Rangers fan jailed for offensive chanting.

[Ashberto]

Doubtless the AWIMB catholic mafia will applaud this, but it's funny how the wider opionionocracy will rage at the Russian authorities jailing women who behaved offensively in a cathedral, but are seemingly content to see football fans in Scotland jailed for saying something offensive at a football match.

(Cue someone saying claiming that the two incidents are "completely different" in 5..4..3..)

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rangers-fan- jailed-for-three-months-1399629 (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rangers-fan-jailed-for-three-months-1399629)

[Luis Anaconda]

surely we are allowed to get one back

[Maz]

http://www.awimb.com/images/smiley_icons/biggrin.gif

[Pat Vegas]

[Luis Anaconda]

[Pat Vegas]

[Witharby 2-3 weeks]

[Peter]

Really, judge? Really?

f**king hell http://www.awimb.com/images/smiley_icons/hehe.gif

[IUFG]

[sodd]

[Luis Anaconda]

a safe way to stand on the kerb and the easiest way to get through a door sometimes though

[Luis Anaconda]

[Mack]

[Pat Vegas]

[Peter]

Where are the others then? The thousands ofothers singing the same thing?

In the judge's own words, this chap is being made an example of. I havenever been convinced at the legitimacy of using the justic system in this way.

The two situations are different by the way http://www.awimb.com/images/smiley_icons/smile.gif

[Peter]

Just like hitler invented anti-semitism

[Ashberto]

the other instigators, and one case involved masses of sympathy for those trying to 'freely express their opinions' and the other didn't.

So of course there are differences. Everything that happens in the world is different in some ways to everything else that happens. However, we should also be able to observe similarities which make it meaningful to draw comparisons to help analyse political reaction to events.

The conclusion here is that many people are keen to shout about free speech and the right to be offensive in nasty Russia, but less interested in free speech in Britain.

[sodd]

[Luis Anaconda]

one, however distasteful, was an expression of political unrest, the other just pure bilious hatred. That is a massive difference whichever way you try to paint it

[Peter]

A grandiose description of screaming 'fenian *******s' at somebody.

Others would suggest that you greatly tarnish the principle of free speech by dragging it into issues like this. This kind of behavious is childish and pathetic and whilst i may have reservations about the sentencing i am not going to sit here and try to defend his actions as acceptable.

Can you not find a serious issue of free speech in the UK rather than the actions of some pissed up scot?

[Ashberto]

rather than those we don't.
If you agree that jail is wrong here, then we are in agreement on the most important thing, although perhaps you only feel comfortable defending the freedoms of nice respectable folk.

[Ashberto]

There is not a civil war on the streets of Glasgow. The local football rivalry there expresses itself with sectarian chants, and the next man to jailed could well be a Celtic fan. Should they all be jailed until the chants stop? The prisons will be full.

I genuinely find 'y**do' chants offensive and racist, but I don't want to see thousands of Arsenal fans jailed for it.

[Luis Anaconda]

But frankly if a couple were jailed for it and it stops other people doing it, so be it.

This isn't really a freedom of speech issue at all. If people have had plenty of warning of the consequences of their behaviour - and there has been plenty - and continue to ignore them, then I can't see how people can complain. Of course it is impractical to jail everybody but if you are the unlucky *******, I am sorry but the argument "They was all doing it as well" simply doesn't wash. I think a more pertinent comparison is with speeding. Thousands, probably millions of people, break that law the other day. Not everyone is going to be punished but if you are the one caught you get done - and can go to jail. Seems fair enough to me

[Ashberto]

If free speech is a bad thing, because it allows sectarians and racists to say things we do not like, then let us say so and start drawing up the full list of things we are not allowed to say.

While we're at it, should message boards be more heavily monitored to stamp out offensive comments? This one is full of them.

[Ashberto]

sectarian hatred v political unrest -

the vulgar outburst in a cathedral would have been deeply upsetting for millions of conservatively-minded people in a religious country, and probably caused more net religious offence than drunken Glasweegies saying what they say to each other every week.

If the religious hatred of football fans deserves prison, is the religious hatred of the Pussy Riot women ok? Or is it not religious hatred in their case but legitimate protest because we agree with them?

Alternatively, should everyone in both countries chill out a bit and not send people to prison for saying things we don't like, however much we dislike it?

[Luis Anaconda]

This is not what freedom of speech is about