Hate Crime / Hate Speech

[Theland]

I believe crime is crime, and the laws against hate crime, and in particular hate speech have already begun to undermine our freedoms.
I should have the right to express my thoughts and emotions as I feel fit and not censor myself worrying about the thin skinned being offended.
Just too many people are now finding offence everywhere and in every situation.
Give me the good old days when a committee was run by a chairman, not a chairperson, or even worse, by a chair.
What are your opinions?

[THECORBYLOON]

NJ, I thought the Bench and those sitting on the Bench were a PART of the Court in the same way that the jury's part of the court?

[douglas9401]

"If crime fighters fight crime, and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?"

Ranting pantless blue faced Australian alcoholics.

[Togo]

Lol @ Douglas.....What have the Aborigines got to do with this?

[douglas9401]

https://giphy.com/gifs/braveheart-QDDnQybLTHPC8

:-)

[Togo]

Haahaa...oooo…. it hurts. :))

[New Judge]

"NJ, I thought the Bench and those sitting on the Bench were a PART of the Court in the same way that the jury's part of the court?"

I've explained it as best I can. Judges and Magistrates (along with advocates, other legal staff and some ancillary staff) are officers of the court. Whether they are part of it is I think indulging in semantics.

[Mamyalynne]

Pesky furniture trying to pinch the limelight - look at the trouble with the Cabinet.

[Theland]

Plenty to think about, but Corby asks if I would object to criticism of Jesus Christ?
No, that is the critics problem not mine.

[naomi24]

//I should have the right to express my thoughts and emotions as I feel fit //

Absolutely - but having said that you must accept that those who disagree with you may also claim that same right.

[Theland]

But of course.

[Ellipsis]

I don't know about 1300 years ago. During my lifetime, these people proudly used the word "paedophile" to describe themselves:

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paedophile_Information_Exchange
The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was a British pro-paedophile activist group, founded in October 1974 and officially disbanded in 1984. The group campaigned for the abolition of the age of consent. ...
A number of senior Labour Party politicians were linked in newspaper stories to PIE in December 2013, and again in February 2014, as a result of their involvement with the NCCL at the time of PIE's affiliation. The party's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, had been employed by NCCL as an in-house solicitor and met her husband, the MP Jack Dromey, then a member of NCCL's executive committee, while working in this capacity. In addition, Patricia Hewitt was NCCL's general secretary for nine years. ...
In June 2015, documents emerged as a result of a BBC freedom of information request that revealed the then Conservative Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, refused to support a bill designed to outlaw PIE because he considered the law on incitement of sexual activities with children to be "not so clear".

[naomi24]

Ellipsis, and your reason for posting that was ... what? To demonstrate some wonky theory that two wrongs somehow make a right? Quite simply, they don't.

[THECORBYLOON]

THELAND, which Christian sect do you belong to?

[vetuste_ennemi]

PIE was a temporary, embarrassing and quickly hushed-up phenomenon.

It's divinely sanctioned 1,300 year old version has a vigorously defended, practised and pervasive presence in modern Europe.

[naomi24]

v_e, he tries.

[Ellipsis]

My reason for posting that was that I agreed with Peter Pedant's post of 09:00 Saturday but I thought a much more recent and close to home example was relevant. I remember, as a child, reading about PIE which was active at the time and being aghast/shocked/terrified that I was living in a society that seemingly tolerated this. OK, terrified is a bit strong - "mildly concerned" may be closer - but when you consider what Jimmy Savile, Cyril Smith et al were up to at the time, maybe I should have been more concerned.

[naomi24]

Ellipsis, //maybe I should have been more concerned.//

Maybe you should be concerned about a culture within which, as v_e says, this divinely sanctioned 1,300 year old version has a vigorously defended, practised and pervasive presence in modern Europe.

[Ellipsis]

The "culture within which" a perpetrator originates makes no difference to my feelings about whether paedophilia is acceptable. Just as I am disgusted by paedophilia within our own culture, so openly promulgated by PIE in recent living memory, I am disgusted by it in any other culture. That's not to say that I tar an entire culture with the same brush, including our own.

[naomi24]

Ellipsis, however you attempt to square this the fact remains that one culture sanctions it and the other does not.

[kvalidir]

No Naomi one culture does not sanction it as you very well know.