, by whosoever’s hands, would cause outrage, and a deserved jail sentence. Wouldn’t it?
I freely admit I don’t have an answer
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Phil Priestley is an idiot. There is no such thing as a ‘criminal rord’. He’s right on his final point though: Leave it to the magistrates. Best do that Phil. You have no sense/comprehension of justice whatsoever. Light a candle for Jean Charles De Menezes, Mark Duggan, Smiley Culture, Ian Tomlinson first [to name a few -don’t want you to run out of candles]
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but it was perfectly acceptable for a Minister of the Crown to break the same Act and ‘get away with it’
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Reblogged this on SwindonG and commented:
thought provoking
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Think we should stay insult free right? Everyone’s allowed an opinion. As for ‘criminal rord’ I think we all know full well the intended phrase was ‘ criminal record’. No one else picked him up on that because it was unnecessary.
And NONE of us have the sense/comprehension of what police officers have to go through on a daily basis tackling and dealing with the low-life that fortunately, most of us don’t have to give the time of day to. The threats, abuse, attacks and injuries.
In their job a mistake isn’t just a re-write, or an ‘oops, sorry’. Their responsibility is far heavier than that. And who else could do their job under the same scrutiny as the bobbies? And for the same crap pay and conditions come to think of it. I wouldn’t stand for it and that’s for damn sure.
Sure you get the odd arseholes in there. Isn’t that same everywhere you go? And ofc mistakes are made too. Like I said, theirs is often not a case of an ‘oops sorry’ will do.
PLUS – it’s ok for us to sit as armchair judges. We don’t have to make those same snap decisions under duress. Poor Jean Charles was, no doubt, in a state of almost panic. It’s horrific to imagine. To the police, they had a non-compliant suspect with a back-pack in a crowded area. What would YOU do? Sure as Hell know I don’t know. What if they hadn’t fired? What if it hadn’t been Jean Charles? And the back-pack hadn’t been innocent? And everyone within a hundred metres was no longer going home to their families?
We don’t necessarily get the full stories from the media either. Just what they think is a good story. Dig a bit deeper things aren’t always what they appear. ( That is not aimed at Jean Charles, nor necessarily any of the aforementioned names).
I think most people faced with what the police have to tackle would shit bricks. Give them the respect they deserve.
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