January 16, 2015

"The French authorities are moving aggressively to rein in speech supporting terrorism..."

"... employing a new law to mete out tough prison sentences in a crackdown that is stoking a free-speech debate after last week’s attacks in Paris. Those swept up under the new law include a 28-year-old man of French-Tunisian background who was sentenced to six months in prison after he was found guilty of shouting support for the attackers as he passed a police station in Bourgoin-Jalieu on Sunday. A 34-year-old man who on Saturday hit a car while drunk, injured the other driver and subsequently praised the acts of the gunmen when the police detained him was sentenced Monday to four years in prison. All told, up to 100 people are under investigation for making or posting comments that support or try to justify terrorism..."

The NYT reports. 

(Photograph at the link shows the coffin of one of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre: It has cartoons drawn all over it.)

22 comments:

YoungHegelian said...

Look, if the French state had known how to handle the "immigrant" problem in the first place, they wouldn't be having this problem now. So don't go expecting them now to react to the CH & kosher grocery murders with laser-like precision. They, like the rest of us, don't have the answer.

The government is under tremendous pressure to "do something", which often means "do anything", even if "anything" is counterproductive.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Je suis Charlie. Suis pas les flics.

BarrySanders20 said...

That's one problem with laws criminalizing speech -- people say stupid things while drunk and may not even remember doing it. Yet being druck is no excuse for breaking the law.

The coffin of the cartoonist is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. I wish I could read French to understand what they say. I did see "Fragile" which I know from "A Christmas Story" is a French word that means whatever inside must be valuable.

BarrySanders20 said...

Druck or drunk.

trumpintroublenow said...

Arrested on Saturday, sentenced on Monday. Sounds like the type of due process one gets in N Korea

David said...

I am waiting for the next Hebdo cover. Will they take this on?

David said...

Fred Drinkwater: Les flics are enforcing a top level government policy. It's not just freelancing.

LYNNDH said...

French law can be swift.

William said...

One notes that the Jews are leaving France in large numbers. One also notes that Muslims are going to considerable trouble to have themselves smuggled into France......The law is impartial. It forbids both vagrants and millionaires from sleeping under the bridge. The law is impartial. It forgives both Muslims and Jews from engaging in hate speech. However, vagrants end up sleeping under the bridge, and Jews end up murdered.

William said...

Forgives, above, should read forbids. I'm not Charlie.

Larvell said...

Wow, shout something out on Sunday, get sentenced to prison less than a week later? The wheels of justice move quickly in France.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

The enlightened French are doing what the Left accused Bush/Cheney of doing vis a vis punishing dissent/shutting down free speech. But hey, they're French, they've got universal health care, we should be more like them, right? American exceptionalism? Never heard of it.

Known Unknown said...

Irony, thy name is France.

Peter said...

Thomas Hobbes would approve:

"For he that hath seen by what courses and degrees a flourishing state hath first come into civil war, and then to ruin; upon the sight of the ruins of any other state will guess the like war and the like courses have been there also." -- The Leviathan

n.n said...
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n.n said...
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n.n said...

The French (Norwegian, British, etc.) left-wing intentionally staged immigration to exceed the rate of assimilation and integration, as well as inviting men and women who have no interest in either, in order to neutralize their French competitors and resistance. Now the French will enjoy the benefits of diversity and a marginalized voice in their own country. Of course, the low birth rates, including planned or abortion rites, only serve to exacerbate their plight in a democratic regime. I wonder if the left-wing also seeded and subsidized (i.e. taxpayer funded) an immigrant population in order to shape democratic demographics in strategic locations.

Quaestor said...

BarrySanders20 wrote: I did see "Fragile" which I know from "A Christmas Story" is a French word that means whatever inside must be valuable.

Barry, you brainless toad-eater, I saw A Christmas Story and I know "Fragile" isn't French. It's Italian, and it's pronounced fra-JEE-lay. It means "Flapper's Leg Lamp Inside".

Quaestor said...

The French don't do grim determination with much aplomb. Instead they do hysterical reaction. Stimulus: rumors of "brigands" on the road to Paris. Reaction: hysterical assault on the Bastille. Stimulus: Prussia and Austria talking about an anti-French alliance. Reaction: hysterical slaughter of French prison inmates. Stimulus: The citizens of Lyons aren't servile enough to suit Robespierre notions of revolutionary virtue. Reaction: hysterical slaughter of the Lyonnais. Stimulus: France losing prestige and influence to Imperial Germany. Reaction: hysterical persecution of an Alsatian Jew. Stimulus: Wehrmacht massing on the Belgian border. Reaction: hysterical advance to the Dial.

The French are truly formidable when led by a charismatic Corsican. Unfortunately Holland is no Corsican. He's their version of Kerry, so you know their fucked. Ergo hysteria is the order of the day.

I spite of my devotion to free speech I must admit to my shame that since France's Muslim population hasn't done much to deserve their human rights, they don't get much sympathy from me.

(Edmund Burke knew the French were fucking up the democracy/human rights thing way back in 1790, but that's another story)

Left Bank of the Charles said...

We should remember that these terrorists killed 3 cops, so the cop-killer rules of criminal justice apply.

Jupiter said...

Let's remember that the punishment for these crimes is being sentenced to spend time in a state-run school for Muslim terrorists.

mccullough said...

Sounds like a version of the Patriot Act.