Man arrested for racial abuse of Chelsea striker Demba Ba

[Purlina]

On facebook? By the police?

You didn't specify on facebook or by the police earlier.

[Bryntrollian]

No "hard as possible" is in no ways torture, its just as inhuman as being a racist. Neither is it killing that person.

Its about punishment and reeducation, which sadly is not as effective as it could be, still though... racist should be punished heavily with jail.

Not true, racism is a part of human nature

[Zanito44]

People have been hanged, burned, or killed, for insulting christians. Does that count?

How about something occurring in modern day.

[Deleted]

I just cant agree with someone spouting around random racial slurs or something,

In almost all circumstances so am I. Racism is ignorant, to say the least.

They shouldn't be arrested for it though.

if you call me an asshole its okay. If you call me an idiot ye it's okay for me, maybe I am the idiot but if you call me a fuckin Nazi faggot just for me being german, that's wrong.

That would be wrong. Not worthy of arrest though.

It just shouldn't be accepted by society that those racist stuff exists in the first place. I may call Demba Ba an idiot and bad at playing football but seriously, there is no time where it would cross my mind to call him the N word or insulting his skin colour or religion for whatever reason.

Ditto. (Though there should be nothing considered wrong with insults towards religion).

Racism caused way too many problems in the past that we should let we continue to accept it or play it down to "Meh, he's just the insulting douchebag."

Societal responses will still exists. Most websites will ban you for being racist. The community backlash and impact on your career can also be fatal. This is not solvable by chucking them in jail and it shouldn't be. What would it say about humanity if it could only be solved that way?

I don't know how this guy is outside of facebook, maybe he's insulting every other black, muslim or asian he comes by, maybe he's just the normal douche who ranted on facebook, but still we can let the police look into it ?

Why?

Facebook have guidelines. He could just get banned.

[Purlina]

Maybe not jail time, but there should be consequences for being an ass.

[Deleted]

Maybe not jail time, but there should be consequences for being an ass.

Are you being hyperbolic here? Objectively define "being an ass".

[Purlina]

Are you being hyperbolic here? Objectively define "being an ass".

Rude, insulting, boorish, highly offensive?

[Deleted]

Rude, insulting, boorish, highly offensive?

So people should receive legal consequences for being rude, insulting or boorish?

Wtf distinguishes "highly offensive" from just plain old offensive?

[Deleted]

I've not heard he said anything about Demba Ba's religion. Demba Ba's religion was mentioned in some articles, but his comment was supposed to be racist.


What is your opinion on racist jokes? What is your opinion on parody/insult towards religion in general? Should those be crimes?

Why or why not?

There were a number of (we are taking in single digits here) arrests im the UK for trivial tweets / Facebook posts in the UK over the past two years, which got a huge amount of media coverage causing a snowball effect. Usually the tweets / posts were about other huge media covered stories so the comments were seen by a large number of people causing larger and larger snowball effects which lead to people claiming the UK has no free speech.

My opinion is not relevant with regards to the law, as it stands now. IF said jokes / parodies / insults are posted on the web in a public forum (Facebook etc, for anyone and everyone to see) and they are deemed grossly offensive by someone enough to report it to police, they "may" be deemed a crime and investigated if they do not say sorry for causing said offence (if it even gets that far).

There are a lot of ifs, buts or maybes in that, so people saying "OMG, if you say anything on Facebook you will be arrested" are, in my opinion, children who like to shout about how there is no free speach in the UK whilst not having a fucking clue what they are talking about.

Education is key, the person who got arrested for the remarks deserves a fine and maybe some community service at a mosque.

---------- Post added 2013-01-31 at 06:52 PM ----------

Typhoon-AN, are you aware of the gross hypocrisy of your post?

You are treating people differently and want to restrict their freedoms because you don't like their beliefs...

How is it hypocrisy. If you break the law, you deserve to be punished. I do not make nor enforce the laws of the UK, I merely follow them.

