Poll: Victoria police given permission to fine swearing

[ace_of_something]

Oh my various gods.
I bet the police HATE that idea. I know I would. Can you imagine the superfluous paperwork? I think 1/2 the time i gave a speeding ticket people cursed. Oh lord. That's one of those laws that will only be enforced when the person is already doing something else illegal and is resisting/being an ass when they get caught.
That is my prediction.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Hahaha! I saw Australia going on the down-trend towards becoming a police state a long time ago. Speeding cameras all over the place with zero tolerances, censorship of movies, refusal for AO rating on games, *trying* to censor the entire internet (did not make that one up), now fining for swearing? =) This is worse than ex-communist countries!

Clearly you?ve never been to a communist country and how do speeding cameras make us a police state?

I'm half Chinese. Speeding camera's don't exactly make it a police state. It's the way they are insufferably deployed on every damn corner making tons of revenue, rather than aiming to keep people safe. Speed does NOT kill, despite what the voracious campaigners would have you believe, it's driver education, attitude, and standard of vehicles on the road which stops the road toll, speeding just rakes in more cash. But that's for another discussion.

What makes it a police state is the crazy amount of administration and govt workers they have in office, for such a small population concentration (I lived in Australia for over 10 years, spent 3 of them working for the Vic Police).

Yes I do love the country, there are more good things to be said about it than probably most of the world, but the trend right now seems that they are uncomfortable letting people make their own decisions about how to live their lives.

 

[Atsumi_Warrior]

I agree with this.
Walking down the street and getting called a White Cun- By The local populous is not good.
THEN you have kids hearing it and them growing up thinking its ok.
I hate to sound like a worried parent but i honestly hate people who swear for no god dam reason. Curse words have meaning to them. Being called swear words by complete idiots is just.. stupid. Good on the police. Fine the hell out of them.

 

[VaderMan92]

wow didn't know any western power could fail that hard. I mean swearing isn't even a crime in Britain (as far a I know).

 

[bobknowsall]

-but I don't think swearing is offensive. It's not directed at a particular ethnic or religious or any division of humanity-

Maybe you've forgotten the literal meaning of most of the curse-words, which are in fact intended primarily to offend a person of specific intellect, personality, race, and even the stately word atheist, which is in itself a religious slander to brand the non-believers.

Ah yes, of course. So many of our swearwords are couched in discrimination.

However, these laws are giving them the right to fine you for saying "shit".

Now, shit isn't a nice word. In fact, it's a rather ugly word. But I don't think that they'd fine you because the fecal community was taking offense to your language.

If they wanted to achieve the goal you're suggesting, they'd bring in incitement-to-hatred laws. Those already exist, and they work after a fashion.

OT: I don't like swearing, but this is ridiculous. If they fined you for swearing at police officers, I would find it somewhat more understandable. As it stands, this sounds like a load of bullcrap.

Ooh, would I be fined for that?

 

[Magnalian]

We do have a law here that says you can't insult a police officer.. Doesn't really bother me, whoever thinks it's smart to insult a cop has it coming, in my book.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Oh great thats just great and thats gonna in melbourne there's gonna be a thousand fines a day

 

[Zing]

Don't mind us. Just Australia being fucking stupid again. Whatever, at least I don't live in Victoria, and I'm sure the law will be enforced about as much as jaywalking.

 

[dietpeachsnapple]

America. Land of the free. And land of taking your freedom away.

I lament, sir, that you will be catching a lot of flak for this mistake. Good luck with that.

OT: There is plenty of social convention to punish swearing. Unless swearing is somehow interfering with normal operation of Australia (doubt it), then it shouldn't be against the law.

Also, didn't know that Australians had such dirty mouths.

 

[baker80]

What the bleeding fuck, getting fined 240$ for HARSH LANGUAGE? Did I somehow time travel into the bloody 18th century when I wasn't looking?

I somehow knew this had to be Australia, before I even looked up where on Earth Victoria is supposed to be. Say what you want about Americans, but there's simply NO way they'd tolerate the government trying to do something like that. There are a lot of words you aren't supposed to use in public in the US, but at least you don't have to pay a fine if you do!

 

[Jegsimmons]

What is up with Australians and censorship?

Personally I think it's a violation of free speech

There is no such thing as a protected right to free speech in Australia, so nothing is being violated.

well thats a damn shame, freedom of speech is something all western nations (if not all nations) should have. So what to keep them from going ahead to make protesting and petition illegal and becoming a totalitarian state? The honor system?

 

[Hussmann54]

Why not? I'm past the point of believing that people are reasonable creatures capable of maintaining civility.

