[Football] Eight weeks jail for Facebook racist post about West Brom player

[super-seagulls]

it was an mistake acording to my mates on britain first as he meant to call the player a nigel but it autospelled it wrong

Regards

DF

The mistake is the likes of you and your mates thinking Britain is just for white people.

 

[The Optimist]

I'll side step the temptation to get into the debate about the context of this crime versus that crime, this punishment versus this punishment, and simply ask: why oh why do people do this?

Seriously, it's a crime with literally zero upside. If I do 100 on the motorway, I'll probably get home a bit quicker. If I rob a bank, there's a chance I might get rich. If I get coked up and sink a couple of bottles of wine and then take my car to get some more beak, then at least I get to have a good time along the way. Yeah there's a risk it all ends in tears, but I can justify in my own mind why I'm doing it if I'm of a sufficiently delinquent nature.

This numbnuts is currently serving jail time, and for what? What could he possibly have got out of it, except for maybe 5 or 10 seconds of titillation as he thinks to himself "hehe, that's a good one". I mean, it's not by the way. Even if we put the racist element to one side, it's just not particularly clever or witty. I mean, "baboon" doesn't even sound anything like "ballon", especially with its soft, French pronunciation, does it? It's a shit joke, a shit, racist joke, badly executed, and all he's got for his troubles is 8 weeks in prison and presumably the end of whatever employment he had. Worth it?

I just don't get it. Even if you believe in your own racist perspective, surely by now everyone knows that that kind of abuse on Twitter, or Facebook, or the web in general, leaves you open to criminal proceedings being taken against you? Ok, maybe most people get away with it, I don't know. Maybe this guy's been made an example of. Maybe the punishment is harsh in the context of people who are violent, burgle, endanger people's lives on the road and so on. Whatever, it's not new news - spout racist abuse on Twitter and you may go to prison for it. I go all the way back to the university student who decided it would be funny to troll Fabrice Muamba's Twitter account as he lay 'dying' on the White Hart Lane pitch almost 10 years ago now. What did he get? 8 weeks and a career which ended before it even began.

I just don't understand what possesses people? Even if people do hold outdated, bigoted views, how and why can't they keep them to themselves? Here's an analogy - I fùcking hate oranges, as in the fruit. My mum tells me she used to nail about 10 of the cúnts a day when she was pregnant with me in the mid-80s. And ever since I can remember, I cannot tolerate the smell, the look, the texture of the bloody things. Can't stand 'em, even typing this makes me feel sick. But if there was a law that said that slagging oranges off on the internet was a criminal offence that I could do time for, I'd keep that opinion to myself out of nothing other than self preservation.

If people are incapable of adopting healthier thought patterns, they should at least know better than to share theirs with the wider world. If nothing else, I hope this chump's sentence serves as a reminder of that.

I would guess it’s about validation of your views. If you hold a set of views that most people you interact with don’t share it’s probably quite an isolating feeling. Therefore if you can go on the internet and find like minded people it’ll make you feel like you belong to a group.

This happens on both sides of the spectrum. Those who are isolated because they are persecuted against, for example homosexual people in homophobic environments, and those who are isolated because they hold extreme views.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Bacon here too…

It’s great that these twats on social media who think they can just abuse and run are getting time - brilliant.

Now I also have no doubt CPFC and Croydon met will catch up with the older bloke seemingly wanting to find 2 Brighton fans to suck off and another to penetrate his anus will be getting time and a life ban from the club (easy to see seat - the foreign lads vid one) - especially given all the banning they did after the Amex break in…

Hopefully they will manage to get to that, but they'll have their work cut out after they've finished prosecuting the Holmesdale fans who were seen spitting and throwing missiles at our players.
I'm sure they'll want to make an example of them first.

 

[Uncle C]

Given that, as far as I'm aware, we still lock more people up than any other country in Western Europe, I'm not convinced a prison sentence is necessarily the best outcome for all here. Perhaps some community service that brings him into contact with a wider cross section of people might help?

Giving Community Service tackles the issue with just one individual.

