Ricky Jones Cleared

[DancingFerret]

Unbelievable (but not unexpected).

www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-15003437/Labour-councillor-cleared-cutting-throats-comment-rally.html

It would appear not to be going by today's verdict!

Why furious?

Sea Lioning is starting early today

Yes of course it is a crime! Don't tweet it fools...you need to stand in the street in front of a baying mob, booming loudly we need to be rid of them, complete with throat slitting action - that is not a crime. When will people learn.

I'm not furious, in fact I'm quite pleased. The fact that the jury were able to stick with what they thought was the correct verdict, and not be swayed into the easy verdict demanded by the mob, encourages me to think that justice is alive and well.

Especially since the mob (i.e. most posters on here and on social media) appear spectacularly badly informed:

Don't understand the difference between pleading guilty and pleading not guilty

Think calling for the burning alive of a specific group of innocent people is the same as saying that violent criminals should be killed. (Presumably they think that saying "peadophiles should hang" should be illegal too?)

Have no clue how jury trials work.

Don't know the first thing about how the justice system in general works (and appear to think "Labour" or the PM himself are in charge of decisions to prosecute, the judiciary, the advice given by solicitors to their clients, bail decisions, and are even directing events in the jury room!)

Unfortunately I think the real societal divide (and the reason for the risk of serious unrest) is between those few sensible people who live in the real world and have a proper understanding of how things work, and those many badly-informed, gullible people who are vulnerable to online conspiracies and see what they want to see.

Although no one knows how a jury would have decided on Lucy Connolly’s case, had it gone to trial. It could have had the same outcome as Ricky Jones.

Not sure how that's relevant to the points I made but yes, of course, I agree.

That part where you say there’s obvious difference between the two actions, it’s not known if a jury would think that.

I’m delighted he was cleared. Nobody should be jailed for saying stupid horrible things in the heat of the moment.

You may not agree with the law but the law does have specific limits on what people are permitted to say, where it would violate other people's rights. Being offensive is legal. But inciting violence is not. It's surely pretty obvious why.

He said to a group of people 'We need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all.' whilst making a throat slitting motion about a different group of people he didn’t like.

How do you feel about Lucy Connolly being in jail for 3 years for tweeting something stupid and horrible, including not caring if other people are violent?

And how do you feel about her request for an appeal being rejected?

She pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred and encouraging activity that threatened life. She hasn't been in jail for 3 years and her sentence was 31 months of which she had to serve 40%.

So you think she deserves the jail time.

Do you think it's legal for someone to tell a crowd 'We need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all.' whilst making a throat slitting motion about a group of people they don’t like?

Which do you think is worse: someone saying they don't care if people set fire to the building housing a group they don't like, or someone telling a group to cut the throats of the group they don't like? If you ignore who the disliked group is, for a minute.

Of course. She received the appropriate sentence for the offence she pleaded guilty too. If people are guilty, they should receive the appropriate punishment.

Jones was found not guilty of encouraging violence. He wouldn't have been in court if it was legal.

Connelly's offence was more serious given the outcome.

I think it's 2 tier justice.

I also think that inciting a mob to slit a group's throat is worse than saying you don't care about violence. Her tweet isn't what caused the riots. That was caused by anger at the current political mismanagement of asylum, anger at the deaths of 3 little girls, and fear that mismanaged asylum is increasing violence in the UK. Not one tweet that someone doesn't care about violence which was already happening.

Take your evidence of jury rigging to the Police?

oh you haven't got any?

Tory Jacob Rees Mogg, hardly a friend of the 'Left, can see the difference between a Guilty plea, by a woman with 100s of racist & hate tweets to her name plus messages to friends on how she expected to escape justice.............. ....and a Crown Court trial, with 12 randomly selected men and women, who with no direction from the judge, found him not guilty.

@strawberrybubblegum She wrote this, at the time of wide spread rioting.....

“Mass deportation now. Set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care. While you’re at it, take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.”

An application in front of 3 judges, found no grounds for an appeal & upheld the sentence, where she had the very best legal team available..

How on earth is it "Two Tier???"

That's what people are saying on Twitter so it must be true.

of course the jury wasn't rigged but bearing in mind you only need more than 3 jurors out of 12 to find him not guilty for the case to be dismissed

No. That would be a mistrial.

Rees Mogg on x

Neither is right, BUT we have a justice system to find people guilty or not guilty.

We do not have a system based on what people "think" is the correct verdict, based on their own political leanings.

Also Dominic Grieve on X

Both couldn't be clearer, yet still Tory leaning posters spout "Two Tier"

Edited

You keep editing your posts after I've responded.

Connelly didn't say that she "didn't care about violence." She pleaded guilty to intent to stir up racial hatred and endangering life. Therefore she meant what she said.

She posted her viral tweet before the riots kicked off and no one has suggested that she caused the riots and she wasn't found guilty of that. The riots were partly caused by disinformation online saying that a Muslim asylum seeker who had recently arrived by boat, had committed the murders.

Dear God I have landed in an alternative reality where I find myself in agreement with Rees Mogg. How do I get back to the other world....?

@Alexandra2001 “Mass deportation now. Set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care. While you’re at it, take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.”

Thank you for that, I hadn't actually read the entire text previously, or hadn't possibly taken it in properly. I had thought the sentence perhaps longer than I expected, but there is a telling sentence in there that suggests to me that she actually got off lightly, and also why the appeal was refused. "While you’re at it, take the treacherous government and politicians with them" Since the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess the courts have taken very seriously, and quite rightly, threats of violence against politicians. Whether you like them or not, they are elected to do a public duty. If you don't agree with them, vote for someone else, or stand yourself. But you do not ever threaten MP's with violence.