If the guy who was arrested is found guilty, he will be punished and the world will continue revolving.
If he is innocent, he will not be punished and the world will continue revolving.

Where is the hypocrisy, where is the issue?

[Purlina]

So people should receive legal consequences for being rude, insulting or boorish?

Wtf distinguishes "highly offensive" from just plain old offensive?

I never said jail time, a public calling out so that everyone could see you for what you are would be suficient.

[Deleted]

There were a number of (we are taking in single digits here) arrests im the UK for trivial tweets / Facebook posts in the UK over the past two years, which got a huge amount of media coverage causing a snowball effect. Usually the tweets / posts were about other huge media covered stories so the comments were seen by a large number of people causing larger and larger snowball effects which lead to people claiming the UK has no free speech.

My opinion is not relevant with regards to the law, as it stands now. IF said jokes / parodies / insults are posted on the web in a public forum (Facebook etc, for anyone and everyone to see) and they are deemed grossly offensive by someone enough to report it to police, they "may" be deemed a crime and investigated if they do not say sorry for causing said offence (if it even gets that far).

The terminology "grossly offensive" is problematic. What does that even mean? Offensive to large amounts of people? Really offensive to just some people?

Yet we want to legislate based on this?

There are a lot of ifs, buts or maybes in that, so people saying "OMG, if you say anything on Facebook you will be arrested" are, in my opinion, children who like to shout about how there is no free speach in the UK whilst not having a fucking clue what they are talking about.

There is reasonable concern about this as the article from the BBC highlighted.

Education is key, the person who got arrested for the remarks deserves a fine and maybe some community service at a mosque.

I've not heard he said anything about Demba Ba's religion. Demba Ba's religion was mentioned in some articles, but his comment was supposed to be racist and not anti-Islamic.

Also, no. Community service at religious organisations would be an abrogation of secularism.

---------- Post added 2013-01-31 at 06:53 PM ----------

I never said legal consequence, a public calling out would be suficient.

If you're obnoxious and/or unlucky, persistent enough that might just happen.

[Elgand]

How about something occurring in modern day.

This kind of thing is occurring in modern day in many countries. Just because it isn't prevalent in your country does not mean it isn't in others.

That is all I will say to that comment, remember that talking about religion is technically not allowed on this forum, so lets stick to the topic at hand.

OT: These situations are always horrible and very difficult to judge an appropriate response. I have seen a few harassment cases that have not been addressed due to the harassment taking place on facebook, and then resulted in suicide on the part of whomever was being harassed. The anonymity of the internet should not allow these kind of actions to take place.

I will defend freedom of speech until I die, but I will not defend someone slandering or libeling another. Freedom of speech has limitations, and while its perfectly legal to be racist keep it to your own damn self.

[Purlina]

If you're obnoxious and/or unlucky, persistent enough that might just happen.

It should happen, if they want to be an ass why hide it? We should let everyone know what kind of person they are.

[Deleted]

It should happen, if they want to be an ass why hide it? We should let everyone know what kind of person they are.

It should happen, it does happen. Some groups do exactly what you're saying. What do you want me to say to this precisely?

[Deleted]

People should be banned from any website if they call out such stuff, racism, insulting or whatsoever, they is no reason why it should be tolerated.

But still, atleast for me Racism is the worst form that pops up far too often in the internet and is not looked further into. I am no judge, I won't judge this man because of his facebook post for an eternal jail sentence. But he has explain himself before an actual judge, the police or whatever the british law system seems appropiate and I agree with them, racism in the internet should be looked at.

He may get banned on facebook, but that does not keep him away from doing it on the street or other websites. What if this man is actually a pretty die hard racist and can be accused of crimes regarding racist, because of further police investigation. That would actually be a good thing, right ?

Of course on the other side, maybe he's just the ranting douche on facebook that he most likely is. He would get a slap on the wrist from the police, maybe has to pay money or whatever. The douche would still get some kind of punishment, maybe nothing would happen but he had to show up at the court.

