Bad taste = criminal offence?

Author
Discussion

vescaegg

Original Poster:

25,489 posts

166 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Examples of people being cautioned or charged with posting offensive (subjective) tweets or messages online seem to be getting more and more commonplace.

At what point does a joke or free speech become something you can be cautioned by the police for?

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/regional-news/c...

Its utter madness that the police are wasting time on nonsence like this and is only surpassed by the madness that they are actually able to investigate such things in the first place.

thatdude

2,654 posts

126 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
The tweet in question was in very poor taste. Additionally, it was only made to wind people up, make people angry.

I dont think he should have been cautioned or had any police time spent on it, but certainly the media should have picked it up better and ran with it...

dudleybloke

19,717 posts

185 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Thought crime is the worst offence you can do these days.
Its bloody pathetic.

pilchardthecat

7,483 posts

178 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
They should repeal all of the "inciting hatred" laws in my opinion

It's not freedom of speech if there are legal boundaries.

Type R Tom

3,859 posts

148 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
"Bad taste" jokes used to come out so quickly in the past and would spread around via word of mouth. Then it changed to txt messages and now via social media. Any major event you can thing of will have a joke attached to it, rightly or wrongly that’s what people do, it’s nothing new.

I don’t ever remember hearing stories of people being cautioned in the first two methods of distribution, social media has changed all that and these things easily reach the “professionally offended” where in the past you’d know who of your mates you could talk to without getting in trouble, you can't do that with social media!

ChemicalChaos

10,360 posts

159 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
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God help any of those poor delicate souls if they ever visited sickipedia.org

P-Jay

10,550 posts

190 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
It's gone too far now.

Yes it's in bad taste, but it's not offensive unless you're directly effected by the accident - some people are professionally offended - far, far past 'inciting' anything - it seems these days even the most innocent of gaffs will become a massive issue when the Professionally Offended hear about it, usually 3rd hand.

I personally hate people being PC - I'd much prefer people spoke their mind and were open to debate and defence of their views, debate is good, debate can change people's minds - hiding behind the lies of 'political correctness' achieves nothing but saving people from having to face real life.

In this case it's clear to me the offender is a bit of a knob, people who know him can decide themselves if they think he's a being offensive and respond - but if he's censored he carries on with his views.

gareth_r

5,712 posts

236 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
It's a matter of days since our politicians were queueing up to support free speech.

I assume that "free speech" is one of those French idioms that cannot be translated into English.

Eclassy

1,201 posts

121 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Extremely stupid of him to accept a caution. It was a fcensoredking bloody joke!

vescaegg

Original Poster:

25,489 posts

166 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Eclassy said:
Extremely stupid of him to accept a caution. It was a fcensoredking bloody joke!
What options would he have had? Geniune question.

Starfighter

4,908 posts

177 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
This.

I do wonder what, if any, legal advise was offered and if that included the impact of accepting a caution and this involves and admission of guilt.

Meoricin

2,880 posts

168 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Eclassy said:
Extremely stupid of him to accept a caution. It was a fcensoredking bloody joke!
What happened to one of your friends when they were framed by the police for similar?

Claudia Skies

1,098 posts

115 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
dudleybloke said:
Thought crime is the worst offence you can do these days. Its bloody pathetic.
What? Worse than googling Al Qaeda and having your name permanently added to the list at GCHQ?

"Don't tell him your name Pike!"

northwest monkey

6,370 posts

188 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Frankie Boyle must be stting himself.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
northwest monkey said:
Frankie Boyle must be stting himself.
biggrin I thought similar.

dudleybloke

19,717 posts

185 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Claudia Skies said:
dudleybloke said:
Thought crime is the worst offence you can do these days. Its bloody pathetic.
What? Worse than googling Al Qaeda and having your name permanently added to the list at GCHQ?

"Don't tell him your name Pike!"
Its OK.
If the gray state rears its ugly head at me I'll fart in its general direction.

Dog Star

16,078 posts

167 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
What pisses me off is that (if I remember correctly) the police now spend something like 50% of their time chasing up complaints about facebook and tw@tter. I might have that wrong but even if it's 10% it's ludicrous - "he called me a wker and said he was going to bum my dog". Oh, ffs, grow up! Then we wonder why there's no police on the streets.

In fact here we go....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27949674
"Social media 'at least half' of calls passed to front-line police"

Strewth!

Eclassy

1,201 posts

121 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
vescaegg said:
What options would he have had? Geniune question.
Let it go through the system (courts). Accepting a caution will leave the same mark on his 'file' as an unlikely conviction would.



hairyben

8,516 posts

182 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Type R Tom said:
"Bad taste" jokes used to come out so quickly in the past and would spread around via word of mouth. Then it changed to txt messages and now via social media. Any major event you can thing of will have a joke attached to it, rightly or wrongly that’s what people do, it’s nothing new.

I don’t ever remember hearing stories of people being cautioned in the first two methods of distribution, social media has changed all that and these things easily reach the “professionally offended” where in the past you’d know who of your mates you could talk to without getting in trouble, you can't do that with social media!
There's a difference between forwarding/telling a joke amongst people you know and publishing it for all to see though

In the olden days you might forward that gary glitter joke to your mates or tell it down the pub but you wouldn't stop outside primary schools and tell random mothers; thats what publishing it via twitter etc does.

Not commenting on the right or wrongs of either his "crime" or the response... although some people do still think of online as a consequence-free environment

B.J.W

5,782 posts

214 months

Tuesday 27th January 2015
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
northwest monkey said:
Frankie Boyle must be stting himself.
biggrin I thought similar.
As I am.....

I've bought some shirts which, according to my wife, were highly questionable in terms of taste. On this basis I would expect to be on some 'poor clothes choice black list' wink