There are two things that concern me about this: the first is that a serving Police officer in this day and age would be sending these messages, and the other that he has been sent to prison for doing so. This seems to me like a gross infringement on the right to free speech and expression. I’d be interested to hear what other people on this sub think about the matter.
Section 127 continues to horrify me. And frankly, the ability of the state to exercise its monopoly over violence to imprison its citizens for edgy memes or shitty opinions *should* horrify — at least in the abstract sense.
And even if appeal to broader freedom arguments don’t sway proponents, simple karma ought. Prohibitionists now may be in favor of 127’s overbroad and oppressive effect, but they won’t always be on the side that gets to define “gross offensiveness.” And then it will be your own physical liberty at stake.
Rational, good humans can disapprove of shitty messages, and at the same time realize what a disservice the law is to any notion of free speech. Free speech exists to protect unpopular sentiment, not the prevailing paradigm.
No one was being threatened here…save those who would homogenize public opinion.
>police inquiry into 10 memes
>
>jailed for 20 weeks
Jesus, 2 weeks in prison per meme. Unless they were memes genuinely calling for outright violence against people (in which case I’d hardly call them just “memes”) that’s pretty scary.
This is awful on every conceivable level.
Sending nasty, racist memes mocking someone’s death is dreadful behaviour.
However, unless they are sent in a menacing manner, specifically to cause distress to a member of a particular group, this should in no way be a legal/police matter.
If I hand around outside a church, ringing a bell and holding placards with an image of Jesus wanking off a horse, that could conceivably be ‘grossly offensive’
Privately sending this material to a group of atheist friends, is not.
Swap out religious figures, animals and sexual acts as you like in the example above.
The government should not be imprisoning people for the act of ‘being offensive’.
And yet anti trans feminists are very openly and publicly talking about socially engineering trans people out of society and absolutely nothing happens to them. They are literally talking about social genocide and publishing books on it.
This guy, as much of a racist prick he sounds, sent racist memes to a group chat and gets 20 weeks in prison.
This is just insane. The absolute state of this country.
*Redditors: Why can’t our police officers be racist? We personally see no problem with that.*
recently read about about a child sex offender who walked free from court only to be told by the judge, ” i know you’ll almost certainly sexually assault another child again in the future and you will be jailed next time”
a couple of mean tweets, and this fella is sent straight to a place that is meant to be bursting at the seam.
Yet another bad apple. At least he’s not in any position of power now.
It’s beyond outrageous that people are jailed for this.
It’s not as if he’s fermenting violence or harm against anyone. Yes they are stupid, racist memes but FFS, *prison*??
I’m going to now think twice before sending mother-in-law jokes over WhatsApp
A racist behind bars? Oh no, what’ll happen if they come for me next?
Oh wait they won’t since I’m not out there being racist like that, especially as a police officer.
I wonder who he voted for.
His mistake was doing it on WhatsApp rather than a column in a national newspaper.
Christ, sack him and give him community service and if you’re really worried about him hurting sombody keep an eye on him.
I really feel like the gov are testing the waters to see how little they can lock sombody up for and hoping the general public won’t notice because they’re going for people have moral issues with first.
My local police mistook a community police liaison in his late 60s for sombody else and the tased the shit out of him for not getting ID out and only got a slap on the wrist so this seems a little targeted
14 comments
There are two things that concern me about this: the first is that a serving Police officer in this day and age would be sending these messages, and the other that he has been sent to prison for doing so. This seems to me like a gross infringement on the right to free speech and expression. I’d be interested to hear what other people on this sub think about the matter.
Section 127 continues to horrify me. And frankly, the ability of the state to exercise its monopoly over violence to imprison its citizens for edgy memes or shitty opinions *should* horrify — at least in the abstract sense.
And even if appeal to broader freedom arguments don’t sway proponents, simple karma ought. Prohibitionists now may be in favor of 127’s overbroad and oppressive effect, but they won’t always be on the side that gets to define “gross offensiveness.” And then it will be your own physical liberty at stake.
Rational, good humans can disapprove of shitty messages, and at the same time realize what a disservice the law is to any notion of free speech. Free speech exists to protect unpopular sentiment, not the prevailing paradigm.
No one was being threatened here…save those who would homogenize public opinion.
>police inquiry into 10 memes
>
>jailed for 20 weeks
Jesus, 2 weeks in prison per meme. Unless they were memes genuinely calling for outright violence against people (in which case I’d hardly call them just “memes”) that’s pretty scary.
This is awful on every conceivable level.
Sending nasty, racist memes mocking someone’s death is dreadful behaviour.
However, unless they are sent in a menacing manner, specifically to cause distress to a member of a particular group, this should in no way be a legal/police matter.
If I hand around outside a church, ringing a bell and holding placards with an image of Jesus wanking off a horse, that could conceivably be ‘grossly offensive’
Privately sending this material to a group of atheist friends, is not.
Swap out religious figures, animals and sexual acts as you like in the example above.
The government should not be imprisoning people for the act of ‘being offensive’.
And yet anti trans feminists are very openly and publicly talking about socially engineering trans people out of society and absolutely nothing happens to them. They are literally talking about social genocide and publishing books on it.
This guy, as much of a racist prick he sounds, sent racist memes to a group chat and gets 20 weeks in prison.
This is just insane. The absolute state of this country.
*Redditors: Why can’t our police officers be racist? We personally see no problem with that.*
recently read about about a child sex offender who walked free from court only to be told by the judge, ” i know you’ll almost certainly sexually assault another child again in the future and you will be jailed next time”
a couple of mean tweets, and this fella is sent straight to a place that is meant to be bursting at the seam.
Yet another bad apple. At least he’s not in any position of power now.
It’s beyond outrageous that people are jailed for this.
It’s not as if he’s fermenting violence or harm against anyone. Yes they are stupid, racist memes but FFS, *prison*??
I’m going to now think twice before sending mother-in-law jokes over WhatsApp
A racist behind bars? Oh no, what’ll happen if they come for me next?
Oh wait they won’t since I’m not out there being racist like that, especially as a police officer.
I wonder who he voted for.
His mistake was doing it on WhatsApp rather than a column in a national newspaper.
Christ, sack him and give him community service and if you’re really worried about him hurting sombody keep an eye on him.
I really feel like the gov are testing the waters to see how little they can lock sombody up for and hoping the general public won’t notice because they’re going for people have moral issues with first.
My local police mistook a community police liaison in his late 60s for sombody else and the tased the shit out of him for not getting ID out and only got a slap on the wrist so this seems a little targeted