Total Freedom of Speech is Bad

Today in London a woman who verbally racial abused fellow passengers on the London Underground (or "subway" for Americans) was sentenced to 5 months in prison and was banned from ever traveling on the London underground again. There has been no public outcry against this sentence on freedom of speech grounds and in fact many people have said that she should be continually punished until her views are changed. I believe this is a prime example of how limiting freedom of speech can be used to benefit society as a whole and that treating freedom of speech like an untouchable sacred shrine is a ridiculous and unfounded course of action. The video can be seen below. The person who made this video was returning from a funeral.



Surly this proves that freedom of speech must be limited for the greater good of society and as far as I'm concerned the woman in this video got of lightly and should be sent to prison until she changes her views.

@Kali

This is disgusting.

Disgusting woman. Also her freedom of speech is not being limited. She chose to express it in a way which constituted harrassment under UK law. If she had chosen to express these "views" of hers in a civilised manner she wouldn't be serving time behind bars. Nick Griffin, for instance, pretty much stands up in public fora and says the same bigoted crap, but because he doesn't insist on slurring it drunkenly at terrified tube passengers, naturally he is free to express whatever he wants.

Freedom of speech is there to protect your right to voice your opinion - not to allow you to act like a violent lout. There will of course, always be idiots who confuse the two, but the law isn't on their side so it's of fuck all consequence.

Actually she was sentenced to 5 months in prison because of racism. Nick Griffin is allowed to do it because there is a loop hole in the law if you are part of a political party.

Yah! Thats how we convince people! By locking them in cages!

Fuck your statist bullshit.

It would be a shame if people got there feelings hurt, what a Terrible world we live in!

I don't know about you, but the other people in the video did not seem like " terrified tube passengers"to me. Banning her from traveling in the subway is disgusting. The idiots who want her to be imprisoned until her views change are the ones who are disgusting. She's stupid no doubt, but that does not mean she shoud be punished because we don't like what she believes.

No."Jacqueline Woodhouse, 42, was charged with racially aggravated common assault and a racially aggravated public order offence, police said."

Key words here - "common assault". Racially aggravated, yes, but as you can see it is the manner in which she expressed her views which has constituted a criminal offence. Also, she's actually only serving 2 and a half months behind bars.

edit: No, she has been banned from travelling on the tube whilst drunk. There is a difference and I think that it's a perfectly reasonable penalty.

Really? BBC news said 5 months I swear;

Actually racially aggravated is the key phrase as there are laws against all forms of racial abuse as stated by the Commission for Racial Equality.

Yeah, but she's only serving half of it behind bars.

None of those laws limit freedom of speech. And "racially aggravated" isn't the issue here at all. Acting the way she did, and verbally assaulting people in that manner is an offence, regardless of what she was actually saying. She could have been shouting about communists or people with ginger hair instead and still have been prosecuted.

Freedom of speech has absolutely nothing to do protecting someones right to act unpleasant on a crowded public metro, so I can see them banning her from using public transit on the grounds that shes a bitch. Five months in prison for racism? That's just fucking retarded and I refuse to believe "racism" was the real charge until someone proves me otherwise.

You know who I and good majority of people in the western world find offensive? Communists. I personally think we should lock those fear mongers up until they change their ways. (Because that always works doesn't? Never turned a degenerate into a martyr before has it?) After all, we can't have such blatant classism in our society can we? Least of all neoBolshevik trash.

Yes, but there are also laws against racial hatred in the UK which directly affected the verdict. Look up the Equality Act 2010

How did it directly affect the verdict? The Equality Act is just a streamlining of pre-existing laws relating solely to discrimination in employment on grounds of religion or belief, sexual orientation and age.

It has nothing to do with this case. At all.

Did that bit about anti-discrimination pass you by?

Sorry, unless the Home Office is lying, the Act concerns employment and workplace based discrimination towards employees. This is not related to freedom of speech, it is an employment regulation. And I ask you again, since you avoided answering me the first time, how did it directly affect the verdict?

Your views are totally and completely indefensible, Scipio. No decent human being would tolerate your sentiments regarding speech, and no rational one would find them relevant here.

You're a true red, and while your slimy brethren may deny it, they are at their core exactly like you. The real menace to society isn't fascism or racism, but close-minded, brutish, authoritarianism. Certainly, political correctness is one of the largest, most grotesque appendages of that abomination, but it's the mindset behind it that is truly despicable.

You, and other reds, think you have the right to smash everything and everyone else into the dirt, no matter how precious or invaluable they are. As long as you think something stands in the way of your ideal world, you have no problems annihilating it, even at the cost of your ideals. No; your ideals are little things, and you think nothing of casting them aside, just as you think nothing of casting aside your decency, your humanity.

"The ends justify the means" is your calling card, and if the world is just, then truly it will be your and your kind's epitaph. If there is any force holding civilization and humanity back, it's the brood of that insufferable sentiment: you and all of your odious "comrades."

@Kali did you ever think of publishing those kind of rants as poems or something? I'm sure they'd be a hit.

I personally agree with freedom of speech, it allows the populace to voice there opinion, but in today society there is a fine line between where you are angry douche bag and logical person protesting. ( I prefer riots personally, makes sure the government isn't to powerful.)

Ahhhh, speaking of angry, there it is.

Having previously been subjected to a Kali rant, I say: Yes. They're marvelously Churchillian.