Convicted of Sexism

[Virgil Showlion]

The Independent is a reliable news source. I'm 99% certain this isn't "fake news", although I (and Voltaire) dearly wish it were so.

Man becomes first person convicted of sexism under new Belgian law

A man has been convicted of sexism in a public place for the first time under a new law in Belgium.

A court in Brussels fined him €3,000 for insulting a police officer because of her gender, Le Soir reported.

It comes as France prepares to create an offence of street harassment, described as “sexist and sexual outrage”.

The Belgian case involved a driver who was stopped for breaking the highway code. The young man – who has not been identified – insulted the police officer because of her gender, the court heard.

He was reported to have said she would be better off doing a job “adapted to women”, in a scene witnessed by several other people.

...

Under the law, any behaviour expressing “contempt towards a person, because of their sexuality” or treating a person as “inferior or as reduced essentially to their sexual dimension“, which entails a serious attack on their dignity is punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a fine.

These are the same nations being overrun by radical Islamic youth in real time, dealing with no-go zones (in all but name) and rape epidemics. But don't dare essentially reduce somebody to their "sexual dimension", whatever that is. An epidemic of hurt feelings is an epidemic Brussels police can tackle.

[swamp]

I really think this is a horrible law, but that's for the people of Belgium to bring up with their representatives. 

But, since it is the law, maybe he will learn to keep his mouth shut.  

[happyhoix]

Well, I know a guy who got arrested for being disrespectful to a cop  (he called him a f@@@ing idiot.)

This isn't any different from that kind of law.

True, these are not the most earth shaking crimes, but when you're a cop and you've got someone acting like an ass all up in your face, it's nice to be able to arrest them for being an ass.

I doubt it will be used much in other situations - if the guy selling me pomme frites tells me women shouldn't be allowed to be out on the streets shopping I doubt I could get the gendarme to stop by and arrest him, but I do know I'd get my frites someplace else.

[Virgil Showlion]

Mar 9, 2018 9:22:08 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I doubt it will be used much in other situations - if the guy selling me pomme frites tells me women shouldn't be allowed to be out on the streets shopping I doubt I could get the gendarme to stop by and arrest him, but I do know I'd get my frites someplace else.

It remains to be seen whether people won't actually go to jail for telling women they have no business eating pommes frites.

Even if this Belgian man was being loud and belligerent, no putatively free society has any business tacking on charges for sexism. Charge him with "contempt of a police officer" if he really went off on her, and drop the remaining charges.

But, as Swamp says, it's the Belgian public's problem to deal with.

[Virgil Showlion]

Here's a question for the tyrants who put this in: if a female suspect asks to be searched or escorted by a female officer because she doesn't trust the male officers, what's to stop them (aside from their sense of decency) from charging her with as many counts of sexism as there are male officers present?

Can an imam be locked up for preaching that women must be escorted by a male relative?

Many people believe women should be homemakers, raising and educating the children, and running the household. If somebody expresses this opinion in public, are they at risk of being dragged in front of the synagogues and locked up?

These thoughtcrime laws are flat-out idiocy.

[happyhoix]

Mar 9, 2018 11:33:44 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Here's a question for the tyrants who put this in: if a female suspect asks to be searched or escorted by a female officer because she doesn't trust the male officers, what's to stop them (aside from their sense of decency) from charging her with as many counts of sexism as there are male officers present?

Can an imam be locked up for preaching that women must be escorted by a male relative?

Many people believe women should be homemakers, raising and educating the children, and running the household. If somebody expresses this opinion in public, are they at risk of being dragged in front of the synagogues and locked up?

These thoughtcrime laws are flat-out idiocy.

Well, it's not any different than the hate crime laws.

I never heard of anyone getting locked up just for calling a black person the N word - I do, however, know of three idiots who went to federal jail for burning a cross on someone's property.

 

Cops are already way busy. They're not doing to Barney Fife someone for telling a woman she shouldn't be out of the house by herself - there's far to many rapes and murders going on to allow that. However, if someone starts beating a woman on the street because her clothes are indecently sexy, they would probably lay the female harassment charge on top of the assault charge, to throw on some extra jail time. 

Of course, this is Belgium, they get to set their own rules, but are generally sensible people (except the frickin' Walloons).

The Belgians do make the best beer and chocolate, and then there is Tintin,  so you know they're awesome.

 

[Virgil Showlion]

Mar 9, 2018 11:47:20 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Well, it's not any different than the hate crime laws.

There's similarity, but I worry about hate crime laws too. They're an unjust way of dealing with crime and punishment.

Take your example of a burning cross. The social wrong here is inspiring terror, threatening lives. We have laws against this, and the crime carries a punishment supposedly commensurate with this wrong. Any punishment beyond this is punishment for the perpetrator's ideology on race, which the state has no business policing.

Either the man who inspires terror and isn't charged with a hate crime is being under-penalized, which is unjust; or the man who does the same and is charged with a hate crime is being over-penalized, which is unjust. The state has no business discriminating between the two based on which groups or individuals they hate.

The sexism laws take it ever further out into the pale. Unlike racism, 95% of everything that could be labeled "sexism" these days has nothing to do with hatred of women.