If you're not a US citizen, be careful with your pics.

[Kracken McGraw]

Don't forget "thought police"... it's against the law there to "think" of certain crimes.
No thanks

I sure hope there’s no “dream police”. lol!

 

[nakneker]

Pretty sad, I feel for the people in the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere that are experiencing such things. Watching the events in the UK the past few years shows just how damaging the loss of free speech and a woke mentality can be. The big march they just had was refreshing and gives some hope that they might be able to change directions. Propaganda is much more effective that I ever thought possible, we saw that across the pond and here in the US too.

People forget history fast, in the last 110 years two world wars have been fought protecting freedom around the world, blood has been split and yet in a matter of a few decades people forget. History gets rewritten and people, not all people but a good amount of them suck it all up.

We’re foolish if we don’t think it can happen here. We’ve seen free speech limited the last few years but thankfully the tide is changing. The 2A protects the first. We came close to following the insanity we’re seeing over seas this last election, we better fight like hell to keep what we have. They will try again, you can count on that.

 

[FNSafari]

History is barely taught in schools today, civics...ya right. The yourger generation is growing up clamoring for packing the supreme court, doing away with the filibuster and the electoral college. On the surface it all sounds so reasonable, but its not. Many have no idea why something like the electoral college exists. All the socialists want is total control via immigration chaos and simple majority rules.

 

[joshb]

Think about how these people are raised. They are “subjects of the King”. From early childhood thru adulthood they bow to a King or Queen.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

History is barely taught in schools today, civics...ya right.

Yup, and I have proof of that.
I'm a disabled Vietnam veteran, and when I asked my two grandkids (15 and 19 at the time) what they were taught in school about the Vietnam war, I got the 'deer in the headlights' look. Answer: "ahh.....nothing".

We spend the most money per student in the US and have the abysmal worst test scores in the developed world. Think the bogus teacher's unions have anything to do with that? Go figure.

Remember....."if you ignore history........."

 

[FNSafari]

Yup, and I have proof of that.
I'm a disabled Vietnam veteran, and when I asked my two grandkids (15 and 19 at the time) what they were taught in school about the Vietnam war, I got the 'deer in the headlights' look. Answer: "ahh.....nothing".

We spend the most money per student in the US and have the abysmal worst test scores in the developed world. Think the bogus teacher's unions have anything to do with that? Go figure.

Remember....."if you ignore history........."

Right. I don't know about your state's public school teachers union, but the one in Maine is and has been tightly intertwined with the Dems for decades and don't seem to answer to anyone but themselves and the learning agenda they unilaterally concoct. Its one of the reasons private schools and home schooling is so popular. IMO, sending a child to a public school and expecting them to exit as a well rounded citizen with knowledge of our past and its importance for their future is a fairytale.

 

[joshb]

Yup! They don’t want them to learn about the history of the Soviet Union or Cuba. Then they’d see that Socialism and Communism don’t work. Never mind the millions that died in the purges.

 

[358WCF]

 

[TRSR8]

All you internet luminaries maybe want to check on the entire story.
Apparently the dumbass got back home posted on social media with a reference to a former client who, according to him, owed a great deal of $, on the post with the guns, threw a veiled threat to the guy which authorities took rather serious.

 

[Murray Brook]

I kind of figured there had to be more to it.

 

[ronsatspokane]

All you internet luminaries maybe want to check on the entire story.
Apparently the dumbass got back home posted on social media with a reference to a former client who, according to him, owed a great deal of $, on the post with the guns, threw a veiled threat to the guy which authorities took rather serious.

What about the other 12,000 jailed in the UK for social media violations?

 

[ronsatspokane]

History is barely taught in schools today, civics...ya right. The yourger generation is growing up clamoring for packing the supreme court, doing away with the filibuster and the electoral college. On the surface it all sounds so reasonable, but its not. Many have no idea why something like the electoral college exists. All the socialists want is total control via immigration chaos and simple majority rules.

This is an excellent point but could derail the conversation related to the Common Wealth Countries violation of what we in the US consider basic rights.

Few people are aware that the reason we have a "United States" is due to the electoral college. The other colonies did not want to be ruled by New York. The electoral college was the solution that permitted the formation of a union. It is foundational. End the electoral college and you end the "United States".