I don't know what will happen, I'm interested in further news articles. But anyways, I think its correct that this happened so far.

[Raiju]

This kind of thing is occurring in modern day in many countries. Just because it isn't prevalent in your country does not mean it isn't in others.

That is all I will say to that comment, remember that talking about religion is technically not allowed on this forum, so lets stick to the topic at hand.

Discussion is about English law. Irrelevant to the point.

@KunkkaTheAdmiral above me We should attempt to arrest every single person on the planet then, after all, they may be doing SOMETHING wrong. they MAY be all die hard racists.

Or you know, you could not propose ideas that don't have an economical, practical, or logical base. At least pick 1 so you can argue it up against hte other 2? Morality is all great in a fantasy world.

[Deleted]

People should be banned from any website if they call out such stuff, racism, insulting or whatsoever, they is no reason why it should be tolerated.

That's up to the website owners. Most websites will do precisely that though.

He may get banned on facebook, but that does not keep him away from doing it on the street or other websites. What if this man is actually a pretty die hard racist and can be accused of crimes regarding racist, because of further police investigation. That would actually be a good thing, right ?

He'll go through websites & get banned quickly on them. He may do it on the street and depending on his actions, could lead to him harassing others (which is different).

Of course on the other side, maybe he's just the ranting douche on facebook that he most likely is. He would get a slap on the wrist from the police, maybe has to pay money or whatever. The douche would still get some kind of punishment, maybe nothing would happen but he had to show up at the court.

I don't know what will happen, I'm interested in further news articles. But anyways, I think its correct that this happened so far.

I don't, of course. At the bare minimum because we're only told that his comment was racist (or anti-Islamic?) enough to warrant the arrest. We can't judge that for ourselves.

[Zanito44]

This kind of thing is occurring in modern day in many countries. Just because it isn't prevalent in your country does not mean it isn't in others.

That is all I will say to that comment, remember that talking about religion is technically not allowed on this forum, so lets stick to the topic at hand.

OT: These situations are always horrible and very difficult to judge an appropriate response. I have seen a few harassment cases that have not been addressed due to the harassment taking place on facebook, and then resulted in suicide on the part of whomever was being harassed. The anonymity of the internet should not allow these kind of actions to take place.

I will defend freedom of speech until I die, but I will not defend someone slandering or libeling another. Freedom of speech has limitations, and while its perfectly legal to be racist keep it to your own damn self.

You know they are not really following what they believe if they're out persecuting those who persecute them. It goes against what we're taught. It's just another group of fanatics hiding in hypocrisy.

Sometimes with our tech growing it's just going to get worse for harassment cases and the sad thing is is that laws do not conform with tech advances quick enough to make a difference. However that's another thing entirely.

[Deleted]

@ Raiju but after all there is a pretty, little difference between him and many others, he expressed such racist slurs, the big part of the rest did not. So where is the problem of looking into it, there is evidence in this case, his comment on facebook.

If the laws in great britain say thats enough for the arrest thats it. I like it, others don't.

[Elgand]

You know they are not really following what they believe if they're out persecuting those who persecute them. It goes against what we're taught. It's just another group of fanatics hiding in hypocrisy.

Sometimes with our tech growing it's just going to get worse for harassment cases and the sad thing is is that laws do not conform with tech advances quick enough to make a difference. However that's another thing entirely.

Goodness, I completely misread your post and quote. I read it as "People have been hanged, burned or killed for being christian". On the topic you were discussing yes, it is very rare that anyone is harmed in any fashion for attacking christians. I would go as far as to say that (verbally) attacking christians is now part of pop culture.

---------- Post added 2013-01-31 at 01:27 PM ----------

Not true, racism is a part of human nature

Group mentality and racism are very different from one another. Fear of the unknown can also be attributed as part of human nature. I disagree that racism is part of human nature, and very much believe it is a learned trait. Often children do not care about someones race, it is not until someone points it out that they even care.