London's Mayor suspended for one month

[Touring Mars]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4746016.stm

... and he ain't happy about it neither

 

[FoolKiller]

The mayor said: "This decision strikes at the heart of democracy."

That about sums up my thoughts.

 

[Duke]

What is carefully left entirely out of the story is what the journalist said or did to prompt the question from Livingstone. The comment might have been quite perfectly in context if the reporter where hounding and interfering with the mayor after he had been asked to leave a given subject alone.

 

[FoolKiller]

What is carefully left entirely out of the story is what the journalist said or did to prompt the question from Livingstone. The comment might have been quite perfectly in context if the reporter where hounding and interfering with the mayor after he had been asked to leave a given subject alone.

While you are right, the journalist's initial actions are not mentioned, I didn't figure it was a necessary fact for me to come to my conclussion that this suspension is ridiculous. Livingstone could have made this comment out of the blue just to be a jerk or truly trying to insult the Jewish community and it wouldn't change my opinion.

Remember when Bush and Cheney were campaigning and didn't realize the microphone was on when they called a journalist an a-hole? Calling someone you don't like a bad name is not grounds for any kind of legal reprimand. I don't care what the situation leading up to it is.

 

[Danoff]

...and who gave this panel or board or whatever it is the authority to suspend the mayor in the first place?

 

[FoolKiller]

...and who gave this panel or board or whatever it is the authority to suspend the mayor in the first place?

I think it all goes back to this European style of law that I don't understand where it appears to be illegal to offend people.

 

[Anderton Prime]

Looks like you guys over there in the UK need to do a little work on your freedom of speech laws...

This is ridiculous. It reminds me of the schoolteacher's racial slur thread.

 

[Omnis]

Objectively speaking, how come people get f'd over when up against jews?

 

[Danoff]

Objectively speaking, how come people get f'd over when up against jews?

uh... what? Watch out or you'll get suspended for a month.

 

[FoolKiller]

uh... what? Watch out or you'll get suspended for a month.

Fortunately for Omnis Jordan, Duke, and the rest of the admin/moderating crew know how freedom of speech should work.

Of course I don't know about his ISP or local officials.

 

[Omnis]

Eh, that's what the article was implying anyway.

I'm not saying that I'm against jews, I just meant that whenever people have some kind of conflict with jewish people or about jewish people, they usually get the short end of the stick no matter how subtle. Look at the Mayor of London, Palestine, etc. I could even say Hitler as a further example, but he was a killer. However, he was eventually destroyed, wasn't he?

 

[Delirious]

Moral of the story, don't mess with jews. You'll always get worse back and be in deep doo-doo.

 

[kennythebomb]

Things I've learned:

1. Never insult a Jewish person or a black person or the media will hate you.

2. If you insult a person who is Muslim, the entire Muslim comunity will hate you and firebomb your house.

3. It's still safe to hate on everyone else, though.

Please be advised this post is in jest, and is not meant to offend. If anyone is offended, you need help.

 

[Omnis]

Exactly. Though, the difference between the jewish and black "insults" is that the jew insult will have you hated and removed, whereas you will have to apologize and still be hated for the other.

 

[Solid Lifters]

In some countries, it's against the law to say anything bad against Jews. Read that again.

You could be fined or jailed for saying things like, "The Holocaust never happened." Austria has strict rules about these kind of statements.

Though the Jews did go threw a Holocaust, and suffered like no others have, I still think it's important to allow those with their own opinions to be heard, regardless of how arsine their statements might be.

What the Mayor is going through is just another knee-jerk reaction to his possible credible statement about some asshole he had a run in with. A statement that was merely his opinion, which shouldn't cause such ridiculous attention.

 

[Touring Mars]

I think he's been harshly treated too... it's just a shame that his comments were deemed to be overly insensitive. I guess being Mayor means that you do have to be very careful what you say, and 'Red' Ken has never been one to mince his words. I also agree with the sentiment that this whole situation has been exacerbated by people with their own agenda, intent on seeing Ken Livingston discreditted at any cost (or for any reason)...