So much for the English “traditions” of free speech, for a 15-year old was cited by police while holding a sign, which included the word “cult,” during a May 10 peaceful protest by the anti-Scientology group, “Anonymous.” The boy was read Section 5 Public Order Act of 1986 and “strongly advised” to remove the “abusive and insulting” signage within 15 minutes. According to this Guardian article:
The teenager refused to back down, quoting a 1984 high court ruling from Mr Justice Latey, in which he described the Church of Scientology as a “cult” which was “corrupt, sinister and dangerous”.
The teen was issued a summons by City of London police. Why so sensitive? It seems that, two years ago, 20 officers of City of London police accepted bribes gifts from the COS.
The City Of London police claim that, under the Crown Prosecution’s Service, they acted under “advice” to verbally warn demonstrators that their signs violated Public Order Act, Section 5 (1986) which reads as follows:
5 Harassment, alarm or distress
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress, he— (a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or (b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting, thereby causing that or another person harassment, alarm or distress.
In today’s PC world, just about any verbal or written statement can be interpreted as “offensive” by some person. So, in conclusion, I have this to say:
SCIENTOLOGY IS NOT A RELIGION. IT IS A DANGEROUS CULT.
In the infamous words of Jeff Jarvis, “stick that in your Google and smoke it.” That would be directed towards Tom Cruise and David Miscavage.
This is a 15-year old boy, who will have to pay his own lawyer fees out of his pocket money. If convicted, he could face fines and imprisonment not exceeding six months. Meanwhile, Pete Doherty, however, gets out of prison after 29 days.
See video of the incident here. Read the 15-year old’s original plea for help there. Updates concering the Public Order Act are over yonder.
As expected, our partner in blasphemy, Flea, has a few things to add on this topic.
8 comments
This is so fucked up… “Threatening, abusive or insulting words” can’t even insult each other now???
[...] proof Scientology is whacked (ABH) This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 10:33 am and is filed under Spicy Links. [...]
I agree, it’s a cult!
Although, my husband and I just pulled our membership from a Presbyterian church that was starting to seem a bit cult-ish.
I wonder if Tommy Cruise will be find this and get his panties in a twist? My money’s on you.
A small correction: we have learned that because he is under age, Epic Nose Guy will be provided with a laywer. Any other costs he faces will be covered by the Anonymous collective (ie, there will be a whip-round).
Basically, the guy handled himself extremely well, Anonymous is eager to hear how things will pan out, and will stand by him every step of the way.
In other news, someone else is facing the law on bogus charges after the ‘Church’ of Scientology complained: Gregg Housh. See here for details:
http://forums.enturbulation.org/42-english-composition-only/press-release-religious-persecution-gregg-housh-11945/
[...] Scientology is a cult, and saying so can get you arrested (AgentBedhead) [...]
It’s sad how people cower in fear of them. These people are nuts and shouldn’t be allowed to intimidate people who question them. Other religions face scrutiny every day, they’re texts are readily available to the public and you could probably call one of their places of worship and get free help. If they don’t want to be considered a cult then they should open their “religion” to the masses for free and only get actual donations in the amount of the donators choosing.
At any rate even if that stuff was free they’d still be crazy.
The best take on Scientology I’ve seen is the one done by South Park- it’s Scientology for the Uninitiated….Scientology Lite, if you will.
It’s always been the same, similar things were happening in the 1500s, 1100s, 400s, all the way back to when religion was invented. I truly believe that religion changes a person’s brain and they become subtly different from the standard human (’as god intended’ I suppose you could say, ironically). I also believe that the next step in evolution is the advancement of the intellect, which should hopefully rid us of religion once and for all, or at least banish it to minority cult status.
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