"When a middle-aged mother lashes out at asylum seekers in a social-media post"
She urged people to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers.
She urged people to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers.
"Bins were set alight and pushed against fire exits"
You can yell fire in a crowded theatre. Just hope you don't cause a panic or you'll be in trouble.
But what if laws get interpreted through an ideological lens, and the person shouting happens to be a fellow member of the "Pro-Trampling Party"?
The important part is that yelling "fire" is fine if the entire theatre laughs it off.
Though moral luck is certainly a thing in general, where negligence and risk-taking is not a crime until it goes wrong.
Anything else a genuinely slippery slope.
> ...the administration suspended her visa and put her in immigration detention.
In that case the student was grabbed off the street by masked men (which bystanders thought was a kidnapping) and disappeared to another state (against judge's orders), kept in dire conditions, with her friends/family/lawyer initially not knowing what happened is.
In any case, people should be able to protest and should only face lawful restrictions if they cause immediate property damage (looting, burning cars, etc.), physical assault or pose an immediate danger to people or things in their immediate vicinity.
Just saying vile and disgusting things should not be a basis for prohibiting and or arresting people. If they become physically violent or threatening, then sure, arrest them. "Shitposting" on X/Twitter, etc., should not get you arrested.
People in China know the consequences of not being able to say vile and disgusting things about their own government when they crush dissent.
Of course. It is applied by humans, with all the failings that implies.
>In any case, people should be able to protest and should only face lawful restrictions if they cause immediate property damage ... Just saying vile and disgusting things should not be a basis for prohibiting and or arresting people.
That may be your viewpoint, but UK law says otherwise.
For example: The now-suspended councillor, wearing a black polo top and surrounded by cheering supporters, said: “They are disgusting Nazi fascists. We need to cut all their throats and get rid of them all.” - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/15/suspended-labour... (unpaywall: https://archive.is/gT2fa)
He was charged, but the jury took little more than half an hour to reach a not guilty verdict. Speculation is that this was simple in-group preference - The trial was at Snaresbrook Crown Court, in the constituency of Leyton and Wanstead. At the 2021 Census, the white British population in Leyton and Wanstead was less than 34% of the total population. The jury likely reflected that. And such in-group preference is well documented: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/judicial-institute/sites/judicial-inst...