French Courts Are Giving Protesters INSANE Sentences

InternetPirate@lemmy.fmhy.ml to World News@lemmy.ml – 268 points – French Courts Are Giving Protesters INSANE Sentences
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French courts have been imposing disproportionately severe sentences for minor offenses, including 10 months in prison for stealing a can of Red Bull and one year for a homeless boy with schizophrenia caught looting a luxury store. The overwhelmed courts rush cases, provide minimal time for defendants, and prioritize punishment under the instruction of the Justice Minister. Furthermore, the French government is censoring social media and justifying it by claiming to protect public order, but it infringes upon free speech and mirrors tactics used by authoritarian regimes. The justice system exhibits a double standard, favoring the privileged, and creates a class divide, leading to unrest. Ironically, the government compares itself to oppressive nations while undermining democratic principles.

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Is that really a journalist… or a commentator? Not a very objective analysis of the situation.

And Bastille Day is coming up in about four days, isn't it?

Oh, the irony...

It's an interesting development for sure. In Germany they want to prosecute climate protesters (letzte Generation) for organizing a criminal organization (like mafia, yes). If things continue in this direction the saying "it's not about left/right, it's about freedom/authoritarianism" might soon be something I will say with zero irony.

I worry for the day when class wars become the next world war

Can we not post YouTube links and other (video/audio) commentaries in news communities?

This used to be so annoying when I used RedReader with Reddit. Sometimes I would click a link, not paying attention to the url and thinking it was an article, and would be greeted by the Youtube app hijacking my screen and blaring an ad at full volume in my face.

Delete the YouTube app and open links in a browser that blocks YT ads, like Brave.

So use NewPipe.

There's always someone who does that, i swear.

My brother in christ, please stay on the subject.

When someone ask "How can I do x with y", there no point being smug with an answer like "That's easy, use z".

It's not the point, it's not useful. You're not helping.

Heavily oriented video and summary.
Here is a "check news" from liberation, a left leaning french media (warning: it's in french), about the guy who "just stole a redbull": https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/violences-urbaines-un-homme-a-t-il-ete-condamne-a-dix-mois-de-prison-ferme-pour-le-vol-dune-canette-de-redbull-20230704_XDDKWZ6GXRHP3JAYZQF5R2GJP4/

The lawyer adds: "He's a boy without stories." Who, however, has a criminal record: last year, he was tried in voluntary appearance on prior admission of guilt (procedure of "plead-guilty" which allows a quick judgment and proposes a sentence less than that incurred) for burglary and received a one-year prison sentence, suspended.

He was arrested by the police on the evening of June 29 as he left a looted Monoprix store, a can of Redbull in his hand.

Not only he had a suspended sentence, he also LOOTED the redbull from a store.

I didn't watch the video but i'm very surprised about the censured medias thing, never heard about anything like that recently. And i should know, I live there.

So sure, journalists' work has been increasingly harder to do the last few years, but censorship, real state censorship or "gag order" like the us does sometimes ?

That's a line no french government would dare to cross because THAT would be the real riots. What's happening right know would be merely skirmirshes in comparison.

The liberation article I linked even says journalists, them included, could witness the trials.
Macron is indeed talking about censoring social media to cripple these riots, but nothing have been done yet to allows this.

America has similar stupid sentences for many vaguely criminal acts, usually dependent on skin color.

Hey, that's not a fair evaluation of the US 'Justice' system. Being rich has a lot to do with your success as well.

Your post sounds more like a manifesto than a news piece. Also, your source is really oriented... unless you are using Lemmy as a platform for your own content which is not what I'm here for.

FMHY.ML has some whack users, so I'm not surprised.

Thanks, good to know. This new instance business is a bit disconcerting. I am use to be cautious with communities/subs and now I need to learn about instance too. Not a bad thing to change habits from time to time, when you think of it

How many hundreds of year did the fascist policeman get? Has he already been publicly hanged?

I mean, this happened after the UK 2012 riots as well. prosecutors will push for the maximum penalty due to the nature of the crime to deter future rioting/looting.

Do these people in charge not understand that if they push french people too hard guillotines will start spawning?

Like either you listen to the people or heads start rolling...

Why is 1 year sentence for looting is too much? Or u mean because the personal had psychological condition they should have been admitted to hospital instead ?