Freedom is alive and well in the United Kingdom, apparently… or may not so much .
Nigel Pelham of Sussex has been sentenced to 20 months of prison after he was found guilty on “eight counts of publishing threatening written material intending to stir up religious hatred against Muslims,’
This man used Facebook to express his hatred for muslims & has gone to prison #WeStandTogether against hate crimes https://t.co/Bo7OCDADKu
— Sussex Police (@sussex_police) June 20, 2017
Hate Crimes Sergeant Peter Allen said, “Nigel Pelham used Facebook to express some truly offensive views, with no understanding of how serious his actions were. Many people see social media as a harmless and sometimes faceless place to air their opinions, however I hope this shows we will not tolerate this type of behavior and will act when someone reports their concern about what someone is posting.”
Nigel Pelham was convicted for eight social media posts he made in 2015, one of which included a post suggesting to “put a [religion of peace person] on top of a bonfire”.
Further, the Sergeant called for residents of Sussex to report other citizens should they post anything offensive on social media… “I encourage people who witness such content, to report it to the provider of the social media platform, but such reports can also be made to us online,” he said.
Given the growing attacks happening in England and Europe on the whole I expect we’ll be seeing more and more of this behavior from citizens of the UK. There’s a growing resent from the English and it’s pretty hard not to justify it, in a sense. I think 20 months is a bit much but perhaps Nigel should have been smarter.
What do you think, dear readers? Would you report your fellow citizens if they posted something on social media you didn’t like?