WRONG PRIORITIES…
By David Vance On July 17th, 2012This is a great example of wrong policing priorties..
“A possible racist comment made against Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole is being investigated by Derbyshire Police. A Twitter user, believed to be from Derbyshire, referred to Mr Cole as a “choc ice” on the social networking site over the weekend. Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand then replied: “I hear you fella! Choc ice is classic hahahahahaha!!”
Now then, one could view this in many ways. It is amusing. It is stupid. It is inane. It’s what you might expect from a professional footballer. But one thing is for certain – we are all adults and we should be allowed to form our own opinions on such tweets WITHOUT the police wasting their time and ours and searching for wayyyycism.
‘Wrong policing’ ?
Oh, you have no idea about wrong policing .. see ‘Common purpose’ for ‘Leading above authority’ ..
ACPO ?
I’ve never heard of this term, and am not really sure what it is supposed to get at.
And here, he doesn’t appear to be actually first using the term, but is referring to the other chowderhead’s use of it.
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But, again, in this country – or most all countries – I don’t think it is against the law to use racist language, except maybe in an incitement situation ( in a crowded football stadium, etc.
Who here supports the use of UK law to make such speech illegal?
Phantom -
Choc ice = black on the outside, white on the inside. It’s another way of saying Uncle Tom.
Ahh!
The equivalent of ” Oreo ” ( cookie ) as used by some blacks here to refer to someone ” black on the outside and white on the inside “
The Police set a rod for themselves because they stupidly investigated John Terry in the first place. If Ferdinand’s tweet had come first there wouldn’t have been any official response because he’s mulatto. Because Terry was charged with a political crime first and this was in response to the outcome, it effectively becomes part of the same case.
The police feel the need to prosecute in this cases purely because of the publicity they generate. If a tweet or a youtube clip goes viral(like the woman on the tube) then the police think they have to take action – but if you lok at the blogosphere and twitter and social network sites they are crammed with thousands of vile and far more extreme comments than any of the well publicised ones that have recently prompted criminal prosecutions.
“Who here supports the use of UK law to make such speech illegal?”
I don’t support the use of the law to make any speech illegal (mainly on basic freedom of speech grounds, but also because it’s usually a good idea to let fools identify themselves).
The only valid form of censorship is the right not to listen. So while you could maybe make a case for some restrictions on venues (billboards, public places etc, maybe also workplaces – basically places from which people cannot be expected to easily withdraw themselves), I don’t think facebook, twitter, blogs etc qualify.
Also I’m not sure that any law actually does make such speech illegal. People have been jailed under the malicious communications act but since this requires proving a purpose of causing distress or anxiety, I don’t see how.
Why is this a surprise? Someone has already been sent to prison for semi-racist comments on twitter, despite HAVING HIS FAMILY THREATENED by relevant twitterers prior/during his outburst. This is standard now.
Only the other day I read some MPs attempting to make illegal “fatty!” insults.