-
Posts
-
Something in the back of my mind told me that Griffin and Collett might get away with it, but it was still a shock when it happened. I was watching Sky News some days earlier and was hearing how viewers were defending the racist poem from a white power website that the Tory MP had been distributing. It got me thinking that prejudice in our society is pretty bad right now especially among people with right-wing views. So something told me that the BNP might get away with their crimes.
The situation is that Griffin was caught on tape inciting hatred and murder towards muslims in a BNP meeting in Yorkshire. He even told the audience himself that what he was saying could get him 7 years in prison. The defence argued that it was a case of free speech and also a case of religious hatred and not racial hatred. Staggeringly, the jury bought the argument, unanimously.
The argument that what is said to like-minded individuals can’t be considered incitement seems a bit hypocritical when you consider the number of muslims who have been convicted for inciting hatred and murder in meetings with fellow muslims. It shows how screwed up our legal system is and just how rife bigotry in our society is. If it had been a muslim in the dock saying the same things Griffin said but this time about Christians, would he have been acquitted? His ar$e would have been thrown in prison before he could know what hit him.
It’s extremely disappointing to think that neo-nazis have been given a victory particularly because on Sunday we stop to remember those who died to keep nazism out of this country.
@Mr Bigstuff wrote:
Something in the back of my mind told me that Griffin and Collett might get away with it, but it was still a shock when it happened. I was watching Sky News some days earlier and was hearing how viewers were defending the racist poem from a white power website that the Tory MP had been distributing. It got me thinking that prejudice in our society is pretty bad right now especially among people with right-wing views. So something told me that the BNP might get away with their crimes.
The situation is that Griffin was caught on tape inciting hatred and murder towards muslims in a BNP meeting in Yorkshire. He even told the audience himself that what he was saying could get him 7 years in prison. The defence argued that it was a case of free speech and also a case of religious hatred and not racial hatred. Staggeringly, the jury bought the argument, unanimously.
The argument that what is said to like-minded individuals can’t be considered incitement seems a bit hypocritical when you consider the number of muslims who have been convicted for inciting hatred and murder in meetings with fellow muslims. It shows how screwed up our legal system is and just how rife bigotry in our society is. If it had been a muslim in the dock saying the same things Griffin said but this time about Christians, would he have been acquitted? His ar$e would have been thrown in prison before he could know what hit him.
It’s extremely disappointing to think that neo-nazis have been given a victory particularly because on Sunday we stop to remember those who died to keep nazism out of this country.
The fact that the jury voted unanimously meants they heard more eveidence or points of law than you have Mr B
You had declared them guilty obvioulsy before and during the trialDemocracy rules Mr B – and when it goes against you – you don;t like it
Keep reading your guardian mate
Nick Griffin was CLEARED of inciting racial hatred.
“I will continue to speak the truth in plain, blunt terms,” he said. “They cannot take our freedom.”
Griffin, 47, and BNP head of publicity Mark Collett, 26, were cleared of using words or behaviour intended to incite racial hatred by a jury at Leeds Crown Court.
They were cleared of similar charges at a trial in February.
Griffin was charged after the BBC secretly filmed a speech he gave in 2004 during which he told supporters Islam was a “wicked, vicious faith” that was turning the country into “a multi-racial hell-hole”.
Outside court, Collett said the political establishment and the BBC were “cockroaches”. Griffin called for the resignation of the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, Colin Cramphorn.
The Crown Prosecution Service defended its decision to bring the case.
“The CPS was satisfied there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction,” said CPS lawyer Helen Allen.
Judge Norman Jones, the Recorder of Leeds, had stressed to the jury that it was not the BNP on trial, and that the alleged crime was racial, not religious, hatred.
“This is not about whether the views of the BNP are right or wrong,” he said before the jury retired to consider its verdict on Thursday.
“This is not about whether assertions made about Islam are right or wrong, this case is about allegations of the commitment of a crime.”
What an absolute waste of the publics money.
Before you all start ranting and raving about racism, take a look at the manifesto. Nowhere does it say kill, beat or slaughter foreigners. It does, however, state that the country in which we live is a christian country and NOT an islamic state.
People are sick to death of being discriminated against just because they are white and christian.
Why is it that a large majority of members are ex servicemen who fought in world war two and many other service vets?
dont beleive what the worried government tell you. they are just scared of being beaten at the next general election. The BNP will continue to grow until something is doe about this islamic crap we have to suffer in our own country.
Whatever you think of it, I think its a great victory for freedom of speech in an oh so crap country at this present time.
I think it would have added fuel to the simmering fire that is building in everybody I know at the present time if they had been found guilty.
There will soon be riots in this country like none seen before if the situation keeps getting worse, so Im told, and to be honest I really dont blame people for getting pissed off. Especially people on waiting lists for housing when they see immigrants blatantly jumping the queue time after time after time, amongst many other examples. People have had enough.
