As Twitchy reported, London was shocked by another apparent terror attack Sunday night when a van ran into a crowd of pedestrians outside of the mosque at Finsbury Park, killing one.
Darren Osborne was arrested and held on suspicion of the commission, preparation, and instigation of terrorism, attempted murder, and murder following the incident, but his fate won’t be known for a while.
Sussex Police, however, announced in an unrelated development Tuesday that Nigel Pelham, 50, had been sentenced Friday to serve 20 months for each of eight counts of using Facebook to publish threatening written material intended 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
Sussex Police Hate Crime Sergeant Peter Allan said that Pelham had used Facebook between February and November of 2015 “to express some truly offensive views, with no understanding of how serious his actions were,” cautioning that police “will not tolerate this type of behaviour and will act when someone reports their concern about what someone is posting.”
The Argus reports that Pelham suggested Britain should introduce “bomb a mosque day” and invited his Facebook followers to “put a Muslim on top of a bonfire.”
These are the Facebook comments that got a dude jailed for two years in the UK. /1 https://t.co/BuDIYwCMK3
— PopehatWitchHunt (@Popehat) June 21, 2017
/2 Wholly contemptible, but nothing that could be prosecuted in the US. I support American exceptionalism on this point.
— PopehatWitchHunt (@Popehat) June 21, 2017
Glad I live in the USA.
— Kris Williams (@KrisWilliams) June 21, 2017
Pretty happy we made that split right now.
— Chris Hynes (@realchrishynes) June 21, 2017
You really shouldn't be proud of this.
— EducatédHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) June 21, 2017
You act like you're all proud of that. Gotta be the worst thing I've ever seen tweeted from a police department—and I'm in law enforcement.
— Based Copper (@BasedCopper) June 21, 2017
Congratulations, you made an obscure Facebook idiot into a free speech martyrhttps://t.co/AUEqCdZOQI
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 21, 2017
Hopefully this will help reduce Britain's shocking epidemic of insult-inflicted deaths and dismemberment
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 21, 2017
Genghis Khan used to lay siege to a city, promise leniency to traitors inside, then execute them when he took the city. Just thought of that https://t.co/npjkfopTTU
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) June 21, 2017
You see this as a win, but it is the beginning of the downfall of western culture if you imprison people for things they say or write.
— Sebastian Sandell (@Zejho) June 21, 2017
This is designed to intimidate people into not using freedom of speech.
Remember, you police by consent; that consent can be withdrawn.— MikeC (@mikesey1) June 21, 2017
You're an abomination. A blight. Nice work, nancy.
— An Actual Monkey (@MetricButtload) June 21, 2017
You're disgusting in every possible respect. https://t.co/MBoIWNH9Lu
— Jared (@Flintlox) June 21, 2017
"Stirring up religious hate." If we go down this road, we will never get back. https://t.co/cQskOTO0pN
— Mo Mo (@molratty) June 21, 2017
George Orwell is so very proud of you. https://t.co/EiAimGJrqI
— Roadbeer In The Park (@TheRoadbeer) June 21, 2017
In the UK right now: 500 active investigations involving 3,000 jihadists & another 20,000 who are former subjects of interest. But ⬇️ https://t.co/ymZbhO837h
— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) June 21, 2017
I guess we know who runs that country. https://t.co/Wciobg1DDH
— Arthur Kimes (@ComradeArthur) June 22, 2017
Meanwhile, in Germany …
German police raid the homes of 36 people accused of making hateful postings on social media sites https://t.co/3IZpON2jQF pic.twitter.com/dNPiQa0Hsv
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) June 20, 2017
The New York Times reports:
In a coordinated campaign across 14 states, the German police on Tuesday raided the homes of 36 people accused of hateful postings over social media, including threats, coercion and incitement to racism.
…
The raids come as Germans are debating the draft of a new social media law aimed at cracking down on hate speech, a measure that an array of experts said was unconstitutional at a parliamentary hearing on Monday.
…
Under German law, social media users are subject to a range of punishments for posting illegal material, including a prison sentence of up to five years for inciting racial hatred.
This why you never, ever budge even the slightest bit on the absolute authority of the 1st Amendment. https://t.co/anq6SjrbnT
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) June 21, 2017
Now where have I heard this before…oh wait! https://t.co/K5MS1Ti160
— Kelly Campagna (@warriorwoman91) June 22, 2017
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Related:
So much FACEPALM: WATCH UF Assoc. Prof. insist ‘hate speech kills’ at Ben Shapiro engagementhttps://t.co/hkgHJSjQb7
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 7, 2017