Bad taste = criminal offence?

[vescaegg]

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.

[vescaegg]

Eclassy said:

Extremely stupid of him to accept a caution. It was a fking bloody joke!

What options would he have had? Geniune question.

[vescaegg]

DeanR32 said:

pilchardthecat said:

DeanR32 said:

pilchardthecat said:

Yes, much better to suppress people so they dont speak out for fear of prosecution, and just seethe inwardly en mass. That's worked out really well for us

Yeah, I adore having vile specimens being vile in society.

There just isn't any need for it, and I for one, even though it's probably a bit deep having police involved, am glad something has happened to him for his spontaneous vileness.

I suppose you need to be on the recieving end to shrug your shoulders and laugh when someone like this gets prosecuted.

I remember a girl from essex threw herself off a railway bridge because of being tormented at school. Sometime in the nineties. Freedom of speech can have consequences

The problem is, everyone's definition of "vile" is different

I'd like to think my definition of vile is pretty much the norm for the average human being.

Thats probably what the shooters in Paris thought.

[vescaegg]

wiggy001 said:

DeanR32 said:

vescaegg said:

DeanR32 said:

pilchardthecat said:

DeanR32 said:

pilchardthecat said:

Yes, much better to suppress people so they dont speak out for fear of prosecution, and just seethe inwardly en mass. That's worked out really well for us

Yeah, I adore having vile specimens being vile in society.

There just isn't any need for it, and I for one, even though it's probably a bit deep having police involved, am glad something has happened to him for his spontaneous vileness.

I suppose you need to be on the recieving end to shrug your shoulders and laugh when someone like this gets prosecuted.

I remember a girl from essex threw herself off a railway bridge because of being tormented at school. Sometime in the nineties. Freedom of speech can have consequences

The problem is, everyone's definition of "vile" is different

I'd like to think my definition of vile is pretty much the norm for the average human being.

Thats probably what the shooters in Paris thought.

Would you class them as average human beings?

The point is, they probably would. To me you sound a little sensitive and are probably more likely to be offended by something someone says/writes than I would. Does that make me right and you wrong, or vice versa? Of course not. But I personally don't think it's right that freedom of speech only extends as far as you say it should as your "level" of acceptable is likely to be lower than mine.

For the record, I think freedom of speech should be absolute except where you are actively encouraging something that is a crime. In any case, no-one was forced to read this guy's tweet and no actual harm came from it imho.

This. And I agree entirely.

No one should be able to 'decide' what is offensive and what isnt.

The joke was in poor taste but I have heard and seen far worse. It didnt offend me in the slightest.