To a certain extent I'm playing devil's advocate. When I first heard about it, on the TV, I thought good; serves him right. Then later I started to think about the implications of this. I suppose coming down hard on this sort of racial obscenity might be a good thing, but then I start to think about who decides what is obscene. What about blasphemy? To some that is more obscene than anything racial and can inspire people to commit murder. And what about other minorities that are 'hurt'? The obese, the people with the 'wrong hair'.

I'm caught in a moral maize on this. Is it sticks and stones, or is it about creating a fairer society where people need not fear prejudice and bigotry.

Good comparison

Surely, the suppression of free speech is the ultimate bigotry ?

No, I don't think it is. In a society we have rules, which includes what we deem to be reasonable and fair. How we treat others is included in that. I think this person deserves a punishment, but I think he has already been punished by the disclosure of his actions. I somehow doubt many were truly upset by his racially motivated obscenities, but I suspect some wanted to get one back on him.

While you cited Darwin and his 'obscene' ideas about the origin of species, I doubt one day we will be celebrating the language of a bigot on a micro blogging site in centuries to come, in the same way.

Who knows where a posting will lead in future years ? Not I for one, it does however once again reveal just what an idiots tool twitter can be. I fail to comprehend how a young lads rant can lead to 56 days when we cannort send violent criminals to jail because they are too full. Still always find a little corner for him and for the granny who didn't pay her council tax.

I totally agree. While what this person said was in extremely bad taste, I don't think it was bad enough to merit a custodial sentence.

Andy, if I may - I do agree with you.
I have one story of a similar situation which I may share in the near future.
Like a Jane Austin novel.

The thing is people often say things, whether on the spur of the moment, without thinking, or without putting their point across effectively.
Often punished for it.

In this situation, I think jail time is a step too far... I'm sure the media coverage would have been enough... people make lots of sorts of comments all the time. Rarely does it ever deserve a custodial sentence.

56 days gaol is completely justified, he will be out in 20. With the institutionalized racism in football this case is setting an example to others, all forms of racism need to be removed including the middle class tolerance.

I didn't see what he said so can't say if it was racist or not. But, many things these days can be perceived as racist but are not actually racist, if that makes sense. There is a whole reverse-racism culture in which people say or do something innocuous but is then turned into something racist, more often than not by people who are not the ethnic minority... eg it would be a white British person to turn around and say "THATS RACIST"..

No it's not over the top. Hopefully this will deter other people who like to write vile things about others. I suspect he would not say it to someones face, and anyone who writes racist/hatred things about a person they don't know on the internet is just a coward.

I would personally like more to be done on trolls, if and when they get found out. Its upsetting to find out a child has committed suicide because of being bullied online. I read about a teacher in Amercia who set up a group about a child in her class because she didn't like him. She encouraged lots of other children to join and they bullied this poor child who ended up killing himself. Nothing happend to the teacher, which is appaling. I reckon if that happend here she would of been taken to court.

People need to be stopped, if prison is the answer then so be it.

I agree racism is ugly, but gaoling people for being racist is gaoling people for having a point of view. This to me sets a dangerous precedent. Next stop, blasphemy?

Torment is another thing altogether, and I see gaol as a suitable punishment. A police warning in conjunction with his Tweet account being removed or redacted would have been enough in my view. He certainly went all apologetic when he realised the enormity of the situation.

Compare this with the guy in Hungerford, who appears to have no contrition at all.

Why the reticence in posting the YouTube link to the tweets under discussion? It took me all of 30 seconds to find it.

For a change something different as regards youtube.
I posted all my father's cine from about 1950-1960.
Some I decided to remove because I no intention of arguing with Sony.

Others remain & there has been no trouble, they have proved popular for people all over the world.
At the moment it is Turks (PKK) and Kurds arguing.On other sites. I am well out of it.

I sometimes look at other folks posting and the flaming is outrageous.
People from Arab type countries are well known for their swearing ability.

Us westerners should learn a lesson on such things as "Camels and your Mother".
I would never find a link, so just take my word for it. They keep changing the site and also I
don't think I should encourage gardeners to shout too loudly.
ce

What reticence?

www.thefreedictionary.com/reticence
ret·i·cence (r t -s ns). n. 1. The state or quality of being reticent; reserve. 2. The state or quality of being reluctant; unwillingness. 3. An instance of being reticent.

I agree. What disturbs me is when there appears to be a correlation between the severity of a sentence and how much the media want to make of something. I thought judges were meant to be above that sort of thing.

There are far more suitable punishments for this foolish young man than prison.

I would not be surprised if there were to be an appeal against sentence.

I know what it means, although its true meaning (or derivation) is 'to keep schtum', but like many words, 'misuse' is broadening the meaning of the word.


I would still like to know what he means by his post.

He wasn't just rude, he broke the law.

In no way do I excuse offensive and racist comments, but if he were alive today, I wonder what George Orwell would have made of all this. I always understood "1984" to be a warning, not a template. How far away are we from "thought crimes"?