Racist Tube rant woman Jacqueline Woodhouse jailed

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Dead Man

Member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18251807
A London Underground passenger has been jailed for 21 weeks after she admitted hurling racist abuse at fellow passengers.

Jacqueline Woodhouse, 42, of Romford, east London, directed an expletive-ridden rant at Tube passengers on the Central line on 23 January.

A seven-minute video of the verbal assault was uploaded to YouTube.

She received a 21-week prison sentence and a five-year Asbo at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Woodhouse admitted racially aggravated intentional harassment, at the court, earlier in May.


The prosecution offered no evidence on a separate charge of racially aggravated common assault.
'Sense of shame'

The court heard she stumbled over a black woman named Judy Russell as she boarded the carriage and proceeded to hurl insults, shouting: "You Africans take our council flats."

The video shows Galbant Juttla, who filmed the incident on his mobile phone, telling Woodhouse to keep her mouth shut and that she had had too much to drink.

"It's not your country anyway so what's your problem?" she said.

"It's been overtaken by people like you."

In further remarks, on a packed train between St Paul's and Mile End stations, she told passengers: "I'll have you arrested because you don't live here" and "I hope you are not claiming benefits."

The video of the verbal assault was viewed on YouTube more than 200,000 times.

Woodhouse handed herself into police, telling officers she could not remember the comments but recognised herself in the video.


Following the hearing, Mr Juttla, of Ilford, east London, said: "I found it very distressing.

"I uploaded it [the footage] to YouTube because I thought that was the fast-track process to catching this person.

"I also needed to show the public that kind of person is out there and not to put up with this kind of behaviour.

"My kids have seen the video and they are disgusted by it."

Condemning Woodhouse's outburst, District Judge Michael Snow said: "Anyone viewing it would feel a deep sense of shame that our citizens could be subject to such behaviour who may, as a consequence, believe that it secretly represents the views of other white people.
'Grossly offensive'

"The train was packed with people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds," he added. "The people included children."

"She became loud, foul-mouthed and aggressive. She targeted her behaviour at those who weren't white.

"She threatened violence against more than one person and it took place over a prolonged period."

He added her "grossly offensive" language reflected her hostility to her fellow passengers.

The judge told Woodhouse she would serve half her prison term behind bars and imposed an order banning her from using the Tube and the Docklands Light Railway while drunk, for a five-year period.

Wow. She is a dickhead for sure, but that seems hugely excessive. She handed herself in and plead guilty, and she gets 5 months?
 

ToxicAdam

Member
So bizarre.

In some ways, this is even more shocking than the Pakastanis that were alledgedly sentenced to death for dancing together.


Condemning Woodhouse's outburst, District Judge Michael Snow said: "Anyone viewing it would feel a deep sense of shame that our citizens could be subject to such behaviour who may, as a consequence, believe that it secretly represents the views of other white people.

'Grossly offensive'


If you can set aside your white guilt, I see it more as someone who is deeply psychologically impaired. Filled with unaddressed rage at something.
 

Enosh

Member
heh, remember reading a week or so ago about 2 girls beating someone bloody in an attack, they got community service and a fine

the UK is a hilarious place
 
Sometimes I think the American justice system is a joke but then I read stories like this and I realize all justice systems are a joke.
 
heh, remember reading a week or so ago about 2 girls beating someone bloody in an attack, they got community service and a fine

the UK is a hilarious place

Didn't people get off for a violent crime because it was their first drink? Or was that a made up case?

5 months for words. Lol UK.
 

navanman

Crown Prince of Custom Firmware
Jail time for words, despicable.
Why? This isn't America where there is freedom of speech.
You can't go around making racist, hateful comments about people in public.

Already this year, a young man in the UK was jailed for making repeated racist comments on Twitter in relation to the Mumba heart-attack incident.
 

Sage00

Once And Future Member
Good. Lucky she wasn't in America, haven for racists and paedophiles as long as you have money, where she would've gotten away with it. Then probably executed for not being able to pay her medical bills when she tried to kill herself after being fired from her Goldman Sachs job for the crime of trying to actually pay tax.

See, I can do it too.
 
I am forgetting my constitutional law - would this be a crime in the U.S.? Pretty sure that all would still be protected speech.


so what happens if someone beats her ass for saying this stuff?
Beating someone's ass is definitely a crime in the U.S., and I assume in the UK as well. Doesn't matter what incited it, unless its self-defense (from physical harm).
 

Dead Man

Member
Why? This isn't America where there is freedom of speech.
You can't go around making racist, hateful comments about people in public.

Already this year, a young man in the UK was jailed for making repeated racist comments on Twitter in relation to the Mumba heart-attack incident.

Just because it is the law does not make it less despicable.
 

Kusagari

Member
Why? This isn't America where there is freedom of speech.
You can't go around making racist, hateful comments about people in public.

Already this year, a young man in the UK was jailed for making repeated racist comments on Twitter in relation to the Mumba heart-attack incident.

Are you seriously telling me someone got arrested for racist comments they made on the INTERNET?

I hope nobody in the UK posts on 4chan.
 

navanman

Crown Prince of Custom Firmware
Are you seriously telling me someone got arrested for racist comments they made on the INTERNET?

I hope nobody in the UK posts on 4chan.
He got 56 days in jail and banned from returning to the college he was studying at.
 

Trevelyon

Member
Why? This isn't America where there is freedom of speech.
You can't go around making racist, hateful comments about people in public.

Already this year, a young man in the UK was jailed for making repeated racist comments on Twitter in relation to the Mumba heart-attack incident.

Did she threaten her life, threaten to harm her through her words? This woman was clearly a tremendous asshole, but 21 weeks of hard jail time is absurd. I've endured ten times worst from racist shit heads in a public forum before.

But I'm a big boy, I often took myself out of those situations, usually with a smile on my face never giving them the satisfaction, that's punishment enough. I honestly wouldn't want those people who harassed me to face jail time, or have criminal charges to their names, it's just too extreme. Assholes exist.

A more fitting punishment, I think, is that company that runs the trains she was on takes the lead on this and bans her for life from their services.
 

Kusagari

Member
No, jail time for harrassment.

I know a lot of people on GAF struggle to spot it, but there is a massive difference between freely expressing your opinion and harassment.

You should never be jailed for harassment. It's still just words. Some sort of community service to reflect on the shit she was spouting would be fine.
 
Well the thrust of the legal case seems to be the harassing and threatening behavior, which I feel is legitimate. Actually threatening people with violence crosses a line. However, five months still seems excessive.
 
Hurting someone's feelings shouldn't be a crime.

I don't like idiots spouting bullshit in public either, guess what...I get the fuck up and walk away.
 

Suairyu

Banned
You should never be jailed for harassment. It's still just words.
You underestimation of words astounds me.

Words drive people to suicide, words morally defeat people into not achieving their best, words can stress people to the point of causing illness.

Harassment is god-awful.
 
You underestimation of words astounds me.

Words drive people to suicide, words morally defeat people into not achieving their best, words can stress people to the point of causing illness.

Harassment is god-awful.

Some douche spouting racist shit isn't going to drive someone to kill themselves. And if it does, they had WAY more problems than some random idiot spouting nonsense at them.....

Give me a break....
 

ToxicAdam

Member
You underestimation of words astounds me.

Words drive people to suicide, words morally defeat people into not achieving their best, words can stress people to the point of causing illness.

Harassment is god-awful.


Maybe over months or years of constant abuse. But not one-time events.
 
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