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Woman found guilty of 'hate crime' over Snap Dogg rap lyric Instagram post

A teenager who posted rap lyrics which included racist language on Instagram has been found guilty of sending a grossly offensive message.

Chelsea Russell, 19, from Liverpool, posted the lyric from Snap Dogg's "I'm Trippin'" rap to pay tribute to a boy who died in a road crash.

Prosecutors said her sentence was increased from a fine to a community order "as it was a hate crime".

The words Russell used contained a racial label which some people find extremely offensive.

The screenshot was passed to hate crime unit PC Dominique Walker, who told the court the term was "grossly offensive" to her as a black woman and to the general community.

The Liverpool Echo reported that Russell's defence had argued the usage of the word had changed over time and it had been used by superstar rapper Jay-Z "in front of thousands of people at the Glastonbury Festival".

Prosecutor Angela Conlan said Russell's defence also argued her profile "wasn't public", but it had been proved in court that anyone could access it and "see the offensive language".

She said prosecutors also "sourced case law that showed that posting the profile on her account constituted sending it and making it public".

Russell was found guilty of sending a grossly offensive message by a public communication.

She was given an eight-week community order, placed on an eight-week curfew and told to pay costs of £500 and an £85 victim surcharge.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-43816921

The UK legal system, everyone.
Good thing we are going to trash those restrictive EU laws, so we can let our sovereign police force continue to crack down on human rights such as free speech, eh?

Brexit Britain is going to become an Americanised Millennial paradise, free at last of the EU's repressive protections of human rights, workers' rights. etc.
Reply 2
Seems like it'll be a millenial paradise in or out of the EU
If there's nothing more to the story than rap music lyrics being posted on social media then it's bizarre, presumably the track is freely available in the UK and therefore itself constitutes a 'hate crime'. Did a member of the dead child's family object to the words used in the 'tribute'? That's the only scenario which makes any obvious sense to me.
Eventually this has to stop. The UK's legislation on speech is clearly a problem. There's only so much the British public will tolerate, though I predict things will get worse before they get better.

Sooner or later these same laws will be used against the very people who support them. Maybe then things will change.
While this definitely seems heavy handed, there's a line in that track which would definitely be a bit problematic to share online without making clear that you're quoting a rapper when you share it. It's difficult to say for sure without knowing what the actual post said for context.

The lyric, for those curious;

slap a b*tch n****, kill a snitch n****, rob a rich n****
The court knew that it was quoting a rapper.

What has been made clear is that context no longer matters.



omg reported!!!1
Original post by spidle
Seems like it'll be a millenial paradise in or out of the EU


Just imagine what the legal system would have done to Charlie Hebdo if they'd have been in the UK.

Leaving the EU makes us free to pursue our Orwellian dreams. We'll import more of the culture of offense from US Millenials, while importing none of the legal protections they have (eg no vaguely worded laws, actual free speech).

The EU is moving more towards protecting citizen's rights, and had we stayed, we would have enjoyed that too.
White privilege everyone.


But seriously. Shouldn’t the police focus on violent crime rather than a Instagram post?
Original post by AngeryPenguin
Good thing we are going to trash those restrictive EU laws, so we can let our sovereign police force continue to crack down on human rights such as free speech, eh?

Brexit Britain is going to become an Americanised Millennial paradise, free at last of the EU's repressive protections of human rights, workers' rights. etc.


You’d have a point if this hadn’t happened while we were still very much in the EU
People are being stabbed, raped and this is what the public services are doing with their time?
Original post by Andrew97
White privilege everyone.


But seriously. Shouldn’t the police focus on violent crime rather than a Instagram post?


Haha White privelege doesn't exist it's a myth like bigfoot or competent western European leaders...

Basically we spend too much time policing hurt feelings and for what? if you don't like something click off, if you don't want to see a certain type of content, don't visit that website If you don't agree with someone or someone offends you, don't talk to them.

I feel that we're creating a generation of overly sensitive snowflakes....
Lmaooo, rappers in the 90s were threatening to slaughter enemy rapper's babies and wives this is nothing
Original post by limetang
You’d have a point if this hadn’t happened while we were still very much in the EU


The EU isn't going to bother chastising UK govt for this.

My point is that you can only expect it to get worse when we leave the EU.
Original post by higgs334
Lmaooo, rappers in the 90s were threatening to slaughter enemy rapper's babies and wives this is nothing


Yeah, I don't get the romantisation of rap "culture".

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