Man Jailed for 3 months over Facebook Jokes

[AusGamer44]

making comments that will cause public disorder will get your ass arested in the UK as shown by this case. he is now reaping the rewards of his actions

Mother of God,that Boyle joke is awful.I don't wince often at dark humour,but damn.I just hope her parents don't see it.
And I'd have to see all the guys' posts before I made a judgement.Freedom of speech shouldn't be abused,nor should it protect you from making hate speech,public threats or yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre.Perhaps they invoked the law to save his ass so that in 3 months all the outrage blows over.But you'd have to have a VERY good reason like the ones I cited to do this.

 

[direkiller]

So a guy has been sentenced to 3 months in prison for posting tasteless jokes on his facebook.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19869710

What do you guys think of this?

My own opinion is that its quite frieghtning and pretty disgraceful that posting a tastless joke can warrant a prison sentence, even if it is pretty disgusting.
Arent there better things to be spending funds on rather than prosecuting people for bad humor. I mean it was on his own private page, not directed at the family or people involved in the case itself....

It's not prosecuting people for bad humour, it's prosecution people for breaking the law, specifically the 2003 Communication Act.

Saying that he was prosecuted for bad humour is like saying that someone who was arrested for doing 150mph on the motorway was arrested for having a bit of fun with their own private vehicle.

It's also worth noting that he was taken into protective custody, arrested for his own safety, because what he posted was so offensive that an angry group of 50 people had descended on his house. If the police had ignored his posts and let him face the consequences of his bad humour, then a lot more funds would have been spent in combating and clearing up after the riot he caused, not to mention the pursuit and prosecution of every member of the mob he incited.

Bad humour and tasteless jokes on their own aren't against the law, but when you use a communications network to broadcast that offensive material to everyone with an internet connection, you're breaking long established laws and inciting public order offences.

(you being the Prophet Mohammad in the context)
"I love many things about you and hate others, and there are many things about you I don't understand."
"I won't bow in front of you, I won't kiss your hand. Instead, I will shake it as an equal"
"No Saudi women will go to hell, because it's impossible to go there twice."

the only diffidence is these tweets got there writer a life sentence and the mob was a a few order of magnitudes bigger


Just because something is offensive dose not mean you should jail someone. And just because there was a mob dose not make it right to jail one man.

UK congrats your in the same boat as Saudi Arabia.

 

[sinsfire]

I know nothing about the speach laws in the UK, but something tells me that if this had been less topical he might not have been in such trouble.

Additionally it seems that hte complaints came from the local townsfolk. Small towns have their own rules regarding decorum and it seems like this is just a perfect storm of tragic events and some idiot trying to have a lark. I'm a big proponent of th efact that anything can be funny or comedic if that is the intention. But that doesn't seem to be this guys intention. The article indicates that he was trying to make it seem like his account had been hacked, this is a pretty stupid idea to begin with, but that also doesn't make his sense of humor seem funny. It makes him seem mean.

Couple that with a town that is distressed over what seems like a grusom and horrific crime and I think you run into trouble. Again I have no knowledge of UK politics or freedoms, but I get the feeling this wouldn't have been as big a deal in London or Manchester as it was in Lancashire.

 

[bjj hero]

No, that's NOT ok. You shouldn't be afraid of going to prison for saying jokes!

Went to prison for teh lulz. Awesome.

In all fairness, if you are going to contact the police because your mouth has been writing cheques that your ass can't cash you have whatever legal penalty is coning along with that. Think of the money wasted protecting this guy, who happens to be unemployed with nothing better to do than troll a family whos 5 year old is missing presumed dead. So hes not even paying into the police that had to come out and rescue him.

He went to prison for breaking the laws covered by the 2003 communication act. For the consequences of his actions (effectively tax payers paid for his rescue. Im glad my house wasn't being burgled while the police were busy scraping up this asshat) I feel he had it coming.

 

[Slayer_2]

No matter how shitty the person may be, and how tasteless their humor, I don't think imprisoning them is really a good idea. This is a very slippery slope.

 

[GTwander]

I am not amused.

I feel like going on a rant about this - but that is exactly what they want, and I don't feel like being extradited for offending some uptight limey bastad... Oops.

*flees to Mexico*

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I believe the joke he was arrested for was 'whats the difference between mark ( the father) and santa? Mark comes in April (the kid)
As utterly disgusting as this is, I cant see how it can justify a court sentence.

...I laughed.

