Showing how far the British people have come from valuing freedom of speech and expression, UK Internet users took to their social media accounts to praise police for apprehending this “dangerous criminal.” After reading through some of these remarks, it suddenly becomes a lot easier to understand how the British government has managed to get away with past incidences of suppressing free speech:
“James Parry, from Parry Welch Lacey LLP based in Huyton, explained that if the man was charged with a public order offence the maximum punishment would be a £1,000 fine. If intent was included, there was a possibility of six months behind bars.
‘People should not need to be told that wearing clothing displaying a message such as this is stupid behaviour,’ he said.
British police have been increasingly vigilant in policing supposedly ‘offensive’ speech crimes in recent years.
At the end of 2014, Police Scotland investigated the provocative, conservative commentator Katie Hopkins for an ‘offensive’ joke about a Scottish nurse being treated for Ebola.
In February this year, Greater Glasgow Police arrested a 41-year-old man under the Communications Act after receiving a report of a supposedly ‘offensive’ comment made on Facebook regarding Syrian migrants arriving on the Isle of Bute.
In April, again, Greater Glasgow Police threatened social media users, ordering them to be ‘kind’ and not ‘hurtful’ unless they wanted to ‘receive a visit… this weekend’.
And earlier this month, a Muslim Police Chief Inspector for Greater Manchester indicated that, according to his understanding, ‘freedom of speech does not mean freedom of offending culture, religion or tradition’.”
Source: Breitbart
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