Summary
Jacob Hersant, a self-described Nazi, was sentenced to one month in prison, becoming the first person in Australia jailed for performing an outlawed Nazi salute.
Convicted in Victoria for making the salute outside a courthouse in October, Hersant’s act followed new legislation banning the gesture.
Magistrate Brett Sonnet justified the sentence, citing Hersant’s intent to promote Nazi ideology publicly.
Hersant’s lawyer argued that his actions were nonviolent and claimed they were protected as political expression, stating plans to appeal the ruling on constitutional grounds.
I don’t have Nazi views. I have American views of free speech. You’re the person trying to hurt people.
This law seems to be explicitly in place to avoid people getting hurt. You have not provided any argument at all how it doesn’t.
Nobody is hurt by a gesture. Sticks and stones. You want these people hiding themselves? I imagine it’s better they stay in the open. I’m sure someone is out there making a list.
We can’t use the same tactics that would be used to suppress minorities to go after them because we become them that way.
Thank you for providing an actual argument.
As we have witnessed in many places, these stuff isn’t always outlawed. In places where these views can be expressed more freely, it either escalate to the point where someone is hurt, or they gain enough popularity that it becomes almost impossible to stop. I believe that the best way to deal with the problem is to address it quickly head on when we know this is universally abhorrent.
I don’t really think the whole Nazi thing is even about what Hitler made it about. That said, what it is about is a form of authoritarianism that I’m very against. Despite that, I think they should be able to talk about it all they like. It’s not like they’re winning any votes. We should jail people for being Republican. They’re doing that thing.
There is a difference between authoritarianism and having laws to protect your citizens. Authoritarians have laws to protect the regime, not the citizens.
No one is being jailed for being a Nazi when you say you have issues with immigration policies, nor are people being jailed for being a communist for saying they want socialized healthcare.
You have to draw the line somewhere and say that something is dangerous and illegal, and I think saying you support Nazis and want to do Nazi stuff is a pretty good line.
I know this won’t change your mind, but even as you continue to disagree with this, I hope you can see why this isn’t a definitively wrong thing to do.
I have not once heard of legislation here that genuinely violated people’s rights other than Victoria’s snap lockdown of a group of apartment buildings during COVID, which got the government into a class action lawsuit.
Saying you value free speech, then saying that people who can violate others rights should also have freedom of speech in that regard, seems like you don’t know anything about what free speech is all about.