[gorgoiler]

For completeness, the context here is a social media post alleging the identity of someone arrested hours earlier for a mass murder at a children’s play group — an extremely distressing event that has been followed, for unclear reasons, by nationwide rioting.

This person was “arrested in relation to a post about the identity of the attacker in the Southport murders” and specifically “on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred”.

Most police forces / services / departments no doubt mis-use the law for vexatious arrests but this does not seem like one of those cases.

I do think it’s valid to question whether it’s moral for the Lilliputian Police to criminalise anti Big-Endian rhetoric. If everyone’s doing it it is hard to claim the nationwide rhetoric is responsible for specific violent crimes. If only a few people are doing it then there might be a causal link from their speech to the other crimes, and those links and subsequent crimes are a vital part of the debate.

[whatshisface]

I hope the police are ready for a decade where a single highly motivated person who is willing to risk punishment can instantly weild the credence of one half of the entire debate, and win the attention of everyone with hushed sympathies. This is an extremely dangerous political climate.

[gorgoiler]

Sadly, this began on July 29th with a single person willing to risk punishment for wanton violence. A common thread here is society producing outsiders: is this new or worse in the modern era?