I can't comment on him being arrested because I don't know his neck of the woods "free speech" laws, but if he got arrested in America over it I'd be pissed. There is nothing remotely threatening about that joke. It's slanderous, but even thats a stretch because it's clearly a joke.

 

[dumbseizure]

Uhh.....maybe I am missing something, maybe I fell into a coma and I have been out for a while, but when did we start handing out sentences, not on the severity of the crime, but based on the amount of outrage from the public?

Also, he is also charged with child abduction? What the hell is that about?

No, like, genuinely, there is no mention of child abduction in that article except for the two words, "child abduction".

 

[Iori Branford]

Putting aside whether freedom or security is better... If UK law claims to side with security, then what's the reasoning for apparently letting off the 50-strong mob? The ones who made a real and direct threat to life and limb over a few nasty words that the page owner can take down and then everyone can forget about?

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

Ok I know I'm not the only one who read the article just to find out what the jokes were.

I hate ill humored jokes as much as the next guy but I mean c'mon. How bad does a joke have to be to get arrested for it, jesus.

 

[Loonyyy]

Bad. Very very bad. Determining things to be offensive or obscene is a standard form of censorship. Britain had a lot of that with blasphemy and obscenity laws previously, used to protect puritanical primarily Christian values from those they disapproved of. And it was terrible. This is a step backwards.

The man should be free to say what he likes, and let everyone know what a despicable piece of scum, or stupid moronic troll, he really is.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

This is disgusting.

Judges are meant to be professional and unbiased...

 

[Athol]

I think more people should do jailtime for bad humour. Maybe this would finally improve some TV shows...

Do you think we could get the death sentance for Dane Cook? (A man can dream...)

 

[Darks63]

You know I'm torn on this one. On one hand i like freedom of speech and don't like it to be violated(yes i know this happened in England not murica), but on the other i do so like seeing someone punished for trolling bad trolling at that.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I think it's f***ed up. On Facebook, even more than a lot of other places, you have the option NOT to look at something you think is distasteful. I don't care how bad his jokes were, he has a right to say them. Especially if it was his own page, but sadly the article is less than clear about this. You can mark comments as spam or abuse, if you own a page you can delete them, I think it's ridiculous to lock someone up for commenting.

 

[GTwander]

I think it's f***ed up. On Facebook, even more than a lot of other places, you have the option NOT to look at something you think is distasteful. I don't care how bad his jokes were, he has a right to say them. Especially if it was his own page, but sadly the article is less than clear about this. You can mark comments as spam or abuse, if you own a page you can delete them, I think it's ridiculous to lock someone up for commenting.

Seriously...
If anything, he is only deserving of a fine for having to get police to save his ass from an angry mob, nothing more. This sets a very bad precedent for the future of the UK. Wouldn't be surprised if the next step is locking people up for badmouthing politicians.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

There is so much I don't understand about this. Maybe I'm missing it because I'm sick. What crime was this guy even charged with? Why did they arrest him and not the mob that attacked him? The whole thing certainly smells shitty but I need more facts.

 

[DANEgerous]

Seriously... it is goddamn Facebook, just block the dumbfuck once he insults you, put you profile on private, simply stop using Facebook. No only is this jailing a person for what they said but it jailing a person for what they said when their "target" had intent to read it.

Can't we just ignore assholes? What happened to the time we could just expect that a lot of people are assholes and just ignore said people? I did throughout my whole school career and it was only 2005 when that ended. It is sad I was a nerdy little ***** to most people i was insulted and i ignored the insults today this is apparently the mark of a total badass akin to shrugging off bullet wounds when it is just behaving like a civilized human being.

 

[Sandjube]

I think it is good...

It serves as a deterrent for other people who think that mediums like the internet can be used to cause others hurt and misfortune...

I don't mind trolling... but I do mind when the comments are seriously aimed to hurt other people when they are already upset... hell... aimed to hurt anybody is horrible!

It is inconsiderate and generally horrible... so I am glad someone has been made an example of...

Also... Private page? This is the internet... there is no such thing!

I just had to point out that you use '...' a lot. I dunno why I had to point it out, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing...I do it heaps myself. I just had to remark upon it. *shrug*

OT: Well...I have mixed feelings. Sometimes I have really thought to myself "Man, that guy is a dick, he deserves some sort of punishment for that", but I don't think I've ever really meant it.

 

[el_kabong]

I don't say this very often. I'm glad I live in the United States. Where a person's right to be an insensitive asshole is protected by the law rather than impeded by mob rule.