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submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Summary

Jacob Hersant, a self-described Nazi, was sentenced to one month in prison, becoming the first person in Australia jailed for performing an outlawed Nazi salute.

Convicted in Victoria for making the salute outside a courthouse in October, Hersant’s act followed new legislation banning the gesture.

Magistrate Brett Sonnet justified the sentence, citing Hersant’s intent to promote Nazi ideology publicly.

Hersant’s lawyer argued that his actions were nonviolent and claimed they were protected as political expression, stating plans to appeal the ruling on constitutional grounds.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 72 points 10 months ago

I have a reason to post a Riker after what happened in the U.S. on Tuesday! Oh god, it's better than therapy...

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 61 points 10 months ago

Good.

It was a mistake letting Nazis and others practice their terrorist views in public. Freedom of expression is not and never should be an absolute right.

[-] thatsTheCatch@lemmy.nz 32 points 10 months ago

Imagine being his lawyer and having to come up with an argument to defend him. Yeesh

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 months ago

A lawyer one time said that his job when defending someone that couldn't be defended is guaranteeing that the prosecutors do their job property just because the guy is totally guilt

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

"My support of political ideologies which directly propose genocide is completely non-violent, trust me bro."

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago
[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

And you aren't part of thee group were genociding

[-] yamanii@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago

It's the tolerance paradox, you can't tolerate these people and have a peaceful democracy. This is the answer.

[-] in4aPenny@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago

Didn't we used to kill Nazi's and celebrate their demise in movies like Indiana Jones?

[-] emmy67@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

Apparently we didn't kill enough

[-] in4aPenny@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Would be easier to continue if our state apprati didn't protect them. You'd get shot by police for shooting at Nazi's now.

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[-] blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

No apostrophe in a non-possessive plural noun.

But yes.

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[-] Jon_Servo@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

Self-described Nazi

Yeah, there's a term for that: Nazi. Just call them that.

[-] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

I think it's to clarify that it's not coming from the judgement of the newspaper. The Nazi himself is calling himself a Nazi. So, there's no doubt about it.

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[-] Hubi@feddit.org 10 points 10 months ago

This dude looks so much like the Austrian neo-nazi Martin Sellner that it's actually uncanny. I genuinely thought this was him. Maybe they are long lost brothers?

[-] 5wim@slrpnk.net 7 points 10 months ago

The pictured dude in the article is apparently

Tim Smartt, the lawyer for Jacob Hersant, arriving at court in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday

and not the shithead himself. But I don't disagree

[-] vividspecter@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

Nah, it's definitely him. It looks to be an error in the caption. Or his lawyer looks uncannily like his client.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 8 points 10 months ago

I don't like Nazis for sure, but I also don't like people being jailed for expressing their views and speech. So my thought would be to get like two or three hundred protesters together and all go to that courthouse and make that salute and make them arrest every one of them. If the court system wants to waste their own time and tons of taxpayer money, prosecuting people for free speech, then let them do so. Kind of like Iran using $2,000 drones to cost Israel $2 million missiles.

[-] gratux 45 points 10 months ago

I'm sorry, since when was being a nazi in public in any way tolerable? We aren't talking about "I don't like cereal" here, the nazis were arguably one of the darkest times of our history. Trying to revive it is absolutely not acceptable.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 5 points 10 months ago

Never give the government power that you would not want turned against you because governments change. I vehemently disagree with their cause, but I would also vehemently defend their right to express their opinion.

[-] Krzd@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago

Nazi ideology is never an opinion. It's a threat to human rights and democracy.

[-] whostosay@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

This is the right take, and the fact that these people aren't seeing it is insane.

[-] prole 27 points 10 months ago

No, we've just seen enough at this point to understand that absolute freedom of speech/expression is a mistake.

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[-] Wolfram@lemmy.world 34 points 10 months ago

No, fuck off with your take. That is free speech taken to a literal extreme. Allowing free speech to this extent encourages fascist and Nazi movements to flourish. Nazis should feel uncomfortable or unable to express these views.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Eco warriors should worry about being imprisoned for going to demonstrations. These are the kinds of things that can happen when you give your government power to jail people they do not like.

Edit: What happens if Australia's equivalent of Donald Trump gets in office and enact the policy mentioned above?

[-] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 22 points 10 months ago

Not every country has such a paranoid view of their government as Americans do. Some systems function a bit better when the people want something done.

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[-] Wolfram@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Despite free speech supposedly legally allowing protests and demonstrations there is still a real risk of being imprisoned.

My point is even "free speech" is not total free speech in the United States for example. There are still compromises in free speech so we may preserve order. Allowing free speech to that extent lets these movements flourish.

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[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Edit: What happens if Australia's equivalent of Donald Trump gets in office and enact the policy mentioned above?

See because they have reasonable limits on supporting fascism publicly, there's less of it going around, so they don't exactly have an equivalent demented child-raping fascist to vote for.

[-] TurnpikeRangers@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago

"I don't like Nazis" "We should get 300 people to give the Nazi salute outside a courthouse". Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. I say this with all the sincerity in my heart, you are a moron and you are part of the problem. You are contributing to the rise of alt-right and fascist leaders around the world. There is zero leeway in this argument, everything Nazi related is bad and none of it should be tolerated.

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[-] barsoap@lemm.ee 20 points 10 months ago

Fascism is not an opinion, it's a crime.

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[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 months ago

Hate speech is not free speech. That's as simple as it gets. Most rational countries understand this.

[-] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

300 Nazis outing themselves and going to prison to (hopefully) be rehabilitated with counseling?

Don't threaten me with a good time.

(I am aware the prison system is not super fantastic in Australia, but we're miles ahead of the US, and some of this 300 may actually be dissuaded. And also, they're Nazis, so. If you believe your fellow human beings are animals, then you don't get free speech, sorry.)

[-] Geobloke@lemm.ee 13 points 10 months ago

Australia doesn't have the first amendment because we aren't the US. We do however think that if you want to talk shit and start fights, we have the legal right to tell you to calm the fuck down with extreme prejudice, see exhibit a.

[-] whostosay@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

This is not the correct way to do this.

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[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Do it again 😉! Let's rack that baby up to 20 to life!.... How many years did he get?

[-] gerbler@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

It's literally in the summary. 1 month.

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this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2024
568 points (100.0% liked)

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