"...it's not the training to be mean but the training to be kind that is used to keep us leashed best." ~ Black Dog Red

"In case you haven't recognized the trend: it proceeds action, dissent, speech." ~ davidly, on how wars get done

"...What sort of meager, unerotic existence must a man live to find himself moved to such ecstatic heights by the mundane sniping of a congressional budget fight. The fate of human existence does not hang in the balance. The gods are not arrayed on either side. Poseiden, earth-shaker, has regrettably set his sights on the poor fishermen of northern Japan and not on Washington, D.C. where his ire might do some good--I can think of no better spot for a little wetland reclamation project, if you know what I mean. The fight is neither revolution nor apocalypse; it is hardly even a fight. A lot of apparatchiks are moving a lot of phony numbers with more zeros than a century of soccer scores around, weaving a brittle chrysalis around a gross worm that, some time hence, will emerge, untransformed, still a worm." ~ IOZ

Sep 17, 2010

What kind of terror?

Five men of indeterminate ethnicity or affiliation, "between the ages of 26 and 50," have met the claw fingered grasp of the British security apparatus, arrested under the aegis of the Terrorism Act of 2006.

I don't have any details of their alleged offenses. But, I did have a gander at the piece of legislation under which they British security state has detained them.

Have a taste yourself:

"Encouragement of terrorism:

(1)This section applies to a statement that is likely to be understood by some or all of the members of the public to whom it is published as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to them to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism or Convention offences.

(2)A person commits an offence if—

(a)he publishes a statement to which this section applies or causes another to publish such a statement; and

(b)at the time he publishes it or causes it to be published, he—

(i)intends members of the public to be directly or indirectly encouraged or otherwise induced by the statement to commit, prepare or instigate acts of terrorism or Convention offences; or

(ii)is reckless as to whether members of the public will be directly or indirectly encouraged or otherwise induced by the statement to commit, prepare or instigate such acts or offences.

(3)For the purposes of this section, the statements that are likely to be understood by members of the public as indirectly encouraging the commission or preparation of acts of terrorism or Convention offences include every statement which—

(a)glorifies the commission or preparation (whether in the past, in the future or generally) of such acts or offences; and

(b)is a statement from which those members of the public could reasonably be expected to infer that what is being glorified is being glorified as conduct that should be emulated by them in existing circumstances..."


I wonder what these faceless, nameless men did? Did they "glorify" their hatred of the Roman Rape Cult? Did they, with "reckless" disregard for public safety, "encourage" others to oppose the mobbed up, women hating hierarchy of the Vatican?

Or did they represent a different cult - perhaps one of the face burning, head stoning death sects - eager to declare open season on a rival with the wrong god?

Did they present the sort of existential threat that any sane person ought to offer to a death and rape cult?

Or something less sublime, more ordinary, more feebly symbolic? Like, I dunno, blogging about a protest?

3 comments:

DPirate said...

This law is insane!

Anonymous said...

convention offenses ???

paine

Jack Crow said...

Pirate,

If only the law was truly insane. Sadly - it's as staid and bureaucratically thorough as possible.

Paine,

I believe it refers to the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism.

Respect,

Jack