Ongoing #16

Azhar Ahmed sentenced over Facebook soldier deaths slur

Since the popularity of the internet turned off-hand pub comments into perma-linked multimedia broadcasts of idiocy, judges have been going cock-a-hoop handing down sentences to anyone with enough motor skills to register a twitter account. This particular Muppet Of The Week happened to spout his drivel about dead soldiers somewhere public enough for one of the widows of a recently deceased serviceman to see and so she called the police. No, wait. What? I can't even imagine how that call went, but I hope it included something along the lines of "Help! Come quick! There's a wanker on the internet!".

So, for the crime of being an inconsiderate arse (okay, technically "sending a grossly offensive communication"), he has been given a fine and community service. Somebody - namely District Judge Jane Goodwin - gets to decide what is, and I quote, "beyond the pale of what's tolerable in our society". I'd suggest that if society can't tolerate some hateful and by all accounts quickly-redacted comments flippantly thrown out on a social media site, society is properly fucked. Right in the eye socket. Or something offensive. The judge went on to state that:

"With freedom of speech comes responsibility. On March 8 you failed to live up to that responsibility."

No. On the 8th of March Azhar Ahmed lived up completely to the responsibility of freedom of speech by speaking freely. Then a moral crusader with not an ounce of irony-recognition told him he couldn't do that. Part of freedom of speech is having the ability to say dumb things so that vaguely intelligent people know to avoid you. It is not and should not be considered illegal to flag yourself to everyone else as the total dickwad that you are.