POLICE threatened to arrest a pensioner after he put a sign in his window that read: “Religions are fairy stories for adults”.

Atheist John Richards, 89, was warned by cops he could be committing a public order offence.

They said his home made pro-atheism note might cause “alarms or distresses” to his neighbours.

But defiant John, from Boston, Lincs, has refused to remove the sheet of A4 paper - branding the police’s actions as “a threat to free speech”.

The grandfather-of-one fumed: “I wanted to make a statement. To show people it is okay to be an atheist.

“I wanted to show people that if they thought they were alone there was at least one other person who thought that.

“In an e-mail to the police I did say that I could be distressed by signs outside a church saying ’Jesus Saves’.

“But I don’t go around saying that they should be taking them down. Freedom of speech means anyone can express their views.

“If there is a complaint does the person concerned not have to prove that he or she was distressed?

“How exactly is distress monitored and assessed?”

Lincolnshire Police replied to his request to put up the sign in an email, which read: “If a complaint is made then it can lead to you being arrested and dealt with for the offence of section 5 public order causing alarm and distress.”

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TheSun

You know what? Fuck you. It’s a tiny drop in the fucking water compared to the sheer amount of religious paraphernalia to be found on any given fucking street in the UK.

Church’s have their myriad signs, individuals have their myriad personal religious items/images in various windows/doorways, shops have them, Mosques and Temples have them, other religious buildings have them, random posters on walls, people handing out religious propaganda on the street, yelling about their brand of fairy tale on corners, on buses, on streets full of busy shoppers and so on. 

And you people are getting fucking uppity about one little A4 page with a barely legibly sized font in one pensioner’s window?

Seriously?

Fucking seriously, now?

Fuck you.

~Mooglets

I just can’t believe youtube’s really changing its policy this badly. Sure the terms of service have long essentially defined everything as hate speech while encouraging people to voice controversial opinions (yes very mixed messages!). In practice this means the policy is defined by how its enforced. Up till recently I thought youtube did an excellent job of allowing vibrant discussion of controversial topics:- a mature and responsible policy that would make anyone who espoused the virtues of the Enlightenment happy!

Then I got four videos taken down in half an hour, and a ‘privacy notifications’ against a further two. Believe it or not, the privacy notifications were against videos where I documented a muslim guy hunting for and dropping my docs. WTF, seriously W-T-F.
He drops my docs, YT scarcely bats an eyelid, now he says the video calling him on it is violating his privacy?

The following videos were taken down, according to YT after review by their dedicated members who determined these videos violated terms of use. This can only make sense if its ‘Youtube-Malaysia: Theocratic Chapter’. Malaysia is the place that recently sent a guy back to Saudi where he may face death for merely making three vanilla tweets about Islam. For me it doesnt seem impossible that there is an element of disconnect between what ‘Youtube Malaysia’ and the rest of the world regard as religiously offensive.

I can only hope that it really is this simple, that it’s just an error by an overzealous censor. If its a change in policy, its an ill wind that doesn’t blow anyone any good.