Bus driver Andrew Holland said last year has been a nightmare. He has spent six months on bail, hired an attorney, and stood accused of a heinous crime. People ridiculed him and shunned him for allegedly possessing a film that showed a woman having sex with a tiger. The police charged him with possession of an extreme pornographic image. No one however appeared to actually watch or analyze the film. The film turned out to be a man in a tiger costume who kept saying ‘That’s grrrrrreat’ – the catchphrase of Frosted Flakes cereal mascot Tony the Tiger. All charges have now been dropped, but one has to wonder how the police or prosecutor could have missed this small detail. Putting aside the fact that a man in a tiger outfit hardly looks like the real thing, a talking tiger might have been a clue.
Holland, 51, received the video from a friend as a joke. He said that he watched only six seconds of the video, but he was publicly humiliated and targeted by vigilantes. He said that the hate campaign led to his losing his job and a heart attack. In addition, he was denied contact with his young daughter for more than a year
He is now trying to get a change in the law governing pornography to protect material that is “harmless but crude.” The law, passed in 2009, makes it a crime to possess pornographic images depicting acts threatening a person’s life; threatening serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals; bestiality; or necrophilia. While only passed five years ago, the law has resulted in more than 5,500 prosecutions.
The standard under the law is dangerously vague in requiring proof that the image be “pornographic; grossly offensive, disgusting, or otherwise of an obscene character.” Terms like “offensive” or “disgusting” would allow a great array of images to be included under the law. Nevertheless, the drafters tacked on a catch-all category of “or otherwise . . . obscene character.”
For years, I have been writing about the comprehensive attack on free speech rights in England (here and here and here and and and here and and here and here and here), including a recent move to include “unsavory” content as prohibited. As noted in a recent column, free speech appears to be dying in the West with the increasing criminalization of speech. The criminal code in England is now becoming a patchwork of overlapping, ambiguous standards that criminalize speech considered offensive, discriminatory, or “gross”. More than any country, England (the source for so many of our own legal traditions) appears to have lost faith — or patience — with free speech.
This case illustrates not only a criminal law that is too sweeping but a criminal justice system that is falling to perform basic threshold tests to protect the rights of the accused.
Then again he might just have gone bowling.
It’s the thing to do when you are thinking about Ebola.
The Ebola czar is hiding under his desk right now and waiting until after the election.
Then they will be giving everyone in West Africa green cards to come over here and get treated. It’s only right.
trooperyork – maybe that is why they need the 34 million green cards. Ebola victims will be treated here, given green cards and put on the dole. A perfect storm.
Paul C. Schulte
… anybody heard from the new Ebola czar?
=============================
Yep.
He declared “We need to pertek aminals from right wingers from Georgia who have Bbola.”
Obama is responsible for mule headed right wingers and halloween tiger uniforms with pricks in them?
Or Bush II?
Or the goodie two shoes?
No.
Get real.
Last night, anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley was a guest on The Alan Colmes Show, a FOX News radio program. The topic was an interesting one – whether or not an internet service provider should allow Horsley to post the names of abortion doctors on his website. Horsley does that as a way of targeting them and one doctor has been killed. In the course of the interview, however, Colmes asked Horsley about his background, including a statement that he had admitted to engaging in homosexual and bestiality sex. Updated with audio!
At first, Horsley laughed and said, “Just because it’s printed in the media, people jump to believe it.”
“Is it true?” Colmes asked.
“Hey, Alan, if you want to accuse me of having sex when I was a fool, I did everything that crossed my mind that looked like I…”
AC: “You had sex with animals?”
NH: “Absolutely. I was a fool. When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule.”
AC: “I’m not so sure that that is so.”
NH: “You didn’t grow up on a farm in Georgia, did you?”
AC: “Are you suggesting that everybody who grows up on a farm in Georgia has a mule as a girlfriend?”
troopery ork
Obama is responsible for what is happening now.
…
=============================
How far does that go?
As far as you can see (You Are Here)?
Obama is responsible for what is happening now. For the past eight years. He appointed the head of the VA who had to resign. Or should we just blame Bush? Reagan? Eisenhower? Truman? Washington?
Is he responsible for anything under his watch? Other than his handicap?
trooperyork – anybody heard from the new Ebola czar?
Strange knickers: Bizarre Sex Habits of The Extreme Right-Wing
Nick Spinelli
trooper, Obama’s Veteran Administration …
==================================
Yep.
Formed years before he was born in Kenya.
Yep.
Dredd,
You have had two comments deleted under the civility rule.
trooper, Obama’s Veteran Administration has bureaucratized and rewarded the abuse and killing of veterans. You get bonuses for killing vets.
A waste of the citizens money for such a frivolous prosecution.
Well we want to leave the abuse of the Veterans to the Obama Administration. They seem to have a handle on it.
The New Puritans are back and masquerading as defenders of society. Memo to them: “Psssst, we don’t need that kind of defense from social conservatives and theocrats hellbent on imposing their extreme morality on us all.”
How about spending your time making sure homeless vets aren’t dying in the streets instead of spending time policing the bedrooms of adults? Not titillating enough, I suppose.
@Steg
That was a good one! This topic is just target rich for fun!
Tiger Wood???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
A guy in a tiger costume,
Used “Tony” as his nom de plume
With a chick as his mate,
He growled, “Wow! That’s grrrrrreat!”,
Blew a fag, and then said, “Let’s resume!”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
PS: For you naughty minded people, “Blowing a fag” is English slang for smoking a cigarette.
@Byron,
Oh, I have a Jew or two in the bloodline. But they were Southern Jews, not the dumba$$ liberal yankee kind. Now, most of us are Southern Baptists. I think it was barbecue pork, pork rinds, and bacon that aided in the religious conversion two generations ago. And, you asked for a poem, sooo:
Yiff Yiff Hooray???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once was a girl with a kitty
It was huge, and not little bitty.
It was striped and had claws,
And folks filmed it because,
There was nothing like that in the city!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
PLUS: This from wiki about yiff and furry fandom:
There once was a man got a gift
A vid where a gal took a prick
From a man was a tiger
The states none the wiser
They ruined his life for mere chit!
Sorry Squeeky, best I can do to substitute.
The story sounds like a Monty Python skit.
Imagine John Cleese yelling “It was a costume, a bloody costume, you miserable twit!”
Squeeky:
If you are Jewish my apologies. Gentiles just arent that funny. Well maybe Larry the Cable Guy and Dave Chapple.
Squeeky:
Whoops, that should be genteel wit although if you arent Jewish, it does work.
we should probably focus on the crazy mayor of Houston, Texas. England can take care of itself.