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Is it illegal to make racist comments?

  • 29-12-2013 12:44PM
    #1
    Chefrio
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 120 ✭✭Chefrio


    I was watching sky sports news and saw that Nicolas Anelka is in a spot of bother for making a racist gesture.

    This made me wonder if it's illegal to make racist comments such as " I dislike Asian people and like aborigines".


«134567

Comments

  • #2
    antodeco
    Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,722 ✭✭✭✭antodeco


    Nope. Unless its about God being black or Jesus Chinese. Bless the oul Blasphemy law!


  • #3
    biko
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 81,060 ✭✭✭✭biko


    It probably falls under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989.


  • #4
    seamus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    It depends on if you're "inciting hatred". "I think all Roma should be placed in a gas chamber and be done with it", would probably qualify.

    Inciting hatred is illegal. Making racist comments is not.


  • #5
    Mr. Incognito
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,798 ✭✭✭Mr. Incognito


    A gesture is not a comment.

    Totally different. people are too quick to volunteer persecution these days.


  • #6
    fleet
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 542 ✭✭✭fleet


    Without checking it, I'd imagine that expressing a personal preference would just about be legal. Whereas giving any "reason" for it probably wouldn't.

    It's a minefield.

    The incitement to hatred laws exist for good reason. However, they can stifle debate in cases where race IS a factor e.g. ghettoisation etc.


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  • #7
    biko
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 81,060 ✭✭✭✭biko


    Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Alan Shatter):
    Under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, it is an offence, inter alia, to use words, publish or distribute written material, or broadcast any visual images or sounds which are threatening, abusive or insulting and are intended, or, having regard to all the circumstances, are likely to stir up hatred. The word “hatred” is defined as “hatred against a group of persons in the State or elsewhere on account of their race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origins, membership of the travelling community or sexual orientation”. The State’s prosecutorial authorities have not brought to my notice any difficulties in bringing prosecutions under the 1989 Act.

    In addition to the foregoing legislation, where criminal offences such as assault, criminal damage, or public order offences are committed with a racist motive, they are prosecuted as generic offences though the wider criminal law. The trial judge can take aggravating factors, including racial motivation, into account at sentencing.


  • #8
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    If it was, all of our elderly would be in prison, not nursing homes.


  • #9
    Annasopra
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 41,236 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    biko wrote: »
    It probably falls under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989.

    And it hasn't been particularly succesful in terms of prosecutions unfortunately.

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



  • #10
    tigger123
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,815 ✭✭✭tigger123


    biko wrote: »
    It probably falls under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989.

    It's PC gone mad.


  • #11
    efb
    Closed Accounts Posts: 35,514 ✭✭✭✭efb


    [-0-] wrote: »
    If it was, all of our elderly would be in prison, not nursing homes.

    the beatings are less severe in prisons tho...


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  • #12
    Annasopra
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 41,236 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    tigger123 wrote: »
    It's PC gone mad.

    What is?

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



  • #13
    Friend Computer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 369 ✭✭Friend Computer


    Everything anyone doesn't agree with, if AH is to be believed.


  • #14
    tigger123
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,815 ✭✭✭tigger123


    mango salsa wrote: »
    What is?

    The legislation I quoted. It was a (poor) joke.


  • #15
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 9,904 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    As a means for the PC liberal crowd to brow-beat and hush any none PC topic, the force of their moral outrage usually is enough to quell any mutterings against their tolerance or else mindset.


  • #16
    Annasopra
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 41,236 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    Rabble rabble.... PC.... rabble rabble

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



  • #17
    Fr_Dougal
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,167 ✭✭✭Fr_Dougal


    tigger123 wrote: »
    The legislation I quoted. It was a (poor) joke.

    I think most people got it!


  • #18
    tigger123
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,815 ✭✭✭tigger123


    Manach wrote: »
    As a means for the PC liberal crowd to brow-beat and hush any none PC topic, the force of their moral outrage usually is enough to quell any mutterings against their tolerance or else mindset.

    What would you define as a non PC topic?


  • #19
    Starscream25
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,100 ✭✭✭Starscream25


    Slightly off topic but How about when someone says you look like a Jew? I've had this said to me a few times and I just don't know how to reply. I happen to have a larger nose than most and happens to be a bit crooked. Does this mean that people who say this are slightly racist with their observation or even look down on Jewish people? Or maybe just buying into the stereotype of what a Jew looks like.


  • #20
    Santa Cruz
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Santa Cruz


    Racism is used by the PC crowd to restrict other peoples freedom of speech. If you say "immigration is having a negative effect on the provision of health and education services in Ireland" you will be accused of being a racist to shut you up by people with their own agenda.

