Knives and blades may stay concealed but names will get you five years Please forgive me, I never write articles so this may turn into a bit of a rant I'm worried/embarrassed about the future. I read today about a young Celtic fan being up in court for using racist and sectarian words online. He could, but won't face 5 years in jail for what he typed. I'm embarrassed by this....not because of what he wrote...I see that as childish....no I'm embarrassed because the full weight of the law has been thrown at this boy, as a token gesture, to show the SNP are serious about dealing with Celtic as well as Rangers fans for.....well if not death threats, at least name calling. We now have a situation where being offensive is a crime punishable by 5 YEARS in jail....who decides what is offensive? The people who don't even know what sectarian means. I am actually not here to say one set of words is worse than another....I'm here to say back off....let people say what they want....be it full of love or hate Blessing yourself aggressively....singing GSTQ.....well surely Flower of Scotland is next.....its embarrassing...however back to this lad....what he said is wrong, nasty obscene....but its only words.... Knife crime in Scotland is for me the most serious problem we have, yet no legislation was fumbled through to arrest you for carrying a blade....say O@#$%& B@$$&&* though and you are in jail.....for using words You may need to check this but as far as I am aware, in Austria, if you deny the holocaust....you will be arrested.....I thought that was barmy....I mean arresting people for disagreeing with history. What we are getting is far worse. My problem is that if you tell me not to do something.....well who the f#$% are you to tell me anything. As long as I hurt noone gies peace. We are pretty much on our way to having our own thought police and I could end up in the slammer for being stubborn. We are supposed to live in a democracy where even though we have scumbags, they are entitled to their opinion. It feel like Salmond is trying to cure hatred by making it illegal. How can he? Maggie Thatcher couldn't stop IRA songs at the height of their campaigning and that was when Britain had real problems. How can you enforce this when lots of perpetrators will be living across borders...away from Salmond's pudgy fingers You can't ban hatred and you sure can't make it a crime. Did anyone ever discuss Boxing in school? How banning it for the safety of boxers wouldn't work as the matches would just be taken underground. Boxers want to box. Bigots want to hate. Making them hide in shadows instead of talking about their issues in public is unhealthy. Forums like this help rather than hinder. I have gone off in tangents I'm sorry. The title of this is Sticks and Stones...a rhyme for kids about offensive name calling. I think it is apt because many of those online causing offence will be kids, are we going to round them up in police stings? I have a solution to internet bigotry that won't require William Wallace to save us. If it offends you log off. If you don't want to then complain. Moderators can cancel accounts or Facebook pages if it is deemed to have gone against terms and conditions. Clubs can ban you without the need or expense of a judge to order it. I am not advocating offensive behaviour, I just don't believe it should be a worse crime than assault or even vandalism But we wouldn't get our moosh in the press if we didn't make a scene would we Alex You are not yet the Next King of Scotland and you are NOT God I have so much to say but no skill in structuring it and I know 90% of Celtic fans will disagree with me. A comic once said if you are offended, so what, it doesn't make you ill. Very blunt but true in my opinion. Rant over
