One does not simply say mean things in a private chat.
AP:
Five retired British police officers on Thursday admitted sending offensive and racist social media messages about Prince Harry’s wife, the Duchess of Sussex, and others.
The men, all in their 60s, were arrested after a BBC investigation last year sparked an internal police inquiry.
Arrested!
The charges say messages posted in a closed WhatsApp group referred to Harry and wife Meghan, as well as Prince William and his wife, Kate, and the late Queen Elizabeth II and her late husband, Prince Philip.
Some also mentioned U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, former Home Secretary Priti Patel and former Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
Robert Lewis, Peter Booth, Anthony Elsom, Alan Hall and Trevor Lewton pleaded guilty at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court to sending by public communication grossly offensive racist messages. All are former members of London’s Metropolitan Police department and spent time with the force’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection branch, which guards politicians and diplomats.
The force said none of the suspects was a police officer when they sent the messages between 2020 and 2022.
This is just nuts.
It’s a private chat for retired cops.
European countries, at least up until recently, had exceptions in their “hate speech” laws that you had to be promoting the thing, i.e., stating it publicly. Private conversations were considered, you know – private.
This just goes to show that this agenda is not about preventing “harm” or whatever, but about forcing people to believe what the government wants them to believe.
It’s also worth mentioning that in China, where the only speech laws involve calling for the overthrow of the government, private conversations are not subject to sanction.