Quote: ajp29 @ February 18, 2008, 10:59 PMThis is making me
Its not a Thought Crime!
They were charged with posessing illegal material. End of argument. Just like when someone is arresting for posessing drugs they don't go 'officer why are you arresting me for thinking about doing drugs?'
Oh and while i'm ranting, we prosecute people for thinking all the time. Ever heard of intention?
I think the point is that someone who is in possession of drugs is clearly either going to sell them or use them. Otherwise what is the use in their having them?
The intention associated with owning a book is rather harder to pin down, and in my mind the law must not make these inroads into freedom of learning or expression. A book is information.
If I own a book on religious fundamentalism it does not make me a religious fundamentalist. It means I have a brain and wish to explore issues and have reasoned and informed analysis - which is a right. And why I don't care to live in China. If I own a book on religious fundamentalism that contains terrorist propoganda and get arrested as a terrorist I AM being accused of a thoughtcrime because no physical crime has taken place, merely contemplation or the thought of it, WITHOUT obvious intent such as in the drugs possession analogy.
If the government/courts decide the possession of such material is a crime, then sure, by definition it becomes a crime in itself, but this is avoiding the point. And the fact is the Court of Appeal threw it out.
Restrictions that many on this forum would like to see upheld by the law can only breed resentment, are impossible to police effectively, and are not only absurd but scary. I think it shows how readily people will toss away liberties to keep the bogeyman from the door. Hey, I don't want to look at terrorist material. Doesn't affect me. Lock 'em up. Must've been up to no good. Hang 'em.
It's McCarthyism, plain and simple, and I don't want the smallest part of it.