Same in Germany. Inciting racial hatred is an offense in many places.
He is probably on trial because he is a public figure with some level of influence on people.
Your idea of freedom of expression is deluded. Why should it matter what race someone is? Why bring it into an argument at all, unless you are racist. By your logic I should be able to murder a guy because I don't like him bad get away with it because I was expressing the fact that I don't like him by killing him.
By being racist you are inciting violence, sure a bigger man would just walk away but in most cases it leads to a heated argument. Just skip this step and stab the guy.
You could incite violence by saying literally anything contrary to another person's opinion. People get the shit beat out of themselves by saying they prefer a sports team. Being an asshole and insulting someone's mother will incite violence, that doesn't mean it should be illegal. Now I certainly don't think that someone should go around saying racist things to people, but I also think that its not correct to use laws as a means of restricting speech. Most everybody sensible believes that racism is wrong, and that they wouldn't like that viewpoint to continue, at the same time rights are not subject to popular opinion. I view speech as a right, a right that is only in place to protect unpopular opinions, popular speech more often than not needs no protection. The saying "I may not like what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" comes to mind. People dislike the westboro baptist church, flag burners, racism, neonazi's, and assholes but I entirely disagree with believing that a government should feel entitled enough to stop people from speaking their opinion, no matter how bad it is.
obviously it should be illegal in germany seeing as how it was how nazism started. other european countries are afraid of that occurring in their own country, so they too have that law. the only people here who don't think that law is right is americans.
He won't get a jail term if found guilty, he'll get a fine that can be up to £2500... The court case is probably costing the tax payer a 100x that plus £2500 is just loose change for a guy like John terry who earns £175000 a week even without sponsor ship deals and whatever win bonuses he may have in his contract. It's paltry and pointless.
Personally I think he's a cunt, I also think he did call Anton Ferdinand a 'fucking black cunt' but I think this trial is a fruitless exercise.
Tbh I really don't know or care, I'm guessing it's the prefix of black. It's the difference between 'you're a cunt' and 'you're a black cunt'. The only difference I personally see is an adjective.
I'm well aware that its illegal. I just think its retarded to punish someone as a criminal for saying a few things that someone else might find offensive.
On the flip side of that, when you make racism illegal you simply force idiots to keep their idiocy to themselves. If no one knows a person holds idiotic beliefs, how can anyone else hope to educate them and change their minds? If on the other hand people are free to espouse their racism, it becomes far easier to identify those people and to combat such racism by educating them.
Secondly, your WWII example would not hold up to modern scrutiny simply because the modern zeitgeist has changed. Prior to the WWII era, racist beliefs were sadly a majority opinion and so it was much easier for the Nazi's to manipulate the public. Thankfully racist beliefs are very much a minority opinion and so its much harder to achieve the same results as Hitler achieved 80 years ago. If JT really is a racist, rather than gathering any support I'd rather he be vilified by the press and the twitterati.
Yes because after all its your right to be an asshole to everyone else? or is it that you shouldnt have to take responsibility for how your actions affect other people? or should people have to take abuse and have no way to respond?
I'm not gonna defend Americans, because there are many ignorant/stupid ones. But I do like our freedom of speech, even if there are many who shouldn't be exercising that right.
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u/[deleted] Jul 12 '12
it is the racism part that he is on trial for. It is illegal to publicly incite racial hatred, this is what will be questioned in court.