Tory councillor arrested over Twitter stoning post

[detective-boy]

So if i said "I hope they stone to death the judge that gave this verdict" on twitter that would be enough to get me prosecuted too? Jesus wept.

No, I think not. You are expressing a hope rather than an intended action or an incitement to others to take action or a threat of action.

 

[1927]

I think they understand that perfectly well. But just because it is intended as a joke does not mean that it is not a criminal offence. It is people who use Twitter who need to get a better understanding of what amounts to a criminal offence, and of subjects which are not appropriate as the subject of "jokes" in a public communications medium ...

So calling for someone to be stoned to death, as a joke, gets you arrested. But its OK to demonstrate in Kensington with banners calling for death to all British soldiers, and be quite serious about it, but thats OK. I just want to make sure I understand the law.

 

[detective-boy]

But its OK to demonstrate in Kensington with banners calling for death to all British soldiers, and be quite serious about it, but thats OK.

No. There would be offences committed there ... but in a protest / public disorder situation it may be decided that they should be tolerated (not least as they are clearly not being directly expressed to an individual by an individual) or it may simply be impracticable to arrest them at the time and it may not be a sensible use of resources to carry out a reasctive investigation to identify and arrest them seubsequently.

 

[articul8]

No that can't be right. If someone said "I hope they gas all the jews" that must be an offence?

 

[Maurice Picarda]

No that can't be right. If someone said "I hope they gas all the jews" that must be an offence?

It's not an incitement, merely a wish. You'd need to be urging people to gas them to be arrested. As wossname did in the case of the eminently stonable Alibhai-Brown.

 

[Orang Utan]

No that can't be right. If someone said "I hope they gas all the jews" that must be an offence?

no, why would/should it be?

 

[articul8]

SO "gas all the jews" would be incitement but "I hope they..." becomes OK? that's ridiculous.

 

[Orang Utan]

i wouldn't want either statement to be illegal

 

[Maurice Picarda]

i wouldn't want either statement to be illegal

There's something to be said for incitement being illegal if there's a reasonable chance that people will act on it. It's unlikely that anyone's about to gas any Jews, or (sadly) to heave any rocks at the dreadful Alibhai-Brown. But if someone was disseminating leaflets which called for attacks on traveller communities, or on Asian shops, in areas where there are significant racial tensions then fuck free speech, put the buggers in the cells and take away their computers.

 

[detective-boy]

No that can't be right. If someone said "I hope they gas all the jews" that must be an offence?

You keep coming up with situations which are different in important respects.

This one involved an incitement to racial hatred, for which there are specific offences (unlike incitement to, er, soldier hatred).