{"id":20526,"date":"2013-06-03T09:46:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T14:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=20526"},"modified":"2013-06-03T09:46:50","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T14:46:50","slug":"i-believe-in-freedom-of-speech-and-defend-his-rights-to-say-what-he-wants-but-once-it-starts-offending-people-then-its-a-police-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/06\/03\/i-believe-in-freedom-of-speech-and-defend-his-rights-to-say-what-he-wants-but-once-it-starts-offending-people-then-its-a-police-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"“I believe in freedom of speech and defend his rights to say what he wants, but once it starts offending people then it\u2019s a police matter”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Welsh shopkeeper gets a visit from two police officers after a slogan on a T-shirt<\/a> gets someone upset:<\/p>\n

A Newport shopkeeper has been forced by police to remove a T-shirt from his shop window because they felt it \u201ccould be seen to be inciting racial hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Taylor, 35, the owner of Taylor\u2019s clothes store on Emlyn Walk in the city, printed up and displayed the T-shirt with the slogan: \u201cObey our laws, respect our beliefs or get out of our country\u201d after Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, was killed in near Woolwich barracks in London last week.<\/p>\n

But following a complaint from a member of the public, police came to his store and threatened to arrest him unless he removed the Tshirt from sight.<\/p>\n

Mr Taylor said: \u201cI had a visit from two CSOs (community support officers) because it has been reported by someone who felt it was offensive. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What was rather more depressing is how some elected officials view free speech:<\/p>\n

Chairman of the Welsh affairs select committee, David Davies MP said: \u201cI think the police are well aware of that (the current heightened tensions between communities) and I can see their point of view.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very sensitive time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I can see this guy\u2019s point of view and the statement he is making. You should not be in this country if you are not prepared to obey the laws.<\/p>\n

I think the vast majority of people in this country of all races would agree with that.<\/p>\n

So I don\u2019t think it is a racist matter at but I can see the police\u2019s point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newport city councillor, Majid Rahman said: \u201cI believe in freedom of speech and defend his rights to say what he wants, but once it starts offending people then it\u2019s a police matter and it\u2019s up to them whether they think it\u2019s broken any laws.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, under this concept, you’re free to say anything you want, unless someone is offended and then the police have to get involved. I think someone misunderstands what “free” really means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Welsh shopkeeper gets a visit from two police officers after a slogan on a T-shirt gets someone upset: A Newport shopkeeper has been forced by police to remove a T-shirt from his shop window because they felt it \u201ccould be seen to be inciting racial hatred.\u201d Matthew Taylor, 35, the owner of Taylor\u2019s clothes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,10],"tags":[186,238,98,737],"class_list":["post-20526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-law","category-liberty","tag-freedomofspeech","tag-offensensitivity","tag-police","tag-wales"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-5l4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20527,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20526\/revisions\/20527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}