Consequence arrives swiftly
The jailing of Liam Stacey today for 56 days for acts a judge condemned as "vile and
abhorrent" brings into focus the consequences of the abuse of social media
tools.
Mr Stacey, a
21-year old biology student had taken the opportunity to be nasty and
unsympathetic when Patrice Muamba, a football player unfortunately suffered a
cardiac arrest whilst playing some 10 days ago.
When called out for
his comments, he became more unstrained in racist and atrocious abuse that
people who read his comments contacted the police to act on his expressed
views.
With freedom some responsibility
There is a place
where people might have forcefully defended the freedom of speech and that in
itself is a right but such freedoms must be used responsibly and with
consideration – that is what differentiates between those who are considerate
and those who are unreasonable or even worse.
A person when told
they are wrong should be able to recognise that fact, accept fault and do well
to make amends through apology and restitution. To stubbornly hold one’s ground
in defiance even if you are not answerable to anyone and though have acted in
utterly bad taste might well be delusional and foolish.
No excuses
In the case of Mr
Stacey, he had revelled during the day and gotten apparently drunk in
celebration of the victory of the Welsh rugby team, but drunkenness is no
excuse for bad behaviour or the lack of restraint. Those who drink and drive
can expect to face dire consequences when nabbed by the long arm of the law and
in this case, those who drink and type stupidly will find themselves brought to
book well beyond their expectations.
It might well have
been a moment of foolishness, exacerbated by drunken stupidity and emboldened by a
sense of anonymity provided by the Internet which naively allows for impunity
and thereby no inkling of consequence, we know better now.
Express for distress
Mr Stacey has been
made an example of and a precedent has been set; you cannot be ensconced behind
a computer in some non-descript place fulminating in contrary and vile vituperations
expecting nothing to result as your future begins to take a turn well beyond
your control.
Once you sit at a
keyboard and begin to type to the viewing and reading of a public, you
automatically and implicitly assume responsibility for your publications be
they on fast moving theatres of discourse as Twitter, Facebook or on blogs.
You cannot set out
to abuse, offend and vilify for a thrill at the expense of others, even if
there are few that might see your jokes, there might be many more that have
just cause and purpose to seek redress for offence.
Seeking polite society again
We can for all
reasons and manner of expression have the broadest range of views but they must
be expressed with consideration, politeness [this is me being old-fashioned when rudeness with expletives comes easily to many], decency, with respect, in
fairness, within a sense of discernment of the public mood and with some
restraint even if the view is somewhat valid and true.
We all have the
ability to be disagreeable, nasty and cantankerous but we can choose to just
disagree, whilst being nice and sometimes restrain the urge to say anything.
That this issue has
been so swiftly dealt with is instructive to matters of racial abuse and other
reprehensible behaviour especially when it comes to football with players and
the fans alike where the authorities seem to tardy in dealing with reports of
offence and abuse – they need to be more responsive.
Your freedom or your liberty?
One can feel quite
sorry for Liam Stacey but the bigger lesson to the many that learn of his
ordeal should be, what you write matters; if you are vile, you are crossing a
line and should immediately reflect, review, recant and repent, in any case you
are not guaranteed anonymity whilst your excuses might not hold water as to
your state of mind or the abuse of your computer.
If you cannot
police your social media activities, the police will be on your door step and
your freedom of expression just hours before might well be the loss of your
freedom for days, weeks, months or even years – the harshness of the sentence
might be determined by the absence of heart in the sentence that put you in
trouble in the first place.
Don’t take undue
liberty with your freedom of expression, else the law will be at liberty to
curtail your freedom and restrict your liberty at the pleasure of constituted authority.
