R2OK!

mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

A student has been jailed for 56 days after making a racist remark on twitter when Fabrice Muamba was fighting for his life. It's a wake up call for people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17515992

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 6791

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17515992

"Stacey tried to "distance himself" from the tweets by claiming his account had been hacked, the court was told.

He later tried to delete his page but was arrested the following day at his student house in Swansea.

When interviewed by police, Stacey said he had been drinking since lunchtime on Saturday and was drunk when he made the comments."

Stacey broke down in tears as he was led away to begin his jail term."

Not so brave once he is out from behind his computer is he?

ruddlescat · Joined: 16 Sep 2010 Posts: 18010 Location: Near Chester

This case is a perfect example of the crazy politically correct society which we have to put up with in Britain today

Yes this student was silly whatever his excuses may be and should not have behaved as he did but does the punishment really fit the 'crime' in this case?

We have an already overcrowded prison system where often judges have to impose non custodial sentences in cases of serious crimes where prison is clearly the appropriate option simply because of a lack of available prison space and yet this foolish young man will be occupying a prison cell for at least 28 days and at the end of the day will have a custodial record which is very likely to prevent him from getting a job and thus contributing to our society by paying tax in later years

Had I been the judge in this case I would have probably given a conditional discharge or at the very most imposed some kind of community service order but of course like certain other cases in the past the whole thing has been hyped up by our totally hysterical media over an incident in a football game which, whilst being very sad, is simply part of life and certainly does not justify the excessive amount of coverage afforded to it when there are people suffering all over the world most of whom have no access to medical help whatsoever unlike the treatment available to a rich footballer

Sometimes I really do despair for this country with its totally ludicrous priorities Rolling Eyes

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littlepieces · Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 1098 Location: Lowestoft

I agree with Ruddles to a point,the bloke is a bit of a plonk and said a disgusting comment community service is the answer to this working with African people and hopefully saying yes we have different cultures but we all all the same
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ruddlescat · Joined: 16 Sep 2010 Posts: 18010 Location: Near Chester

It's interesting that I've just been reading a report about a similar case in Newcastle last week where a person was charged over abusive racist comments made on line against former footballer Stan Collymore and in that case the judge did impose a conditional discharge taking exactly the view I mentioned in my previous post

From this I deduce that there seems to be a complete lack of consistency between attitudes in South Wales as compared to other parts of the country which cannot be good if the interests of justice are to be served properly

Of course both cases really involve what is commonly known as 'internet trolling' and generally speaking in such cases it is far more of a penalty for the people concerned if they are excluded from their chosen internet forum rather than taking them to court which involves a great deal of public expense

I would imagine that the young student in South Wales will probably appeal against sentence and he will probably be successful based not least on the outcome of the Newcastle case and this will incur even further expense to the public purse

There just seems to be a total lack of common sense amongst the powers that be in this country when it comes to such things Sad

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John W · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 3367 Location: Warwickshire, UK

I don't think common sense comes into it - except that the Tweeter clearly has none!

He thought he could 'get away with it' and there has to be a deterrent for this sort of crime, so an example has to be made, it's a way of deterring others. Clearly this crime would be encouraged if he'd got off lightly.

One reason the riots got out of hand was because the police were unable to clamp down on the London events, so copycat riots occurred in Brum, Manchester etc. The law must be seen to be firm and timely in its response.
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John W

ruddlescat · Joined: 16 Sep 2010 Posts: 18010 Location: Near Chester

John - there's a huge difference between gangs of rioters scaring people and causing criminal damage running into millions of pounds which we all have to pay for and some sad young idiot making stupid comments on some social website which the intended target is extremely unlikely to read because he's lying unconscious in a hospital bed at the time

Prison should be reserved for criminals who pose a physical risk to the safety of ordinary members of the public and to imprison this young man isn't really a deterrent anyway because the fact is if five hundred people on Twitter all copied his behaviour there simply wouldn't be enough prison places available to accomodate them all

Simply ban the man from Twitter and perhaps other fora - a cheap and effective solution which for an internet troll will be a greater and more effective punishment than spending weeks in prison at taxpayers expense

Why does everything in this country have to be so complicated when simple solutions are available Rolling Eyes

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Schizoidman · Joined: 20 Sep 2010 Posts: 1140 Location: Rural West Sussex

This man committed an offence and clearly has to be punished. Merely banning him from forums is clearly insufficient punishment, as he can presumably set himself up again under a new name and email address.

That said, I think 56 days inside was too harsh. Perhaps a few days would have been more appropriate, if such a sentence exists.