If you are going behave inappropriately, might as well help with filling the treasury.

What this guy said ^

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

Well, that's a bit stupid. I don't live there so it doesn't really affect me, but I think it's an awful idea.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'm sure I'd read they were doing something similar in Britain, although it's really just pushing to use the 'breach of the peace' law more effectively, and I think it's entirely fair enough - IF it's used correctly.

If someone runs up and kicks me in the balls, and I exhale a high pitched 'fuuuck' as I crumple to the floor, I'd hope the officer would be more interested in catching the guy guilty of common assault than me for letting slip a single swear word, justifiably.

However, when I pass a cluster a gold plated fucknuggets in baseball caps and I overhear such lyrically poetry as :

'yeah, I fuckin' did that caaant!'

'you fuckin what? what caant?'
'that fuckin caant, you know, with the fuckin hair'

Then I'd be quite happy to see them all put to death immediately, never mind fined, for abuse the english language.

I'm really not against swearing, or being offended, but for fuck's sake, when you're using swearwords just because you never learned punctuation, then there's a problem and you need a slap.

To me swearing is fine, in the right situation, just like breaking wind or picking your nose is. Casually doing it in public with no regard for those around you isn't. No, you're not 'hurting' anyone, but you are exponentially lowering the standard of the world around you to a range of as far as your voice carries.

Note this isn't a 'won't someone think of the children' rant, as the last time I heard someone yell 'fuck off' in public, it was a kid of about 5 years old going 'fuck off mum' on the bus.

I really hope no-one gets warned for swearing in this thread, heh.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Haven't Victoria police ALWAYS been able to fine people for excessive swearing in public?
It might have been another state I don't know, but I swear (heh) this has been happening in Australia for years.

My opinion? Hmm, I don't think it's too much to be concerned about. I hate banning things unnecessarily, but anyone who's Australian can agree that bogans prowling the twilight streets screeching "Waart ya lookin at ya farkin carnts!?" at innocent passers by is not pleasant.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Sounds good to me. If you can't speak in public without swearing then you deserve some sort of punishment. Plus, as others have stated, just dropping the f-bomb because you hit your thumb with a hammer isn't going to get you fined. This is in all likelihood simply a measure that police use for the loud and belligerent. Bear in mind that things like j-walking and walking more than 2 abreast on a sidewalk are also technically punishable by law yet you don't see them being used, well, at all.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Sounds good to me. If you can't speak in public without swearing then you deserve some sort of punishment. Plus, as others have stated, just dropping the f-bomb because you hit your thumb with a hammer isn't going to get you fined. This is in all likelihood simply a measure that police use for the loud and belligerent. Bear in mind that things like j-walking and walking more than 2 abreast on a sidewalk are also technically punishable by law yet you don't see them being used, well, at all.

Agreed, I still believe the vast majority of the police are in it for the right reasons, and moreover could live without having to fill out another heap of paperwork for stupid, minor infractions.

Therefore, they're not going to call out a SWAT team because I yell 'arsecakes' after failing a boss in WOW with my window open, but they might take away some nasty chav's beer money for his constant stream of abuse at passers by.

(Yes, I'm anti chav, it's not a race, creed or class, and deserves no protection, and if you choose to dress as an anti social criminal, be prepared to be treated like one.)

 

[Jamash]

wow didn't know any western power could fail that hard. I mean swearing isn't even a crime in Britain (as far a I know).

Swearing isn't illegal in Britain per say, but like this Australian law, it can be part of a public order offence.

Have you ever seen those Police documentaries on the TV where drunk people are getting leery with the Police who say "Calm down. If you swear at me again I will arrest you", then after 3 or 4 repeated warnings the person still swears at the Policeman and gets arrested?

That's all this is, giving Police the power to issue an on the spot fine for public order offences.

The title of this tread is extremely misleading. It implies that it's a new law that specifically gives Police the power to target and prosecute swearing, when in fact it's just an amendment to a 40+ year old law that allows Police to deal with public order offences on-the-spot, rather than having to arrest or ignore the minor lawbreakers.

There aren't many counties in the world where you can get away with swearing at a law officer, so it's not like Australia is leading the world in oppression of civil liberties with the sudden introduction of a draconian law.

 

[Hatchet90]

I don't disagree with it. I hate it when people curse constantly in public. It shows that someone unintelligent and unable to verbalize one's own thoughts, not to mention it's rude to do in front of women and children.

 

[Zing]

So, does this mean Zero Punctuation is finished?

Yahtzee lives in Queensland.