A scout troop is being investigated by the police after its members shouted death threats and racist abuse at Jewish war veterans during a remembrance parade.First off, if I remember correctly, there was considerable friction between the German Scouts and the Hitler Youth. When the youth organizations in Germany were merged by the Nazi government, many scouts dropped out. No doubt a number of them became Edelweiss Pirates.
Dressed in full uniform, the explorer scouts, who were taking part in Remembrance Sunday service in Romford, Essex were heard to repeatedly shout "Let's kill the Jews" at Jewish second world war veterans.
Second, I'm not certain just what the cops are investigating. Is it illegal to be a repugnant racist asshole in the UK?
To answer your last question: Yes. Speech which is "designed to incite hatred or violence of an ethnic or religious minority" is illegal in Britain. Remember, they don't have a free speech right in the mess of common law and accumulated founding documents that masquerade as their "Constitution" (they have no actual document called a "Constitution"). What they have is a free speech *tradition*, which, however, is much more limited than the free speech rights that the U.S. Supreme Court says have been granted by the U.S. Constitution.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Law Penguin
That's just what I was going to post.
ReplyDeleteI think it's incredibly ironic that the citizenry of UK has far fewer guaranteed rights than the US, but in most ways has far more *actual* rights.
Free speech isn't one of those ways, though.
... there was considerable friction between the German Scouts and the Hitler Youth.
ReplyDeleteMost certainly. The Fahrtfinder went underground during the war. My nephew and both nieces belonged during their youth.