    Does anyone believe that increased demand on services because of the influx of non Irish people has improved those services?


  • #21
    Chefrio
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 120 ✭✭Chefrio


    Santa Cruz wrote: »
    Racism is used by the PC crowd to restrict other peoples freedom of speech. If you say "immigration is having a negative effect on the provision of health and education services in Ireland" you will be accused of being a racist to shut you up by people with their own agenda.

    Does anyone believe that increased demand on services because of the influx of non Irish people has improved those services?

    That's not racist as race is not the discriminant.


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  • #22
    Annasopra
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 41,236 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    Rabble rabble.... freedom of speech.... rabble rabble

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



  • #23
    KTRIC
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,346 ✭✭✭KTRIC


    What If the statement is factual ??


  • #24
    seamus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Santa Cruz wrote: »
    Racism is used by the PC crowd to restrict other peoples freedom of speech. If you say "immigration is having a negative effect on the provision of health and education services in Ireland" you will be accused of being a racist to shut you up by people with their own agenda.
    No you won't, you'll be asked to provide evidence to support your opinion.

    People immigrate to find work. Therefore it stands to reason that the majority of immigrants pay tax, easing the burden on the pre-existing taxpayers. This is demonstrated by the massive tax income this country had while immigration was high, and the collapse in tax take now that emigration is high. See how that works? It doesn't have to be hard facts, just a relatively verifiable deduction as to how you arrived at your opinion.


  • #25
    Sunglasses Ron
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,180 ✭✭✭Sunglasses Ron


    Santa Cruz wrote: »
    Racism is used by the PC crowd to restrict other peoples freedom of speech. If you say "immigration is having a negative effect on the provision of health and education services in Ireland" you will be accused of being a racist to shut you up by people with their own agenda.

    Does anyone believe that increased demand on services because of the influx of non Irish people has improved those services?

    A few threads back I posted a comment about how if Ireland had given out quota work permits post 03 like the rest of the EU did (allowing in a manageable, orkable amount of Polish etc migrants) rather than a free for all, our property market would never have gotten into the state it did.

    Any replies or counter arguments?

    Did it fluck. It was the last post of the page, and remains so.

    PC folk are generally.....I'm not even allowed to say here. But they are terrified of intelligent, rational, real world experience debate.


  • #26
    Legs.Eleven
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,987 ✭✭✭Legs.Eleven


    Manach wrote: »
    As a means for the PC liberal crowd to brow-beat and hush any none PC topic, the force of their moral outrage usually is enough to quell any mutterings against their tolerance or else mindset.



    Thesaurus.com called; they want their words back.


  • #27
    Hitchens
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,142 ✭✭✭Hitchens


    Brigade company leaders to the CP immediately...........this is not a drill, repeat.......this is not a drill :D


  • #28
    Femme_Fatale
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,628 ✭✭✭Femme_Fatale


    Sunglasses Ron wrote: »
    PC folk are generally.....I'm not even allowed to say here.
    Aren't you?
    But they are terrified of intelligent, rational, real world experience debate.
    See here's the thing: most people who see a bad side to racism (I know, what are they like?!) aren't actually "PC" and terrified of intelligent, rational (lol - because the people who drone "PC" over and over are clearly so intelligent and rational), real world experience debate; they just... see a fairly unpleasant angle to racism, that is all. It doesn't always mean that they're hypersensitive, easily offended, or looking for racism even where it's not present.

    It doesn't have to be "the PC crowd" versus your no-nonsense crowd and no in between, ya know.


  • #29
    Karl Stein
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,687 ✭✭✭Karl Stein


    Sunglasses Ron wrote: »
    A few threads back I posted a comment about how if Ireland had given out quota work permits post 03 like the rest of the EU did (allowing in a manageable, orkable amount of Polish etc migrants) rather than a free for all, our property market would never have gotten into the state it did.

    Any replies or counter arguments?

    Can you explain how that is a non-PC thing to say? It's just a position on immigration based on an economic view as opposed to 'them blacks/Arabs/Muslims will destroy delicate Ireland'.


  • #30
    biko
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 81,060 ✭✭✭✭biko


    I remember when this thread was about the legality of racist comments. That was an hour ago.


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  • #31
    Siegfreid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4 ✭Siegfreid


    Carlos Roca wrote: »
    Can you explain how that is a non-PC thing to say? It's just a position on immigration based on an economic view as opposed to 'them blacks/Arabs/Muslims will destroy delicate Ireland'.

    What about "them Brits will destroy delicate Ireland". I believe you would get your panties in a twist and go off on a rant about "true Irishmen" and Sinn Féin and the IRA and Gerry Adams and beards etc ad infinitum

    You're a hypocrite :cool:


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