Man jailed for April Jones comments written on facebook

[Boris Johnson]

[Showboat]

So now it's illegal to be obnoxious in the UK. Great.

Another side to this is the kind of 'Barbra Streisand affect'... would the families of the missing girl & murdered policewomen have even heard about these assholes were it not for their arrests and subsequent media coverage?

[Showboat]

[PoS]

Wow, you guys are taking this Orwellian thoughtcrime thing to the extreme.

[OGPhilly]

[Showboat]

[Hyperion]

If the intent of the law was to criminalize continual, persistent and personal harassment that would be fine, but the precedent set by this case is frightening to say the least.

[Boris Johnson]

[OGPhilly]

If we're talking about libel and defamation, that deals with the idea that you can harm a person's livelihood and well being by spreading objective falsehoods about them. I think you're wrong about the hypothetical of a film defaming Obama. There are already a bunch of those out there. We can pretty much say anything we want about the president as long as it isn't a threat. I heard that in England they banned any comedy program from using footage of the royal wedding, which would be a very strange concept here so that's a difference in our governments attitudes.

Anyway, getting back on point, kind of a different realm that the case we're actually looking at though (the guy with the t-shirt). He's expressing an opinion: that cops getting killed is justice. That's where I really get caught up, because there are good cases to be made about infringinng on others through lies, but this guy is expressing an opinion. I don't see the cause for banning an opinion, be it crazy, vile, or stupid (and most opinions are at least one of those things).

[Ben Huh]

All of this makes me very happy that my dad's family decided one day in the 1960s to say "f**k Newcastle and the UK" and move to 'Merica.