BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
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The leader of the British National Party has been arrested as part of a police inquiry following the screening of a BBC documentary.
A party spokesman said Nick Griffin was arrested on Tuesday morning on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred.
West Yorkshire police confirmed they had arrested a 45-year-old man from outside their area.
BNP founding chairman John Tyndall was arrested on Sunday on the same charge.
Criminal damage
In July, the BBC documentary Secret Agent featured covertly-filmed footage of BNP activists.
Mr Griffin is the twelfth man to be arrested following the documentary.
Nine men from West Yorkshire and another man from Leicester have been arrested and freed on bail.
Seven of the men had been held variously in connection with suspected racially aggravated public order offences, conspiracy to commit criminal damage and possession of a firearm.
Two men, both from Keighley, were arrested in September on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
A 24-year-old man from Leicester was detained on Monday on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred.
A BNP spokesperson said Mr Tyndall, from Brighton, was arrested following a speech he made in Burnley, Lancashire, and was released on police bail.
Source
Although I don't agree with the things he said, this action does appear to be an attack on free speech. Maybe I'm looking at this too simplistically :no:
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
I would get in trouble if I shouted "Bomb!" in an airport. I really see this kind of thing, stirring up racial hatred, as a pretty similar thing.
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
It's hard to legislate against hatred, it pretty much has to be there in the first place to be stirred up. Even though i am in an interracial marriage myself i don't think that free speech should be suppressed, however there is a difference between freedom of being able to say one dislikes a certain group because............. and inciting attacks on those groups..... which is what i am feeling these men did (i don't have the full story so i am assuming that's what the "inciting racial hatred" may be)
The best way to reduce hatred is through education...not laws banning.
I say this because in banning something one causes resentment and the hatred rises.
Censorship laws are an ineffective way of curing ignorance.
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
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Originally Posted by vidcc
Censorship laws are an ineffective way of curing ignorance.
Not to mention that they perpetuate same by sheer virtue of their existence.
Most such laws lend a certain buoyancy to complaints that would otherwise collapse of their own weight.
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
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Originally Posted by j2k4
Not to mention that they perpetuate same by sheer virtue of their existence.
Most such laws lend a certain buoyancy to complaints that would otherwise collapse of their own weight.
but i did mention it....
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Originally Posted by vidcc
The best way to reduce hatred is through education...not laws banning.
I say this because in banning something one causes resentment and the hatred rises.
shouldn't i have? :unsure:
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
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Originally Posted by JPaul
Nick Griffin is a vile hatemonger and deserves to be in prison. I watched said programme and found his behaviour and that of his "followers" to be abhorrent.
Yes education is necessary, however so is the deterrent effect of jailing bastards like this.
Not being familiar with this fellow, I must remark at whatever dynamic enables his like to trumpet hatred under the guise of free speech, attract a following, gain notoriety, and enjoy entree with a fawning media.
But then, I don't understand Michael Moore's popularity, either.
There is enough to the subject to warrant many a post, I think.
Vid-
You did make the point, but with (as I recall) a slightly different focus; I intended to point out that, were certain statutes absent from the criminal code, the motivation of gaining the notoriety I mentioned earlier would not exist, and, as a result, there would be naught to stick in the craw of the bigoted and the racist.
I have often pointed out that subtracting the like of the Revs. Jesse and Al from the societal equation would be of benefit to all, and have the immediate effect of lowering the temperature of extant conflict substantially.
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
The problem with these people is that they're as clever as they are nasty. They know how to wind up the largest sector of voters (the low paid and unemployed) - by highlighting their own shortcomings and blaming them on immigrants/ethnics, for instance. Coupled with a helping of disinformation and a large dose of generalisation, the masses fall for it every time... Hitler is obviously a mentor for these folks.
It amazes me to hear people use the crap that the BNP spouts in conversatioin; a few years ago there were some new blocks of flats (apartments to those outside the UK) going up near where I was working, and I heard many people saying, "you know they're not allowed to sell all of them, they have to give 50 to the immigrants!"
I put a few of them straight to the fact that developers are forced to give over a percentage of any property they build to 'affordable housing' (the Council or Housing Associations), which will only be allocated to those on an 'emergency' list of homeless and priority cases... which will indeed include some immigrants, but not those single mothers whose parents want them out of their house or people that diliberately make themselves homeless by not paying rent or other means.
It's the generalisation being fixed in their minds, together with a perceived injustice that makes these people still more susceptable to the hatred that continually flows from the BNP.
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
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Originally Posted by JPaul
We had perhaps an even more cunning politician over here-name of David Duke, ex-Grand Kleagle (as I remember) of the KKK; went "legit"...ultimately, he was required to present his bona fides, and flunked the test, but only after a twenty-odd year political career.
I think he may have even been marched off to the gaol, last I heard. :D
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
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Originally Posted by JPaul
Much as I detest the sentiments and politics of the BNP, links like this do little to help educate those who may be persuaded by their rantings. I assume you used the link to demonstrate their politics, if so it might have been better if you could have found an uncommented copy.
The fact is that the so-called Anti-Nazi League also has a large number of mob mentality members, and where clashes with the BNP occur are often equally to blame for the ensuing violence.
Surely we know by now that 2 wrongs don't make a right. But considering the situation in Iraq it would appear that our leaders seem to have forgotten that.
Re: BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested
Phew, I wasn't sure if I'd got the tone of what I was trying to say right, but you've taken it in exactly the way I meant so I guess I did.
I'm not sure I'd want to do too much searching for the speeches of Nick Griffin et al. There are people out there watching you know. :fear:
