Brickbat: I Swear

Thanet District Council in England is reviving plans to fine individuals up to £100 ($134) for swearing in public spaces, following an attempt last year that was abandoned due to a threatened legal challenge. The proposed Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) would cover towns like Margate, Ramsgate, and Broadstairs. It aims to curb certain antisocial "activities," including "the use of foul or abusive language within the hearing or sight of any other person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby," with the council citing rising tensions and police struggles to maintain order. Councilor Heather Keen argues the measure "is not aimed at preventing free speech or swearing, but foul language that is such to cause fear, distress or alarm," but critics have expressed concern over potential free speech violations.

Comments

[Incunabulum]

I wonder why the tensions are rising. What could possibly be the reason?

[Fist of Etiquette]

You can't spell blimey without limey.

[Chumby]

Bollocks!

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Bloody hell!

[Chumby]

FFS

[Longtobefree]

" . . . language that is such to cause fear, distress or alarm,"

Well, every single thing a left wing politician says causes all three for me.
So this may turn out to be a good thing.

[mad.casual]

Fucking brilliant!

[mad.casual]

You aren't allowed to swear in public.
You aren't allowed to pray silently outside an abortion clinic.
It would seem that you are still allowed to stand outside an abortion clinic and swear silently in your own head.

You're allowed to seethe silently (for now).

($134) for swearing in public spaces

Would it be OK if people could pay $134 up front for the privilege of swearing discreetly as often as they like, like a tax stamp, or would that still be too chilling of the royal subjects' rights for Reason?

[Chumby]

Like a carbon tax where you can live a John Kerry “destroy the planet” lifestyle as long as you pay?

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Fingringhoe, Essex hardest hit

[AT]

This is one of those things that the citizenry of a society is expected to address, not the State.

But they're all so cowed in the face of persistent immorality that has festered and metastasized, to say nothing of potential state retribution at this point.

There was a time we called out the LGBT Pedos and publicly shamed them. Now they groom kids openly and with impunity, and it's the normal people who are punished for expressing even the barest concern about it.

Liberty doesn't work without morality. Absent the latter, all you get is anarchy and horrible horrible abuses by the worst among us.