Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

fire.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 543 posts

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#501

Post by graemep »

kypro wrote: post #281
graemep wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The second one was for specifically racist messages - i.e. breaching hate speech laws - not just being mean. I am opposed to criminalising hate speech, BUT I think its important to be clear its not just "saying mean things".

> The second one was for specifically racist messages - i.e. breaching hate speech laws - not just being mean. Can you provide a definition of "hate speech" which doesn't also apply to "mean words"? Are you suggesting racist words are a special category of mean words or something? If so why?

The law does provide a definition of hate speech that does not apply to mean words in general.

You assume we both know what is meant by "racist words" which implies it is a category that can be defined. Hate speech laws apply to more categories than race too. The wikipedia article has excerpts of and links to the relevant legislation and important cases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_the_United...

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#502

Post by graemep »

kypro wrote: post #491
mghackerlady wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate speech is a subcategory of mean words that needs to be legally prevented for a just society where people are equal. Racist words are only hate speech if they are uttered and used in a discriminatory manner. Since whatever group is targeted by hate speech is the only group that can be harmed by the hate speech, they should be handled differently in the eyes of the law to ensure no one group is excessively discrim…

Do you feel the same about homophobia, height discrimination, fat discrimination and other discriminatory behaviours? Or do you feel these are different enough that they should be treated differently? I think I disagree with you on this, but I think what you've said is a perfectly valid opinion and appreciate your response. I'm sorry that it appears someone has downvoted you for disagreeing. This seems to be a new tr…

> Do you feel the same about homophobia, height discrimination, fat discrimination and other discriminatory behaviours?

The first is covered by current UK law, the other are not.

> I think I disagree with you on this, but I think what you've said is a perfectly valid opinion and appreciate your response. I'm sorry that it appears someone has downvoted you for disagreeing. This seems to be a new trend on HN and I wish people would stop doing it

Agreed. I upvote a lot of things I disagree with to counter unfair downvotes (including GP).

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#503

Post by sidewndr46 »

pseudalopex wrote: post #479
sidewndr46 wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are constitutional rights, by definition.

You meant what? The civil rights you identified were constitutional rights.

From my perspective civil rights are the constitutional rights that the government can uniquely deprive you of. For example, a jury trial. No one else can try you, so only the government can deprive you of that right. It's fairly limited in practice anyways, but it is true.

The right to life, etc. anyone can deprive you of.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#504

Post by adiabatichottub »

account42 wrote: post #492
LocalH wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That request was potentially incomplete because it left out the fact that the victim here didn’t actually make the meme. Even if the man did make the meme I'd say it should qualify as free speech

Would you say the same about Alex Jones? Why not?

Jones lost in a civil suit. If you lie about somebody repeatedly and cause them harm you can be held accountable. It's called defamation. That is not the same thing as government abridgement of speech.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#505

Post by pbhjpbhj »

chelical wrote: post #318
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The source is linked in his post. Did you not read the article? You should provide another source or address the data in the article instead of just asserting it's false with zero argument.

It's very easy to find that this statistics is discredited, the figures aren't for "offensive messages on social media" they cover a range of crimes. If the OP is at all interested in the topic, which their comment suggests they are, then they already know this and posted in bad faith.

I'm not going to prove fire is hot when the OP is asserting the equivalent of 'actually fire isn't hot the burn is caused by socialists'.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#506

Post by casey2 »

elicash wrote: post #71

I’ll cut against the grain here and say it’s ABSOLUTELY appropriate for taxpayers to pay the bill here. It’s pretty toxic that people don’t want to take responsibility for their own government in a democracy. In this case, it’s especially bad, given the sheriff is elected by the people directly. But I’d go even further and say even where control is less direct, we need incentives for voters to take this stuff serious…

Whatever political capital is gained fighting police unions will swiftly be lost when they run ads and start committing or letting crime get through.

The very first step that needs to be taken is cities decoupling citations/fines from their operating budget, either by putting them towards victim compensation funds or some other non-discretionary fund.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#507

Post by nyeah »

foobarchu wrote: post #442
nyeah wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if a majority of taxpayers voted for that sheriff?

Being elected by a majority doesn't negate crimes committed, as much as a certain president would love everyone to believe that. Being elected shouldn't have anything to do with being punished, whether they won by 1% or by 99%

Sure, elected criminals should tried, convicted if guilty, and punished for criminal actions. The votes don't change that. I'm saying something else: Maybe it makes some sense after all for the taxpayers to pay civil damages due to actions of a government officer.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#508

Post by ceejayoz »

breezybottom wrote: post #499
ceejayoz wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You report them to state police or the FBI?

Report that he arrested someone? That's already public information.

Report that he committed misconduct - in this case, a clear civil rights violation. Are we playing dumb?

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#509

Post by usefulcat »

account42 wrote: post #495
usefulcat wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making a big mistake by completely failing to account for the inherent (not to mention quite large) uncertainties in this kind of situation. A priori, it's not "40 days in jail == $800k payday", it's "some unknown number of days in jail and risk of a conviction in exchange for a chance at a payday of unknown value".

That still makes these kinds of settlements feel more like a lottery than fair compensation.

I agree, and that's part of the point. "Free money glitch" does not sound like a valid description of any lottery I've ever heard of.

There's a reason (several, probably) why you don't actually see cases of police arresting each other and then suing to enrich themselves.

Re: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit

#510

Post by mghackerlady »

kypro wrote: post #491
mghackerlady wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate speech is a subcategory of mean words that needs to be legally prevented for a just society where people are equal. Racist words are only hate speech if they are uttered and used in a discriminatory manner. Since whatever group is targeted by hate speech is the only group that can be harmed by the hate speech, they should be handled differently in the eyes of the law to ensure no one group is excessively discrim…

Do you feel the same about homophobia, height discrimination, fat discrimination and other discriminatory behaviours? Or do you feel these are different enough that they should be treated differently? I think I disagree with you on this, but I think what you've said is a perfectly valid opinion and appreciate your response. I'm sorry that it appears someone has downvoted you for disagreeing. This seems to be a new tr…

homophobia, of course, considering I myself am bisexual and have had relations with other women.

Height and weight discrimination depends on what is considered height and weight discrimination. Saying you need to be x height or y weight to do something? That's safety. People saying they'd only date someone above x height or below y weight? I bit shallow but that's personal preference. Saying everyone above 200 pounds is lazy and deserves to die of a heart attack? Maybe then it crosses the line into actual discrimination

Post reply on HN