'Facebook rioters' lose appeal against prison sentences

Two men given four-year terms for setting up Facebook pages inciting others to riot were among the failed appeals.

Jordan Blackshaw, 21, of Northwich, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, both of Warrington, Cheshire, who were given custodial sentences in the Facebook cases, told the court at a hearing last month that what their clients had done was "monumentally foolish", "hugely stupid" and "hugely short-sighted".

Blackshaw and Sutcliffe-Keenan pleaded guilty to encouraging others to commit crime - riot, burglary and criminal damage in the case of Blackshaw and riot in the case of Sutcliffe-Keenan.

It should be noted that not riots took place in Warrington...........

to give a little perspective to these sentences it should be noted that someone who caused death by Dangerous Driving was sentenced to only 18 months in jail............

Now a couple of questions need to be asked following these decisions...

1) When does a Protest become classified as a riot?

2) Who makes that decision?

Strange how just a few months ago this government was extolling the virtue of Facebook and Twitter in helping to swell the numbers in the protests(r­iots) against the Tunisian, Egyption and Libyan Government­s.........­...

Does freedom of speech include incitement to riot? The rip-roaring Frontier-town situation produced by the internet has caught legislators with their trousers down.

to give a little perspective to these sentences it should be noted that someone who caused death by Dangerous Driving was sentenced to only 18 months in jail............

Likely this is because the incitement to riot was deliberate whereas the dangerous driving death was not.

Shirina wrote:

to give a little perspective to these sentences it should be noted that someone who caused death by Dangerous Driving was sentenced to only 18 months in jail............

Likely this is because the incitement to riot was deliberate whereas the dangerous driving death was not.

 18 months for causing death by dangerous driving is a very short sentence. When inciting riots these people had no idea that the riots would not take place. They must have seen the devastation caused.

Don't we have a muslim cleric locked up for inciting hatred jenny?

If they were so stupid as to think inciting a riot wouldn't be monitored on the internet perhaps a couple of years rest and possibly a computer course or two will teach the idiots about protocols.

Well, the image of the UK abroad was at stake,
a fear that a reduction of visitors for the Olympic Games
might strongly reduce income and benefits for companies,
 
hence drastical, draconian punishment,
far beyond the usual sentences.
 
It is politically motivated, hence any appeal will be rejected!

The unimaginative explanation is likely to be that overworked Police took the line of least resistance, and prosecuted those people too stupid to cover their tracks.

Someone who stole one bottle of water from Lidl during the riots received a six-month sentence.

Tesco's premium tea leaf - millionaire chef and Tory fund-raiser Antony Worrall Thompson - stole cheese and wine on five occasions and received a caution.

Today we hear that overall crime has risen by 4% in a year, and personal crime has risen by 11%. Meanwhile, the Tories are cutting 16,000 police officers.....

On taking office in May 2010, Cameron said: "Our success will be measured by how successful we are at cutting crime."

Ivan wrote:
Today we hear that overall crime has risen by 4% in a year, and personal crime has risen by 11%.  Meanwhile, the Tories are cutting 16,000 police officers.....

On taking office in May 2010, Cameron said: "Our success will be measured by how successful we are at cutting crime."

 

So why did Brits vote 'em in?

So why did Brits vote 'em in?

Only 36% did, 64% of us voted for other parties. And as you probably know, the Tories only crawled back into power with the aid of the Liberal Democrats, who jettisoned virtually everything they stood for overnight.

Many of those who did vote for the Tories were probably too young to remember the horrors of the 1980s and believed Cameron's promises to give Britain its "greenest government ever", to leave the NHS alone, not to raise VAT and not to close Sure Start centres. He reassured the sick and disabled that they would have "nothing to fear" from the Tories, yet only this week he's taken benefits away from cancer patients and disabled children, in addition to ending an allowance which helped disabled people to carry on working.

Why did the Brits vote 'em in...?

The British have this strange habit of buying disreputable daily papers which feed them a constant diet of lies,distortions and general propaganda which supports the Tory Party and paints it as some sort of patriotic entity - the destiny of which is to save the nation from all its ills.

Every now and again , after a few years of seeing what a Tory government is really like, the voting public suddenly realise that the Tories are , in fact, a party which has at its core the desire to favour the better-off and to viciously demonise what they view as the undeserving classes ( of various descriptions).

Then , after the new government has become subject to the ramped-up distortions of the Tory-friendly printed media once more, Joe Brit once more weakens and votes in the Party which he is told will solve all the imaginary problems which the Press tells him he has.

I think I've just about captured it....

Like America we should have only two parties, they have Republicans and Democrats, we should have Us and Them, i think there are more of Us than there is of Them. Make voting compulary, no abstaining either, that would be the last we would see Cameron and company. I make one proviso, any of the Us MP's that don't come up to scratch should be taken out and shot, that would make them all watch their P & Q's

So why did Brits vote 'em in?

Probably for similar reasons as to why the Americans vote in Republicans, though without the religious dimension.