Someone gets jailed - For racial comments made on twitter? What?

Personally it offends me how people go out of their way to be offended. Please close the thread at once. ; )

 

That's a bit ambitious.

But it would be a good place to start. The language we use determines how we think.

 

There is a major difference between threats and giving your opinion. A threat is a statement of intent not merely an opinion. Freedom of speech gives you the right to utter your opinion not your intent, as an intent if taken seriously will result in an physical act.

 

This just goes to show us that your opinions on racism are that you don't consider it that much of an issue and you feel strongly enough that you started a thread here on a technology website forums.

Your comments make me believe you are racist.

 

Well said.

 

to put it mildly, Twoddle, on that view we must never discuss religion, foreign policy, immigration, emigration, equal opportunities, or anything else that someone might consider offensive, without suddenly being labelled racist, sexist, xenophobic, extremist, damned or whatever. It is not a binary thing, being annoyed that mentioning something on twitter can get you a harsher jail sentence that robbing shops in a riot, does not make you a racist, no matter what red top papers might suggest.

 

Sadly thats not true. indocrination and propoganda have a large and proven affect on how people think and act.
I'm old enough to remember "no blacks no Irish" signs in windows in the UK something that wouldn't be acceptable today.

If you knowingly supply goods or services in the commission of a crime you are held accountable, If you encourage someone else to comit a crime you should also be held accountable

 

Oh, ISWYDT! Is that the Royal "us", by the way?

 

The punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime does it

 

I think you'll find it is. People are gullible idiots perhaps for sure, but they can also choose not to be.

Knowingly facilitating a crime is not the same as proposing it. Expression of thought does not equal action.

 

Racism is an important issue, but the bigger crime here is that a person has been jailed for writing down his thoughts. If society took the more mature approach and just ignored this idiot, then sentence would not have been blown out of all proportion. Surely you want to live in a society where you can speak openly without fear of this level of intolerence?

 

You cannot legislate against someone being a racist, or holding racist views. You can however legislate against openly spreading racist comments, or racist threats.

We have a number of laws covering racism, and in particular inciting racial hatred: Contained within The Public Order Act 1986.
So there is a legal framework to deal with this type of crime, whether it's online or offline, however I'm unsure if these tweets fall foul of the law.

I would question where do you distinguish between expressing an opinion, and inciting hatred?

To me this guy was a drunken idiot (well tbh a complete and utter cock), his tweets (which I have viewed) were ugly and disgusting, but did he incite hatred?
Well, yes, but ironically as it turned out primarily targeted at himself.



How the law refers to this type of crime:

19 Publishing or distributing written material.

(1) A person who publishes or distributes written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting is guilty of an offence if—

(a) he intends thereby to stir up racial hatred, or

(b) having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.​

(2) In proceedings for an offence under this section it is a defence for an accused who is not shown to have intended to stir up racial hatred to prove that he was not aware of the content of the material and did not suspect, and had no reason to suspect, that it was threatening, abusive or insulting.

(3) References in this Part to the publication or distribution of written material are to its publication or distribution to the public or a section of the public.​

Did he intend to stir up racial hatred?

 

Nice to see you failed to see the real point of the thread. Well done. It doesn't matter if I'm a racist, a homophobe, a shauvernist (sp folks, i know), etc etc etc. What matters is that I have the RIGHT to be one. I have the RIGHT to say stupid things on line, just like this guy did, without getting sent to prison. Shouting it out in the street to people's faces and causing real violence to start, is another matter. Good for you sticking up for all those black people though, well done, as clearly, that's what this thread is about

 

Well, if you mean argue in the sense of making an assertion without backing it up with reasoned justification or examples, and contradicting yourself in the process, then argue all you like. I notice neither you, nor anybody else, has taken me up on my offer to send examples of hurty words to my inbox. Perhaps I'm being shunned as a racist for being in general agreement with the OP

 

This guy is not a troll. He's a mug, prat, idiot whatever you want to call him.
And deserves his jail sentence just for being stupid.

Saying such things in the street is very hard to prove in a court, you only have the offender's and the offendee's account of the situation.

If you post such things in a public forum then documented evidence is a lot easier to convict on.

 

So we should send people to jail for being stupid now? I really don't think we have enough free space in our jails to cope with that.

 

People yes, as people are stupid. A person is not.

But that's really not the point I was trying to make. Focus on the 3rd and 4th line.

 

All the third and fourth line do is point out it's easier to prove someone's said something when it's done in a written form. That was the point you were trying to make? Pointing out the obvious? Tbh I'm a little worried that you think that's a more important topic of discussion than the statement that stupidity should be grounds for sending someone to prison.

 

The Thread is about why someone can get jailed for posting racial comments on twitter and how it's perceived to be ok to do that in RL i.e. not get convicted.
It has obviously progressed as most threads do to other relevant and some not so relevant points, but the main point still exists, hence my post.

But don't worry yourself Krazeh, like I said try not to focus on a point that was quite obviously not meant seriously.

 

What's the total cost of arresting, trying, convicting and imprisoning this fool likely to be? I have no evidence to back it up, but I'm guessing it's going to be in excess of £10,000. Plus (potentially) whatever the now unemployable individual ends up claiming in benefits when he could have been a contributer to society.

And for what? To punish him? Not long enough in jail (think a really bland hotel stay). To rehabilitate him? Prison doesn't do that well, especially in a short space of time. To appease a bunch of moaning, Mail reading asshats who are up in arms about the offense that these tweets have caused? Bingo.

I understand these tweets causing upset, but really. This has already cost money that could have been better spent ignoring the idiot and getting on with life.