 

[Laurie]

What about the other 12,000 jailed in the UK for social media violations?

Cobblers! 12,000 !? Where did you get that figure from?

 

[TRSR8]

K, I’m out, another thread used to pull up a soapbox and preach.

 

[Tesoro]

Quite right. There are lots of shooting pics on social media by Brits and also several UK based shooting forums. Legitimate shooters aren't 'hassled' in any way as a result.

From our newspaper coverage of this case (widespread up to national newspaper level and very critical of West Yorkshire Police), there is apparently much more to the story than simply arresting someone for a pic of using a shotgun. According to yesterday's coverage, it seems someone made a complaint to the police about threats from an individual with the same name, but not the same person. The shotgun pic was somehow incorrectly linked to the investigation of the complaint.

He was arrested and questioned about using a firearm in such a way as to threaten or harass others, a serious offence under the Firearms Acts. A holiday or any other snap like this would never be treated as such though, but someone (whether the complainant or the police, who knows), appear to have got their wires seriously crossed.

Nevertheless, I can hardly see how this pic could even so be used or seen by others as portraying threats or harassment. Unless, there are other yet to be disclosed facts which do implicate this guy in the original complaint in some way, I'd expect him to sue WYP for false arrest and imprisonment.

Excuse us for being suckers to American liberal media. I knew it was bs cause I like to view the stalking forum. Lots of fox hunters in Uk with kit alot of us dont have, like suppressors and night vision.

 

[ronsatspokane]

Cobblers! 12,000 !? Where did you get that figure from?

That was a local news report. Other reports are saying that 30 people a day are being arrested:

UK free speech crackdown sees up to 30 people a day arrested for petty offenses such as retweets and cartoons

UK data suggests over 30 people a day are arrested for speech crimes, about 12,000 a year, under laws written well before the age of social media that make crimes of sending “grossly offensive” mes…

nypost.com

That is based on a Times of London article where they said 30 a day. Over 365 days that is only about 11,000 so maybe the report is inflated by 1000 give or take. Can't find any info on how long this has been going on but another article says that these arrests picked up significantly starting in about 2017.

 

[Laurie]

That was a local news report. Other reports are saying that 30 people a day are being arrested:

UK free speech crackdown sees up to 30 people a day arrested for petty offenses such as retweets and cartoons

UK data suggests over 30 people a day are arrested for speech crimes, about 12,000 a year, under laws written well before the age of social media that make crimes of sending “grossly offensive” mes…

nypost.com

That is based on a Times of London article where they said 30 a day. Over 365 days that is only about 11,000 so maybe the report is inflated by 1000 give or take. Can't find any info on how long this has been going on but another article says that these arrests picked up significantly starting in about 2017.

You have incorrectly conflated investigations with imprisonments. 99% of these have seen no action taken by the police or authorities after complaints made to the police by so-called 'victims'. With the exception of one major incident, anybody going to jail for a social media post is very rare indeed. (Your words were 'the other 12,000 jailed .............') Those few who have gone to jail have been accused of making serious threats against others, trying to incite public violence or disorder, trying to foment terrorism and suchlike.

The sole major incident was the aftermath of the murder in summer 2024 of three little girls and injuring several more at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport, a seaside time and holiday resort in north west England by a knife wielding 17 year old called Axel Rudakubana. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, there were violent riots and threats of disorder after false rumours circulated that the perpetrator was an illegal immigrant. They were at least in part stoked by social media posts spreading false information and calling for violent action such as burning down immigrant hostels. A very small number of people making these posts were subsequently jailed alongside violent rioters. The poster case of these is one Lucy Connolly who got 31 months prison. The harshness of the sentence, but not its rightness as she did plead guilty to the charges, has provoked considerable public anger and disquiet across the country.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx5v1vzy01o

Even in the Southport riots case, the number prosecuted for posts (or attempted to be prosecuted as some failed) was single figures as opposed to a much larger number of violent rioters. Britain has a history of extreme nervousness amongst the authorities over major public disorder with armed soldiers being used to quell riots as late as the 19th and even early 20th century. The then newly elected Kier Starmer government apparently conformed to this norm.

