I was reminded of this thread when a man was arrested on Sunday for posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook.
(but actually burning poppy fields is A-OK as long as they’re in Afghanistan!)
For the record, I’m also against his conviction.
That said, I seem to recall that British courts think of posting something to Facebook akin to publishing (to the public), not “just talking.”
Well, everyone in the UK that I know who’s aware of the story in the op, and the poppy burning stories, thinks jail time is wrong. Reader comments on the sentences don’t generally support them. So I don’t think the op is right that these sentences are accepted easily over here. They’re stupid laws, badly applied, and the defendants need better lawyers.
Not remotely comparable. In the latest arrest, he wanted to walk naked past a school playground. He was offered the chance to get in a police car instead, get past the playground, then get out and go on his merry naked way. He refused. He should probably be in a psychiatric institution rather than prison, but the police really weren’t being unreasonable.
i see posts like his daily on different message boards, like something awful or 4chan /shrug
i personally don’t get offended by dumb online comments people make, reality has enough issues to deal with already.
hang on, folks.
UK has laws against willfully inciting distress (or however it’s worded) and according to that link, this kid made jokes about both HAVING the girl HIMSELF and the sexually explicit things happening to her.
furthermore, HE PLED GUILTY.
i guess as american’s we can’t get our head around it, but it’s not a disproportionate reaction. the kid himself admitted what he did was wrong. so he got 12 weeks in prison–because the judge had to make an example. the outrage was too high and the ordeal too public. and the kid said “guilty,” and it would appear the judge couldn’t, at that point, with everything about it as it were, say “meh ok, you get a pat on the wrist then.” everyone was fuming.
will he even serve all 12? will he be released on all the whateveritis that gets people out early?
even here we have limits on what we can say, as per the Twitter Threats thread over in Elections. and it would appear, from that thread, most people here even have misapprehensions on how that shit, in their “common sense,” should be legal.
…but it’s not.
Just as a point of interest, there is going to be clarification of the laws surrounding offensive postings on social media in the UK in the next couple of weeks. As the laws stand at the moment, there’s no real guidelines for some of the cases other than referring to malicious communication and harassment laws. It will be interesting to see the difference that makes.