A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

Post by simonh » Fri, Sep 10, 2021, 4:32 AM UTC

vxNsr wrote: post #85

simonh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose it depends how you look at it. There are different kinds of freedom. My main concern in the US is the absurd levels of incarceration over there, often for relatively trivial nonviolent offences that aren’t even crimes in many countries, and the politicisation of the judicial system. I’m a lot more confident I’d get fair treatment from the justice system in most European countries than I would in the US. The…

> My main concern in the US is the absurd levels of incarceration over there, often for relatively trivial nonviolent offences that aren’t even crimes in many countries, and the politicisation of the judicial system. That’s such an odd thing to say on a article about someone getting their home raided bec they called someone a dick in Europe…

Post by thunfischbrot » Fri, Sep 10, 2021, 5:12 AM UTC

AmericanChopper wrote: post #128

gewa wrote: post #117

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It doesn't seem like you are very familiar with German politics or culture, but this is definitely an outlier. Freedom of speech is a central part of our constitution. Defamation is one of the very few ways and enforcement and interpretation is mostly restricted to defamation of policemen. This is the reason why this has resulted in an outcry as the proportionality does not respond to the interpretation how defamatio…

I’m sure as a member of that culture, your opinions are opinions are not at all influenced by any number of different political, nationalistic or cultural biases. But from the perspective of an outsider, you have all of the same criminal statutes against speech that most other western democracies have been gradually implementing. The only thing that’s slightly different about Germany, is that you also have defamation…

Post by l33t2328 » Fri, Sep 10, 2021, 5:22 AM UTC

milesvp wrote: post #87

l33t2328 wrote: post #59

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> offences that aren’t even crimes in many countries Like what? Drugs are becoming decriminalized the world over, but this is an extremely recent phenomenon.

Like driving while poor. It’s very very common for someone to get a fine that they can not pay, then lose their drivers license for failure to pay. Then get stopped and have to deal with driving without a license, which can include jail time. Source: good friend was a public defender.

Post by jdavis703 » Fri, Sep 10, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

kook_throwaway wrote: post #70

Retric wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dueling used to be acceptable in the US and that didn’t prevent free speech. As long as it’s limited to reasonable fines simply requiring civility is unlikely to significantly quell free speech even if it did get abused by government officials.

>As long as it’s limited to reasonable fines This will only result in those not living paycheck to paycheck being willing to speak out.

Post by nyx-aiur » Fri, Sep 10, 2021, 5:57 AM UTC

aerosmile wrote: post #44

gewa wrote: post #26

As a German I have to emphasize that this has no support at all in Germany. The uproar was huge today and its seen as a misuse of power by the politician. Especially as he is not acting as a politician but as representative of the public office of interior. The search warrant needs to be issued by a judge and I'm sure there will be formal investigations how this happened. I would not be surprised if he will be forced…

It's still a fact that in Germany you have to be careful how you express yourself. It was a total shock to me to arrive in the States and hear my cab driver unload on the US President at the time. He really wasn't choosing his words very carefully, to the point that I had to wonder if this was some kind of a test by the INS. I still chuckle today about how my views have changed since then, and how much more comfortab…