scott wrote:
>>  Fine, refuse to believe that people are being sanctioned for simply
>> expressing their opinion, with absolutely no violence involved.
> 
> I'm not refusing to believe it, I just think that in each case there is 
> always something more than you are trying to say.  There is no way in 
> this world any police officer would even look twice at me if I told him 
> how bad I thought the goverment was. 

Where are you talking about?  In the USA, many police would probably 
agree. I think you'd find it quite different in China, for example.

> However if I start telling him 
> about how I don't believe in the holocaust, or how I want to try and 
> convince everyone to become Nazis, or if I start making insulting 
> comments about people or groups of people

You're not supposed to get in trouble for any of that stuff in the USA. 
Indeed, the police are supposed to (and usually do) protect the nazis 
and KKK and such while they're having their parades.

What possible benefit do you get from arresting someone who doesn't 
believe in the holocaust? The problem comes when you start arresting 
people next for not believing that men are superior and that God exists 
and should be obeyed.

>or if I even swear at him while telling him how stupid I think he is, 

That will get you arrested for something entirely unrelated to the fact 
that you're swearing at the police officer, unless you have an 
exceptional police officer.

> There's a difference, and if you're too dumb to realise when you're 
> going to cause trouble by expressing your opinion in such a way then 
> that's your own stupid fault for getting arrested or whatever.  Normal 
> people don't have this problem.

It's not "normal" people that the constitution is designed to protect.

"Normal" people understand that displaying Nazi symbols in a text book 
about the history or WWII isn't advocating Nazism, but the book got 
banned in Germany for displaying Nazi symbols anyway.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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