…and Dionysus is an arsehole
No weblinks for this, but Metro and The Daily Telegraph carried the story on Tuesday of a Devon teenager who was sentenced to 80 hours community service for wearing a T-shirt.
From Metro:
Adam Shepherd, 19, was convicted under new anti-hate laws which ban people from displaying religiously insulting signs. The teenager was arrested after a woman complained to police when she saw his shirt, which promotes extreme heavy metal band Cradle of Filth. The T-shirt shows a picture of a nun in a pornographic pose. On the back is a comment about Jesus.
The words on the back read “Jesus is a Cunt”.
Clearly Adam can’t have been prosecuted under the “new anti-hate laws” because they do not exist. However, a bit of research shows that the wearing of this T-shirt has led to at least two previous convictions in the UK.
Feb 1, 2005, Dale Wilson, 35, of Norwich, was arrested by two police officers as he walked to the newsagents on Halloween ’04. He pleaded guilty to “religiously aggravated offensive conduct”. He was eventually discharged and told to “grow up”. He paid £150 costs, and the judge ordered that the T-shirt be destroyed.
Back in ’97, Rob Kenyon, 29, of London was found guilty of committing the offence of “Profane Representation under the 1839 Act” by Bow Street Magistrates Court. He was fined £150.
Cradle of Filth drummer, Nicholas Barker, was also arrested in Dover and charged with “creating a public disorder” for wearing the same T-Shirt. There were no further proceedings against him.
MORE HISTORY: From the NME: in 2001 the then Lord Provost of Glasgow, Alex Mosson, campaigned to have the t-shirt prevented from being sold at Tower Records. The record shop was raided on two occasions by police, and eventually agreed to stop stocking the garment.
The Catholic League of America, back in 1998 (amusing “Victory For Sickos” story) and 1999 (their call to action), also complained bitterly about the t-shirt.
(Thanks to Simon)
So I can now be arrested just for wearing a FUCKING T-SHIRT!!! Sod this, I’m leaving the country – it’s fucked!!!
Oh, a cunt. I wasn’t sure what the word was, my local newspaper blacked it out.
OK, if it’s the C word that’s getting up people’s noses, then I suggest people be prosecuted under whatever obscenity laws there are (although the Sex Pistols’ album Never Mind the Bollocks was famously ‘acquitted’ (if you can acquit an album) of obscenity some years ago. But let’s play devil’s advocate and ban it on obscenity grounds. And, it has to be said, maybe some parents wouldn’t like to be walking around a town with a seven-year-old in tow, with the word ‘cunt’ emblazoned on someone’s apparel as they walk in front of them. But I wonder what the reaction would have been had it said ‘Jesus is a pervert’ or ‘Jesus is a bloody daft bugger!’ I suspect it would have been the same, if the ‘crime’ cited in Monitor’s post, ‘religiously aggravated offensive conduct’, is anything to go by. It’s just censorship.
I have one of those tucked away in the bottom of a drawer somewhere. Must dig it out and wear it more often.
What’s next – 80 hours community service for publishing a dictionary?
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/cunt?view=uk
Hey, Flotsam. Your (nospam-cleared) email address is bouncing.
My mail service does indeed appear to be having a bit of a lay down and rest right now. It’s a freebie so I can’t complain too loudly as that would make me a bit of a http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/cunt?view=uk , eh? 😉
[…] MediaWatchWatch reports that a teenager has been sentenced to 80 hours community service for wearing a T-shirt. […]
What a fucking joke! Whatever happened to freedom of speech?
The police may have tried to make this a religious issue, but I recall people being punished for wearng ‘obscene’ t-shirts for quite some time.
If I remember correctly, some time around 1993 a kid somewhere in England (I think it was in the west country, but I could be wrong) was fined around a hundred quid for wearing a Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy t-shirt with “I can express more emotions than laughter, anger and let’s fuck” on it.
As I recall, the band paid the fine on the kid’s behalf.
I’m quite ambivalent about this, because of where the kid was. Context is everything. If I went into a crowded pub, saw a friend and called him a cunt then nobody would bat an eyelid. If he worked in an old-peoples’ home, I went in to see him and did the same, then it would probably unnecessarily offend pretty much all the residents (at least those who had their hearing aids turned up).
Since Devon is pretty much one big old peoples home, then I can understand the police taking that into account.
On the other hand, it is only a word, and one written in a heavy metal font, and thus probably pretty much illegible anyway.
the only truly objectionable thing about the t-shirt is the woman in a porno pose. The nuns habit is neither here nor there, but I do reckon that a picture of a naked woman frigging is unnecessary on a t-shirt.
All in all, the most appropriate punishment would’ve been for the cop to confiscate the t-shirt and make the kid walk home topless. That way people would be looking at him for his chest and nobody else’s.
oh la la la la All in all, the most appropriate punishment would’ve been for the cop to confiscate the t-shirt and make the kid walk home topless. That way people would be looking at him for his chest and nobody else’s. it is wrong ok so i am spy for all deaf people…
The only thing I find objectinable aboput this whole thing is the implication that Jesus actually ever existed. Maybe the t-shirt should have said ‘If there ever were such a person as Jesus (which there wasn’t) he would have been a cunt.’
Not exactly snappy though, is it?
christ what is wrong with the law? If I got done for wearing the t-shirt I’d tell them to go fuck themselves. They have no right at all to tell us how we can and cant dress its not up to them. I mean so what it says Cunt on the back I’m sure they use that word as often as we do the fucking assholes.
BTW The Sisters Of Mercy succesfully defended the sale of their t-shirt “Fuck Me And Marry Me Young” with the ruse that that particular use of the word “Fuck’ was it’s established Anglo-Saxon meaning and not deliberatley offensive.
Arent british policeman wonderful?
TITHEADS ONE AND ALL !!!
[…] Ayer fui a la farmacia y había un hombre con una camiseta que en la espalda ponía "Jesus is a cunt". Me quedé trabado porque no creía que estuviese leyendo bien, pero después de releerlo tres veces me convencí de lo que estaba viendo. Después de buscar en Internet me he enterado de que es una canción del grupo Cradle of Filth y en Nueva York un chico fue condenado a ochenta [80] horas de trabajos a la comunidad por llevar esta camiseta puesta. La camiseta es así por delante [otra toma] y así por detrás. […]
[…] Ah, Britain. Where you can be fined for saying ‘f..k’ in a private conversation. Where every single child will soon be fingerprinted. Where all people will be ordered to carry an I.D. card at all times, to be swiped every time they withdraw a fairly small amount of money from the bank, buy an airline ticket, apply for a fishing license, purchase property, apply for a library card, get a prescription filled, and so on. Where the government wants to make the possession of “abusive porn” a crime. Where you can be sentenced to 80 hours of community service for wearing the wrong T-shirt. Where having a pen knife in your car can get you arrested. Where being too fat can get you carted off to a mental institution. Where government workers will come to your home to verify you’re not using too much electricity, and to note whether or not you smoke. Where all vehicles’ whereabouts will soon be monitored by satellite 24/7. Where you’ll get fined for using a pencil instead of a pen when filling out a form. Where people are captured by video surveillance cameras some 300 times a day. Where officials tell you how to go to the bathroom. […]
Nice tits though
So who decides what’s offensive? I’m offended that in the 21st Century there are still people stupid enough to believe in God, Allah, Jehova, Santa, and the Tooth Fairy, but I don’t feel they should be arrested for their mind-numbing idiocy