I would question 'The Times' 12,000 police investigations figure anyway as an out and out SWAG. There are no reliable figures as online abuse / threats etc aren't usually recorded separately from other more traditional kinds. Irrespective of numbers, we Brits have become thoroughly fed up and angry with 'woke' police chiefs investigating and even sometimes arresting those accused of upsetting others online, often from serial vexatious complainers over 'trans' and similar issues, and there has been major public and media kickback resulting in the government Home Office and HM Chief Inspector of Policing telling them to lay off. As in the US which runs several years ahead of us on such issues, the pendulum is now swinging against the woke-outrage minority here and hopefully will see a return to common sense.

 

[joshb]

Thank you for the insight, Laurie! You might be our only “boots on the ground” reliable source of information on what’s really happening.
It’s a shame that most of the “News” these days is what we used to call “yellow journalism” and only seen in the gossip rags.

 

[Syncrowave]

All you internet luminaries maybe want to check on the entire story.
Apparently the dumbass got back home posted on social media with a reference to a former client who, according to him, owed a great deal of $, on the post with the guns, threw a veiled threat to the guy which authorities took rather serious.

If what the guy did was so "serious," then why didn't they charge him with anything?
A threat is a threat. If he's threatening people, then charge him with making terroristic threats.
And if it isn't a threat, then it isn't a threat and, as they love to say in the UK, "F_ck off."
They didn't need to go to his house at 10 pm. They didn't need to go to his house at all. All they needed to do is get onto the Internet and look at what he said. Or, at most, contact LinkedIn and find out what he said. Then, either charge him or don't. But don't go back to the guy's house over and over and over and over.

That's not law enforcement. It's Busywork for Babysitters.

View attachment 1717297

The Brits have a funny relationship with their guns.

According to Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons, when the Brits phased out their L96A1 "Green Meanie" military & police sniper rifles to replace them with more modern versions, they didn't sell them off to try to recoup some of their cost. No, they chopped them up into pieces and then dumped them into the North Sea... which is the same thing they did with the vast majority of firearms that American NRA members generously donated to help them defend themselves from expected Nazi invaders during WWII.

Golly, you'd think they were de-milling flogging hydrogen bombs or NBC weapons, not small arms.

Did they really need to cut up all those guns AND dump them into the North Sea? Couldn't they have -- I dunno -- just recited some simple incantations...maybe something along the lines of "Bad gun! BAD gun! You're a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad GUN!"...while melting them down in a crucible over a bonfire built with MAGA hats?

You can just see those British cops in their silly checkered, chartreuse stormtrooper suits out there on barges, ceremoniously kicking cut-up pieces of rifles across the rail into the drink. "Grr, take THAT, you awful, evil, icky GUN!" [kick] "Guess I showed 'im, innit?" As if doing so showed one to be a fearless warrior. As if doing so would make even one electron's worth of difference to anybody anywhere whatsoever in the entire life of the Universe.

Now we have these big public charades in England where they have so-called "Knife Amnesties" where they collect knives from the public (kind of like a "gun turn-in" or "gun buyback" -- except with knives) ...

This whole silly exercise, mind you, is run by the Home Office ... the national government.
Imagine the FBI or the federal government squandering our tax dollars on the same kind of publicity stunt.

and then they pretend that a) the people handing over their knives would have presented any danger to anybody in the first place, and b) that collecting a bunch of butter knives from grannies is going to make even one iota of difference in the grand scheme of things.

It's all a big charade...just phony feelgood horse sh_t for low-information voters ... just like gun control ... just like dumping those awful, icky, ugly, evil guns into the North Sea ... just like practically everything they do. It's all words and no action, or as Texans like to say, "All hat and no cattle." More Busywork for Babysitters.

It reminds me of California Governor Gavin Newsom banning plastic straws and then pretending that doing so will make even the most miniscule change to anything for anybody ... while all across California, murder victims are stacked up like cordwood, and every day, Public Works employees in San Francisco have to shovel 5 to 10 cubic yards of human sh_t off the sidewalks in their "unhoused person" camps.

None of it means anything. It's all done for show. And it's as effete, phony and feckless as Monty Montgomery at Dunkirk, with his silly beret, his Maybelline moustache and his ridiculous riding crop. All of it brought to us by the same people who brought us Appeaser-in-Chief Neville Chamberlain.
What an embarrassment to Western civilization.

 

[joshb]

Oye! Dem forks be dangerous, too!