Can you imagine the outrage if a white man like Nick was actually found guilty of speaking his mind?
I dont know nowt about politics, but my own little opinion is it was easier to find him not guilty for all concerned.
@Mr Bigstuff wrote:
Something in the back of my mind told me that Griffin and Collett might get away with it
Me :D
but it was still a shock when it happened.
Noooo, get away, really? :wink:
The situation is that Griffin was caught on tape inciting hatred and murder towards muslims in a BNP meeting in Yorkshire.
WRONG!! He was found NOT GUILTY :D
He even told the audience himself that what he was saying could get him 7 years in prison.
….if he said that out in the street, meaning not to an audience that WANTED to hear what was being said.
The defence argued that it was a case of free speech and also a case of religious hatred and not racial hatred. Staggeringly, the jury bought the argument, unanimously.
Considering the term islam was used and not asian…you are upset arnt you :D
The argument that what is said to like-minded individuals can’t be considered incitement seems a bit hypocritical when you consider the number of muslims who have been convicted for inciting hatred and murder in meetings with fellow muslims.
You could blame your fellow multiculturalists for that, because they activated some of the british public into becoming BNP members which earned Nick and Mark a good enough Lawyer. Besides, Nick is a graduate in law, he knows the law, he knew what was needed to win.
Sunday we stop to remember those who died to keep nazism out of this country.
Yes, we stop to remember that those fallen brave men and women have been betrayed by the old gang for 50 years.
He didn’t just say “Islam is a wicked and evil faith” he was talking about how muslims pose a threat to white women men and children. He was stirring up hatred towards muslims and suggesting that people should take care of them before a muslim harms somebody within their families. He was caught on tape doing this and he admitted during the speech that he could get 7 years in prison for doing it. On reflection, it looks like he got off on a technicality because while the law protects Jews as a race it doesn’t protect muslims. When Griffin made the same sort of hate-ridden comments about Jews he was convicted. So it looks like as long as the BNP talk about muslims without mentioning a race they can get away with incitement. Make no mistake, it was most definitely incitement at that BNP meeting.
This is why the law against inciting religious hatred should have been passed because clearly there is no protection against the majority of religious groups and in particular muslims. This was never an issue of free speech, Griffin wasn’t interested in having a theological discussion like the Pope was, the intention of Griffin was to incite hatred and he got away with it because of a legal technicality and maybe the naivety of the jury.
There was a muslim cleric who was convicted for selling tapes that contained incitement towards Jews and Christians. I see no difference in principle between that case and the Griffin case. Both were preaching to the converted. Another muslim was convicted yesterday for his protests about the Danish cartoons. I don’t remember anybody here complaining about freedom of speech then.
The BNP is an evil, subversive, neo-nazi organisation whose primary objective is to create dischord and division within the country. Griffin’s credentials are nazi through and through. He has even attended neo-nazi rallies in Germany where he met the former head of the Ku Klux Klan and associated with people who had links to the nazi regime of the ’30s and’40s.
“Whatever our toil, whatever our struggle, we will fight on like comrades and brothers until every last vestige of the nazi regime has been beaten into the ground. Until the memory only of it remains as a warning for future generations”…….Winston Churchill
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire 1694 – 1778 (allegedly)@emmalush wrote:
Sunday we stop to remember those who died to keep nazism out of this country.
Yes, we stop to remember that those fallen brave men and women have been betrayed by the old gang for 50 years.
i have family who fought in the war emma and i thnk you will find that speaking from experience and spending time in alot of british legions that they dont feel betrayed!
but! they do feel embarrassed by the BNP, they fought a war against a man who wanted one race in his country! remember that
My family was also in WW2, and i can tell you, they fought to defend the society we had at the time, they fought to defend the british, not this multiracial sesspit.
The BNP want to defend what they fought for.
The BNP fights to defend nazism, nothing else. As for freedom of speech, there has never been absolute freedom of speech, there have always been things that lawmakers have banned people from saying. You can’t mischievously shout “fire” in a crowded theatre, you can’t say that the monarch should be killed, and you can’t call for the extermination of a race. Laws against incitement are clearly aimed at stopping unrest and disorder within our society.
If some demagogue goes around saying that muslims will harm your kids and take your women by force then those people who believe what that person is saying will be more inclined to attack, abuse, or discriminate against muslims. As usual, the neo-nazis are scapegoating a minority for all the ills of the world. Their emphasis used to be on Jews but now they are focusing on muslims because they know that their message resonates with some ignorant people just like the rhetoric against Jews worked in the 1930s/1940s.
Fortunately, the government doesn’t plan to sit on its laurels and is proposing a toughening up of race-hate legislation so that extremists can’t get off on technicalities. They will probably run into difficulties again with people who naively think it’s an issue of free speech.
Get involved in this discussion! Log in or register now to have your say!