Hate Crimes and Stockpiling Explosives
07.31.07 - 05:48pm
There was a further sign today that the disturbing alterations in the national psyche caused by the threat of Islamic terrorism are infecting our “justice” system.
Right wing extremist Robert Cottage, 49, a former British National Party election candidate, was jailed for two and a half years for stockpiling explosive chemicals and ball bearings at his home in Colne, Lancashire. He had previously been acquitted of charges of conspiracy to cause explosions. Sentencing Cottage, the judge, Mrs Justice Swift, accepted Cottage’s claim that he was manufacturing explosives for defensive purposes, fearing a civil war caused by mass immigration. Having already spent a year behind bars before and during the trial, Cottage is likely to be free within six months.
Now, this verdict comes just two weeks after three men were imprisoned for six years and one other for four years after being found guilty of seeking to “foment hatred and encourage killing” after a protest outside the Danish embassy in London: that is, they said something.
You do not have to condone speech acts which encourage violence and murder to suspect that there is something deeply wrong with a justice system which imprisons people for six years for a crime of speaking yet for only two and a half years for actually setting out to make bombs to use against immigrants.
The case is made all the more disturbing by that all too predictable lingering smell of racism. The court almost seems to have accepted that preparing for an “apocalyptic” civil war against immigrants, actually acts as a mitigating factor, according to the Guardian’s story:
The judge said she accepted that Cottage’s intention had been to hold on to the chemicals, which included ammonia, hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid, until the outbreak of civil disturbance.
Meanwhile, after the trial:
A BNP spokesman said after sentencing that the prosecution had been brought for political reasons. “We’re not condoning it, but it’s a quid pro quo to appease the Muslims,” said Dr Phil Edwards, of the BNP.
“To keep them quiet, we’ll snatch someone from white society. We certainly don’t support the bloke. We condemn all forms of violence … but I wouldn’t have thought you could do any harm with what he had.”
Someone from “white society” was snatched up to “appease” Muslims. Even when a white racist is trying to make bombs from chemicals and ball bearings it is still the fault of those Muslims. Got that?
I suspect that as in some previous cases, this is the story of a deluded fantasist who was likely more a danger to himself than to anyone else. I cannot help feeling, however, that both the tone of the trial and the media coverage would have been very, very different if Cottage had had brown skin and not white, and that he would be facing a much longer stretch behind bars.
Speak Your Peace