to think they shouldn't send you to prison for taking a picture of a corpse

[pisacake]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4611862/Man-jailed-posting-Grenfell-Tower-victim-picture.html

Apparently Mr. Mwaikambo, who is of Tanzanian origin or extraction, opened a body bag at the Grenfell Tower and posted the picture on Facebook.

I'm not sure about Tanzania, but I am in Indonesia and it's very common to post selfies with dead (i.e. in the moments after they die) relatives etc. on Facebook. There was a case earlier this year where a Western man died and the local newspaper published multiple shots of him dead, dressed only in his underpants with blood coming out of his nose etc. Those photos remain online.

Obviously this is not the done thing in England, but it seems that someone they have come up with a fairly arbitrary charge (sending obscene materials over the internet) - there's no law against what he did, per se - and whacked a rather stiff sentence on him.

I'm not saying he was right to do it, but it seems that there is an excessive sentence for someone who broadcast to a fairly limited number of people (he has a couple of hundred friends on Facebook), something which inherently is more about outrage at the fire than the fact of what he did.

The law used is obscenity, but the photos are no more obscene than going to Tanzania/other parts of Africa and taking pictures of dead Africans to be broadcast on the news, or photos of the deceased Gaddafi (widely distributed in Western media) or whatever. The obscenity is the fire, but Mr. Mwaikambo is in no way responsible for that.

Tanzanian sorry

It may not be that unusual to commit a non violent offence just before a weekend, get arrested, get charged and get sentenced so quickly.
But I do not believe its 'very normal'

Even if someone has been threatened with violence.

Yes there are a lot of people threatening him with death and hoping he gets cancer on Facebook. Not sure if they will be sentenced in similar fashion?

And that's because contrary to your previously posted beliefs this country generally doesn't actually go in for prosecuting 'thought crimes'

If the man concerned feels he is being genuinely threatened the police then have the power to act on his behalf and protect him.

Fuck him. We don't do that sort of sick shit in this country.

I can't believe that you OP are still popping up to defend him! Give your fucking head a wobble

I honestly think he was sentenced so quickly for his own safety . I am nowhere near London but i can only assume that emotions are so heightened that it is trauma and chaos lives have been devestated reactions are not "normal"

Sorry Tanzania - so not even in the same continent. So the op attempting to defend him using norms from another country separated by 5000 miles and an ocean and with very different cultural and social norms.

Quite frankly op not only are you making some huge leaps to defend the indefensible, you are showing some pretty patronising views on how non-white non-European people and that they're somehow 'all the same' and incapable of absorbing and understanding the cultural norms of the country in which they now live.

Well it's quite likely to be a photo of the first male victim named..... how horrific for his friends or family to stumble across that

Well one thing I think is ridiculous is that in the photo of him being arrested there are four police officers! Why so many?! Waste of their time, surely two would have been enough. It just looks like they wanted to make a spectacle of him to deflect from the awful tragedy.

Quick sentencing like that is not unusual

Not at all

Nope, sorry, I can't dredge up an ounce of pity for him. It's one thing to take a picture of your dead relative and post it online if that is part of your culture and their culture but quite another to take a picture of someone else's family member. Also, families are sometimes advised not to see the body if it is in in bad condition, the relatives of this person now have no choice.

He broke the law of the country he was living in at the time. He broke the T&C of the website he used.
There are other laws in other countries, and no one should assume that their cultural norms are universal.
He knew that there was a mass incident going on which would explain why there was a delay to gathering people who had died. He knew that the body had been marked and would be collected.
If he'd taken images of the face in case they would later provide comfort to the family, and waited until the body had been ID'd then he wouldn't be going to serve a sentence. He interfered with a body and then published the images. I have no sympathy with him.

Quick sentencing and 4 police officers for one arrest is totally normal. Mostly for his own safety as the feelings of anger are massive about the whole incident.

They also hack into dead people's and pose as relatives in order to gain access to interviews. Whilst the person in question did wrong, let's not act like our British press aren't culpable because they blur faces.

Phone hacking is not standard UK journalistic practice. The vast majority of journos have never so much as thought about it. Several journalists were rightly jailed for it, and it triggered the Leveson Inquiry and a new code of practice which virtually all the mainstream publications have signed up to.

I can't comment on the recent allegations about the Sun. I've read their reply to it, and we'll see what is proved, but please don't tar all UK journalists with the same brush.

They do a vital job in society.

Why the fuck was the body just left there is the first place?
I don't agree with what he did at all but I can see his point of view about the fact the body was just left there like that.

I've been wondering something about this, wonder if anyone knows? If he lived close enough for someone to land in his garden, why hadn't he been evacuated? Or was it before the houses surrounding the flats were evacuated?

"Sorry Tanzania - so not even in the same continent. So the op attempting to defend him using norms from another country separated by 5000 miles and an ocean and with very different cultural and social norms. "

Not at all. I have no idea the cultural norms in Tanzania, just giving an illustration for the people who insist that what he did is universally horrifying. It's not. Not at all.

Red - because presumably the focus at that point was about rescuing people and trying to stop there being more bodies. As unpleasant as it is at that point beyond covering the body, for his dignity, he won't have been a priority for removal from the area.

I don't know why the mans body was left perhaps waiting on private ambulances to pick the man up it was a disaster situation

thefirstmrsdv I've dealt with 100s of non violent offenders who have been sentenced in similarly short periods of time. Mostly drug possession, shoplifting, driving when disqualified and immigration offences.

What is unusual is that it seems he had no previous convictions. Either the judge was being unusually severe in not order a report or the offender requested he be sentenced without one.

The correct response would be to find a police officer, firefighter or paramedic and ask them what was happening, not post on social media.

"He broke the law of the country he was living in at the time"

That depends on your interpretation. There's apparently no law about taking photos/opening body bags; it was just determined retrospectively that it was obscene.

"He broke the T&C of the website he used. "

This is not really clear. Lots of shocking gory images on Facebook. They aren't banned. They didn't delete the images initially.

But how can it be a "cultural norm" to use FaceBook? He can hardly claim it is a practice common amongst his ancestors.

The OP seems determined to defend him and is extending the defence to anyone who continues cultural practices at odds with the laws of another country.

Many of our laws depend on interpretation.

That doesn't make then any less of a law.

His behaviour was disgusting. There is no excuse for doing what he did in the UK. None at all. Ignorance is not an excuse in law either.