Politics In Other Bizarre British Free-Speech Cases
posted by on July 24 at 16:11 PM
This morning it was S&M, the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, and a tabloid. This afternoon, it’s anti-Semitism and R. Crumb.
Two British holocaust deniers are seeking political asylum in the U.S. after being convicted of publishing racially hateful material online. Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle skipped bail, flew to Los Angeles, and threw themselves at the mercy of immigration officials, beyond the reach of the British courts.
These men are odious, but so are the laws that would sentence them to prison for talking wicked nonsense. But should they be granted political asylum, since they’re being sentenced under laws that violate American standards for free speech?
They’re currently sitting in the Santa Ana City Jail, awaiting a hearing with the INS.
Bizarrely, one of the articles they’ve been convicted of publishing is a cartoon by R. Crumb.
(I won’t link to their site, but you can see the Crumb cartoon—called “When the Goddamn Jews Take Over America”—here. And you can read Jen Graves’s excellent review of the recent Crumb exhibit at the Frye Museum here.)
The cartoon looks like satire—it concludes that honkies should initiate nuclear annihilation because “Our Lord Jesus Christ awaits us with open arms on the other side.” But Sheppard and Whittle, and the British court, took it seriously.
So: Two Brits are seeking political asylum in the United States, partly for publishing an American cartoon on their dumb, racist website.
What do you guess Obama and McCain would say about that?
Since they used a work of satire thinking it was racist, I say put them in the gas chamber and see if they get the irony.
Mistaking a satiric cartoon for racist truth -- that couldn't happen here.
Oh Vishnu! jebus, you so totally nailed it.
Ok, so these are UK citizens, who broke a UK law while in the UK. And they've fled to the US because they don't like the fact that the law exists. Give me a ^%@%$! break. Ship 'em back over - this is the UK, not Nigeria.
To quote the prosecutor - "People in this country are entitled to be racist and they are entitled to hold unpleasant points of view, but what they aren't entitled to do is publish or distribute written material which is insulting, threatening or abusive and is intended to stir up racial hatred or is likely to do so."
sure give them asylum--after we've given asylum to way more deserving types who are being denied it now.
Are their lives in danger if they go back to England? No? Then send 'em back. We have plenty of asylum seekers here who would be shot, with their families, if they returned to the countries from which they fled. These latter should obviously have priority.
Asylum for the hair, but not the dude.
Why? Is Dee Snyder in desperate need of a transplant?
@5,6- I totally agree. And yet the US expects Canada to give back every person who sold a few seeds and is now facing life in prison for it. If these two stains are granted asylum I would recommend Mark Emery chain himself to a tree in Roberts Creek, and throw away the key.
These two should not get assylum--they knew the law and they chose to break it, and their life is not in danger should they return to the UK.
That said, I think the UK is completely wrong on this one. Holocaust denial (not matter how odious) should not be a crime--I don't think government (however benevolent) should be policing my thoughts. There is a certain "only in America" poignacy here that two Holocaust deniers seek assylum for their beliefs in the nation with the most Jews.
@9: And the US law is asinine, for sure. There is no contradiction between supporting the extradition of two racist shitheads who tried to stir up hatred on the one hand, and opposing the extradition of men who face life in prison for selling the seeds of a house plant on the other.
Thank you for not linking the site.
Houseplant seeds? Diffenbachia? Ficus?
African violets?
The site you did link to for the badly reproduced R. Crumb cartoon is a holocaust denier trash site, worthy of Ahmadinijad. OTOH, the cartoon was great.
Comments Closed
Comments are closed on this post.