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Trèbes attack: French left-winger arrested over tweet hailing gendarme's death

llien

Member
A former French left-wing parliamentary candidate has been arrested over his tweets about a policeman killed during a jihadist siege in southern France last week.

Stéphane Poussier appeared to celebrate the death of Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, saying it was great.

He added that the death in the town of Trèbes meant one less voter for President Emmanuel Macron.

French media say he could be charged with apologising for terrorism.

Mr Poussier's Twitter account has since been deleted. It is unclear if this action was taken by him or the platform, after the tweets caused an outcry and were reported by other social media users.

The ex-candidate said the death made him think of a friend, activist Remi Fraisse, who died after police threw a concussion grenade during protests in 2014.

Col Beltrame, 44, died after being shot when a jihadist stormed a supermarket in Trèbes on Friday.


BBC

I have an impression applying that law in the US would lead to numerous arrests.
 

Dunki

Member
This is the same as the guy who posted the nazi pub video. It is really scary how the gov tries to censor everything these days.... I really hope this will truly backfire soon.
 

lifa-cobex

Member
Yea that's a fucking horrible thing to say but wtf is this arrested for wrong think thing going on.

I honestly can't get my head around it.
I feel like a complete fossil.

What is this utopia governments believes they can construct.
I would say this is beyond censorship.
 

It's Jeff

Banned
No, they're right to intervene. Hateful speech like this cannot be tolerated. I wish some anonymous coward would put on a makeshift ninja hoodie and sucker punch this guy so I can make some memes.

Really though, jail doesn't need this guy. He didn't steal my ten speed or hit me with a Michelob bottle. He said something really insensitive and fucking dumb. That IS the penalty... he's got to live with that stupid statement around his neck.
 

Dunki

Member
No, they're right to intervene. Hateful speech like this cannot be tolerated. I wish some anonymous coward would put on a makeshift ninja hoodie and sucker punch this guy so I can make some memes.

Really though, jail doesn't need this guy. He didn't steal my ten speed or hit me with a Michelob bottle. He said something really insensitive and fucking dumb. That IS the penalty... he's got to live with that stupid statement around his neck.
No they are not right to intervene. You know who would have intervene back then? Hitler would. Erdogan would today, Not even Putin would go that far. Seriously how can you be ok with this in any form. Next time it will be something you would not agree with but then its too late.
 

It's Jeff

Banned
No they are not right to intervene. You know who would have intervene back then? Hitler would. Erdogan would today, Not even Putin would go that far. Seriously how can you be ok with this in any form. Next time it will be something you would not agree with but then its too late.

Second paragraph, friend. It's setup for denouncement of the practice. A misunderstanding.
 

EBE

Member
Shameful comments, hard to say it's apologizing for terrorism. Condemnable but not arrest worthy.
 

llien

Member
What was the actual tweet? That story in the OP only has a vague summary.


"Stéphane Poussier appeared to celebrate the death of Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, saying it was great.

He added that the death in the town of Trèbes meant one less voter for President Emmanuel Macron."
 
This is ridiculous. Even if I think the message is childish and heinous, it's not something that the state should intervene on. He should be able to think that and express it, while we can all think he's an idiot for saying it. It's why I envy the US their strong position on freedom of speech. Also, "apologising for terrorism"? What?
 

Alx

Member
What was the actual tweet? That story in the OP only has a vague summary.

"Every time a gendarme gets smoked, and it doesn't happen often, I think of my friend Rémi Fraisse... This time it's a colonel, I'm ecstatic ! Incidentally, that's one less voter for Macron."

OG :
"A chaque fois qu'un gendarme se fait buter, et c'est pas tous les jours, je pense à mon ami Rémi Fraisse... Là c'est un colonel, quel pied ! Accessoirement, encore un électeur de Macron en moins."

st


I agree that arresting him is unnecessary, but there must be a punishment. I suppose the authorities took the opportunity to send a message, since after such attacks it's hard preventing some kids all around Twitter to cheer for the terrorist.
 
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Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
"Stéphane Poussier appeared to celebrate the death of Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, saying it was great.

