Wednesday, June 01, 2016
UK: Must not mock the dead
A 50-year-old man will appear in court after a photograph surfaced showing a man wearing a t-shirt with offensive comments mocking the victims of the Hillsborough disaster.
Paul Grange has been charged with a public order offence following an incident where somebody was snapped sitting in the beer garden of the Brewers Arms pub in Worcester yesterday wearing an offensive t-shirt.
The black top had white writing on the back comparing the 1989 Hillsborough disaster victims to pests.
The photo provoked a furious response from Liverpool supporters and the pub's landlord Mark Daniels said the man was thrown out as soon as staff noticed the shirt.
West Mercia Police confirmed a 50-year-old from Worcester had been charged.
A force spokesman said: 'He is accused of a Section 5 Public Order Offence relating to the display of threatening and abusive sign and writing, likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.'
Grange was released on bail to appear at Worcester Magistrates' Court on a date in July.
In a statement on the Brewers Arms Facebook page, the pub said: 'We would like to apologise for the offensive t-shirt worn by one of our customers.
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5 comments:
This should be a field day for the lawyers. It is obviously an overreaction to freedom of speech. Sensitivities may be high at the moment and the man in question exercised poor judgement but that does not give anyone carte blanche to abuse and assault the victim. The owner of the pub could certainly have handled it better and should undergo close investigation. If you can tolerate Islam then what this man did pales into insignificance.
Anon 3:18,
Why are you trying to take the pub owner to task? The owner and staff did not want such an idiot in their pub, so they told the guy to leave.
No one was assaulted or abused.
I wonder if you even managed to read the post or the associated article as what you are saying does not match reality.
For the record, (as the image of the shirt is blurred) the shirt read "HILLSBOROUGH: GOD'S WAY OF HELPING RENTOKILL."
(Rentokill is a national pest control company.)
There are very few things that would approach the doctrine of "fighting words," but this tee shirt comes close to the line, if not over it. Ninety six people died in the Hillsborough tragedy which was then covered up by government officials. Only recently did a court say that the victims were not responsible for their deaths.
When you start calling the victims of a government coverup and government created tragedy some sort of pest or vermin, you should be prepared for all the vitriol that comes your way.
Now, should that shirt be a cause of arrest? Probably not and definitely not given the circumstances at the pub where no one was attacked or threatened.
The shirt was over the line and the pub owner had the right to say "get out" and handled the situation perfectly as his action may have prevented a fight.
The arrest is a different story and I don't support the arrest and charging at all.
The bottom line is that Anon 3:18 needs a reading comprehension course.
And those vermin who vandalized war memorials need to be put on public service cleaning up the mess left behind by idiots celebrating Earthday
No question that the slogan on his shirt was offensive. However, being arrested for wearing an offensive tee shirt seems a little extreme But that's England, which seems to be the land of PC extremism.
HE'S DEAD JIM
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