Should racist speech be controlled by the law?

[MrManager]

Specifically the criminal law, i.e. should it be an offence (as it is now), or is freedom of speech too important?

but I ended up shouting into her face that she was "a fucking thoughtless fat fucking black bitch".

If I substituted "ugly" for "black" would it still be an offence

I think you were lucky that she didn't press charges. doubt there were any witnesses.

newwave - no one is questioning your right to be severely pissed off but you introduced a racial element where race was irrelevant.

Yes, if you substituted the word black for ughly, then you could have committed a section 5 POA offence -you may have caused someone harassment, alarm or distress.

Scurry, yes you are right, heat of the moment thing and in truth given similar provocation I could not guarantee it would not happen again.

I like to think I am not racist in in my daily life I am not, I detest the BNP and EDL and all it stands for but I do have a temper and when provoked I do lash out with the most hurtful things I can say, wrong I know.

'I think you were lucky that she didn't press charges. doubt there were any witnesses.'

I think it would have been extremely stressful for you, as the case was investigated.

Scurry, she caused me "distress" what section covers that :o

claig, what a waste of Police resources that would have been.

I bet she is careful how she parks now.

From your replies it seems you cannot have a "legal" row in public with anyone now.

newwave, I'm afraid you need to start reading the Daily Mail on a regular basis

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-497496/English-bitch-Insult-landed-Irishman-living-Wales-court-racial-harassment.html

I think some rows are OK, but if there is any racial element, it is serious

claig, Daily Mail! no need to be nasty.

The only toilet paper that comes prefilled with shit

Scurry says that any insult fat/ugly/stupid etc cannot be used in a row.

OK, then if you are uninformed, on your head be it

If it is public and someone feels harassed, etc by it then yes, it could be deemed a public order offence. If you called me a fat cow in public, I would probably agree .....so no offence.

inciting racial hatred is different from expressing a rascist opinion. i think the latter should remain legal.

Ok LG I have said it should not have used that language.

In the same position what would you have done. If she had not returned i would have got in through the passenger door and driven off however she came back and read my note. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE.

All this because someone parked inconsiderately?

What would you have done if she had some something serious? Queue jumping, perhaps? Or "looking at you in a funny way"?

I think it is really rather sad that we need to have laws to tell people that it is not acceptable to hurl offensive and derogatory terms at each other, and that on a parenting site we think it is more important to have the right to do so than to curtail our baser instincts. Surely this is one of the early lessons we try and teach our children. To have empathy, to understand the impact of our actions, to think before we speak?

Free speech is very important, to me it is about sharing ideas, knowledge and information, and should not in any way be confused with the "right" to openly display hatred and intolerance. I've never felt that my speech was in any way meaningfully curtailed because I couldn't be sexist, racist, homophobic or disablist, that I have a responsibility to think (just a little bit) about the impact on other people about what I'm about to say is fine by me.

newwave - For the record I would have called her a "fucking selfish cunt who can't fucking park".

Though I would have just got in the passenger side and got on with my day, so the situation probably wouldn't have arisen.

no, we laready have laws on incitement, and that should have been enough.

My neighbour was called a "white bastard" by another black neighbour. IMO he was 'white' he certainly was a bastard, should the black man be prosecuted? Not in my books.

It does seem quite one-sided. When I was at school, an asian boy took the mick out of my very pale skin. I naturally reacted commenting on his skin colour. Guess which one of us got a b*llocking? Ridiculous.

Claig. Read the Daily Mail article. It was ridiculous IMO to bring that man to court, waste taxpayers money and give him a criminial record. What are we living in some sort of police state? Next we will be prosecuted for what we write on this site!