He added that the death in the town of Trèbes meant one less voter for President Emmanuel Macron."
I saw that, but I would like to see the actual Tweet (screencap), the exact wording.

There are no quote markers in that article. They are summarising.
 
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Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
"Every time a gendarme gets smoked, and it doesn't happen often, I think of my friend Rémi Fraisse... This time it's a colonel, I'm ecstatic ! Incidentally, that's one less voter for Macron."

OG :
"A chaque fois qu'un gendarme se fait buter, et c'est pas tous les jours, je pense à mon ami Rémi Fraisse... Là c'est un colonel, quel pied ! Accessoirement, encore un électeur de Macron en moins."

st


I agree that arresting him is unnecessary, but there must be a punishment. I suppose the authorities took the opportunity to send a message, since after such attacks it's hard preventing some kids all around Twitter to cheer for the terrorist.
Thank you.

Yeah, this is a tough one. That’s a totally despicable thing to say, but we don’t want our governments arresting us for Tweets.

The guy is a gutless, heartless piece of shit though for even thinking of saying that.
 
That's a translation mistake/ambiguity. Apologism in that context means supporting/praising, not finding excuses.

Thanks for the clarification.

He should be able to praise/support terrorist acts, as long as he's not a part of it or financing it. Just like people should be allowed to express that they were glad that "Charlie Hebdo" was attacked.
Then people can retort, pointing out how heinous and childish they are.
That doesn't help with the legal issue in France, which is a different thing than what ought to be.
 
at the very least I think social media should be ones to permanently banned someone as opposed to the government arresting them.
 

Tumle

Member
Thanks for the clarification.

He should be able to praise/support terrorist acts, as long as he's not a part of it or financing it. Just like people should be allowed to express that they were glad that "Charlie Hebdo" was attacked.
Then people can retort, pointing out how heinous and childish they are.
That doesn't help with the legal issue in France, which is a different thing than what ought to be.
I kind of agree with you.. but you said in an earlier post that you liked the Americans freedom of speech.. but I’m just wondering if Twitter was around when 9/11 happened, that if you spouted the same kind of bulshit on Twitter about that incident, that the American government wouldn’t arrest you for questioning or at least keep an eye on you?
But yes people should be able to say all the bullshit they want.. but they should just know that if you say something heinous like that, it doesn’t come without consequences.. just shouldn’t be from the government or at least not the way it was handled here..
Not sure if supporting terrorism is legal, anywhere?
 
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Alx

Member
Yeah it will always be a point of disagreement between European and American rules. In Europe respecting some human values is more important than free speech (because you know, recent history), in the US it's the other way around. Neither system is perfect and both have their own reason to exist. You could say it depends if you consider the law protects the collectivity or the individuals.
 
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Dunki

Member
Yeah it will always be a point of disagreement between European and American rules. In Europe respecting some human values is more important than free speech (because you know, recent history), in the US it's the other way around. Neither system is perfect and both have their own reason to exist.
No it goes way further.

I Germany reddits for weed are closed. Yo can not access certain other subreddits as well. here you rather make it unavailable rather than deleting it. which is ridiculous in itself. Twitter makes certain tweet unavailable for Germany people. Even political party ones. Example: they even did it with the account of the person who proposed this bullshit (Heiko Mass)
 

Bolivar687

Banned
I remember not too long ago France also prevented a prolife group from airing a commercial showing disabled children thanking their parents for giving them a chance at life. It's just so absurd to me that a country that lectures the United States on policy can be so far behind us when it comes to basic personal liberty.
 

lifa-cobex

Member
I agree that arresting him is unnecessary, but there must be a punishment. I suppose the authorities took the opportunity to send a message, since after such attacks it's hard preventing some kids all around Twitter to cheer for the terrorist.

Years back making comments like this would make you a social pariah.
It would invite a trial by what the populous thinks under the guise of "He can dish it out but can he take it?".

It was a two way street that everyone understood. If your going to say something that harsh then you had better have something fucking amazing to back it up.
That old saying "the internet never forgets". It goes a long way. This guy wouldn't be able to comment on shit without someone bringing that tweet up to show.

In essence he would have committed social suicide. Nobody would have ever taken him seriously after such.
 
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