Giving a prison term with the attendant publicity sends out a strong message to the Nation, and is an attempt to tackle the problem in the Community.

Job well done.

 

[CheeseRolls]

He was found guilty for what he did.
He was sentenced for his attitude to his crime, which was to deny it and pretend it was some minor technical hitch.

It is very unlikely he would have got a prison sentence if he had pleaded guilty and said "yes, I am a racist what about it?" So now he is a racist a coward and a liar and he has a football ban and a prison sentence. Nice work fella.

 

[rippleman]

A coked up and drunk ex glamour model crashing her car, breaking motoring laws, a liability, is completely irrelevant to this thread. If the courts deem she needs help or time inside, so be it. She hasn’t hurt anyone at this moment.

So we let her continue to ignore her driving bans until in her drunken, coked-up state she does kill someone? That sounds like a plan.

 

[1066familyman]

Giving Community Service tackles the issue with just one individual.

Giving a prison term with the attendant publicity sends out a strong message to the Nation, and is an attempt to tackle the problem in the Community.

Job well done.

That's a fair point that in itself, regarding sending out a strong message, I don't disagree with. I still believe for example that the various anti racism campaigns within football are largely tick box exercises that don't go far enough. Players getting short bans for racism for example is ineffective. I'd like to see lifetime bans introduced there, if they really mean what they say by... Kick It Out. The lifetime ban from WBA for this individual is a start at least.

My wider point is how effective prison is as a punishment. Looking at figures in this country on prisoner numbers and on re offending, I don't think it's very effective. In this case, he'll go in a racist and likely come out a racist if he's just going to be banged up in his cell 23 hrs a day with no other input because the system is at bursting point.

Maybe he'll never change his views, but perhaps forcing him to engage with others in a positive way might be a step in the right direction?

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

The mistake is the likes of you and your mates thinking Britain is just for white people.

I don’t think PPF or his mates think that.
ppf on the other hand…..

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Glad you said it first. I tend to agree, surely he must have previous?

The problem isn’t going away with lesser sentences though. Perhaps we have to up the stakes until we find the sanction that actually has an effect ?

 

[happypig]

Purposes of sentencing:
Punishment
Rehabilitation
Reparation
Protection of the Public
Reduction in Crime

It's advised that a sentence should address no more than one or two of these to avoid becoming overly complicated.
Clearly in this case the main sentencing focus is on Reduction in Crime and the sentence, whilst seeming unduly severe to some it sends a clear message "pour encourager les autres" ; it won't make other racists any less racist but it will, hopefully, make them less vocal.

 

[nicko31]

Jail for racist trolling is ridiculous when people that physically attack and harm people sometimes get away with a suspended sentence.

Racist words is wrong but physical harm is even worse and should be treated so by the courts .

I'd be interested if the guy has a history of this sort of stuff.

If it was a mistake it was very careless, either way I'd put him to work in the community. Jail is a waste

 

[Weststander]

So we let her continue to ignore her driving bans until in her drunken, coked-up state she does kill someone? That sounds like a plan.

Failed to read my post - I said locked up or helped, up to the judge.

Let's not railroad this thread about racists and thank our lucky stars that the police/judiciary are finally making these lowlifes pay a heavy price for their cowardly attacks on non-whites .... for being non-white.

 

[arfer guinness]

Totally ridiculous sentence, unless the judge thought if he's stupid enough to put this joke on social media what else is he stupid enough to do.

 

[arfer guinness]

Jail for racist trolling is ridiculous when people that physically attack and harm people sometimes get away with a suspended sentence.

Racist words is wrong but physical harm is even worse and should be treated so by the courts .

I agree, unfortunately the law now punishes the reason for a crime as opposed to the crime itself. If any crime is preceded by the word racist, sexist or homophobic it is dealt with more harshly than just murder, assault etc. to me the crime itself, for whatever reason hurts the same.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

His time would have been better spent sitting on the M25 3 or 4 times a week, disrupting tens of thousands of people, putting lives at risk as there appears no chance you will ever get banged up for doing that ..