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Asooka 13 hours ago

I know things are bad in the USA right now, but news like these show that you still have your basic rights. This kind of song would not fly in any other country on Earth. No other country has Freedom of Speech laws strong enough to defend against insulting the police. There have been some people abusing their freedom in recent times cough Kanye cough, but for every loud nazi there are ten more excellent people whose right to speak should not be infringed!

SketchySeaBeast 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> This kind of song would not fly in any other country on Earth. No other country has Freedom of Speech laws strong enough to defend against insulting the police.

I'm fairly certain you could do the exact same thing here in Canada. I honestly don't think it's as exceptional as you're making it out to be.

OkayPhysicist 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Canada has better defamation laws than most of Europe (as truth is an absolute defense), but the US puts the onus of proving falsehood on the plaintiff, not the defense, in cases concerning public figures. The US's freedom of speech laws are one of the few truly exceptional legal constructs we should be proud of. Most other good legal concepts the US has pioneered have been copied to similar or greater effect abroad, such as the ADA and worker's comp.

circlefavshape 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> This kind of song would not fly in any other country on Earth. No other country has Freedom of Speech laws strong enough to defend against insulting the police.

What? You have no idea what you are talking about.

martin_a 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> This kind of song would not fly in any other country on Earth. No other country has Freedom of Speech laws strong enough to defend against insulting the police.

What? There's lots of antifacist/rather left-wing music that heavily critizes the police and their work. Usually not the one police officer himself but rather the institution as being part of a state who behaves injust (is that a word? non-native here...). I think that's fine and is part of a democratic system.

sneak 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This wasn’t a 1A case, it was a civil defamation suit. He won because they failed to prove defamation, NOT because the judge threw out the lawsuit because of a violation of constitutional rights.

Separately: saying something shitty or unpopular that you disagree with isn’t someone abusing their rights to free expression. Expressing unpopular viewpoints that others consider abusive is exactly the point of such rights.

There’s a REALLY BIG reason it isn’t “freedom of expression, except for expressing racial hatred”, and it’s not because we like racism. Germany sometimes bans entire political parties that they declare unconstitutional. Now imagine that power in the hands of Trump. You can see what Putin did to Navalny for a preview.

waysa 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Germany sometimes bans entire political parties

You make it sound like Germany bans political parties every other year.

Germany formally only ever banned two parties:

- Socialist Reich Party (SRP), 1952 - Communist Party of Germany (KPD), 1956

For context: The Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949.

There are current discussions about banning - or evaluating a potential ban of - the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). If the ban went through (I think it won't), it would be the first in 70 years.

shadowgovt 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Perhaps interesting here is that some of the things he said were definitely not defensible via "truth is an affirmative defense." But it's ultimately up to the jury, and they can also find him innocent because a reasonable person wouldn't be offended by outlandish accusations.

(Ultimately, though, they can find him innocent for any reason. If they decided he should walk because you can't legally offend cops, that's fine too.)

TheCoelacanth 11 hours ago | parent [-]

Truth is far from the only defense.

Opinion is not defamatory. Satire is not defamatory.

With public officials like police, even false factual statements are not defamatory unless you knew they were false and lied about it specifically to hurt them.

ceejayoz 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Now imagine that power in the hands of Trump.

The Germans would argue such powers prevent the Trumps.

no_shadowban 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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