Althouse: "A teenager arrested on Remembrance Sunday on suspicion of posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook is being questioned by police."

November 12, 2012

"A teenager arrested on Remembrance Sunday on suspicion of posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook is being questioned by police."

"The 19-year-old was held after the image of a poppy being set ablaze by a lighter was reportedly posted online with the caption: 'How about that you squadey cunts.'"

33 comments:

Automatic_Wing said...: No free speech, please, we're British.; 11/12/12, 6:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Mrs. Wallace used to sell poppies at the post office every November. She is gone now and no one has taken her place, at her funeral, I put one of her poppies on her casket.; 11/12/12, 6:22 PM
holdfast said...: And yet the guy who did this will likely never be caught, and wouldn't be given any real punishment if he was.

"Toronto - Shortly after services concluded, someone wrote "Canada will burn praise Allah" on the Victory Peace war memorial located in Toronto's Coronation Park.?

Read more:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/336675#ixzz2C3dXmXyc; 11/12/12, 6:24 PM
David said...: It's why we have a Bill of Rights.; 11/12/12, 6:24 PM
Paco Wové said...: I have seen it claimed that, because of cultural contamination from US television and movies, a lot of Brits think they enjoy US constitutional first amendment protection. Surprise!; 11/12/12, 6:24 PM
Known Unknown said...: Squadey (sic) means "grunt." (Low level soldier)

Grunt cunts has a nicer ring to it, no?; 11/12/12, 6:28 PM
Bob said...: No First Amendment in the UK. And, I might add, no Second Amendment recourse for correcting the situation. You can be jailed in UK simply for a racial slur, and it happens regularly.; 11/12/12, 6:34 PM
Geoff Matthews said...: I don't think this illegal, but I also don't think that Americans understand the significance of the poppy as a symbol of the military sacrifice that prior generations made for the British Commonwealth. Poppies are ubiquitous, are sold to raise money for veterans, and are analogous to the flag as a symbol of support.
Of course burning it will anger people. But just because it makes you angry doesn't mean it should be illegal.
The problem, though, is maintaining a common culture, and I'm sympathetic to that.; 11/12/12, 6:40 PM
McTriumph said...: Geoff

I remember when American public schools sold poppies to raise money prior to Veteran's Day. But, then I'm old enough to remember a moment of silence and the Pledge Of Allegiance every mourning prior to class.; 11/12/12, 6:52 PM
Fr Martin Fox said...: Geoff:

I think I understand. I'm offended by this. But then, I'm offended by burning Old Glory, and putting a crucifix in urine, and smearing feces on an image of the Mother of God...

Some of which I paid for...; 11/12/12, 7:02 PM
edutcher said...: Hope this clown bumps into a couple of Paras or RMs.

Repeatedly.

If he'd burned a Koran, of course, he'd be sharing a cell with Sam Bacile.; 11/12/12, 7:10 PM
virgil xenophon said...: @McTriumph/

Yes, I was raised in the late 40s/50s when poppy's were always sold on the sidewalks of our town square by organizations like the Elks Club, Rotary, etc., to celebrate what was then called "Armistice Day" to celebrate victory in WW I. It was taken very seriously then in the mid-west, at least. "The Eleventh Hour of The Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month." A time of somber rememberance..; 11/12/12, 7:21 PM
virgil xenophon said...: PS: Alas..now we are stuck with the generic "Veterans Day." A separate day for "Veterans Day" should be chosen, rather subsume such a solemn day under a generic heading. The immense sacrifice that WW I entailed should be remembered for its own-sake..; 11/12/12, 7:27 PM
Paco Wové said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/12/12, 7:39 PM
Paco Wové said...: Geoff: I don't think you understand. It is illegal under current UK law, at least how that law is currently applied. And yes, there is no real equivalent in the US. Maybe burning a couple of flags, or more.

BTW, in this part of the Midwest, the American Legion still sells artificial poppies on Veterans' Day.; 11/12/12, 7:40 PM
slumber_j said...: In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.; 11/12/12, 7:42 PM
XRay said...: I can't influence ignorance, which is one reason why I don't comment much here.

But I'd like that fuckface to read this and not be affected.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/as-first-military-social-work-officer-killed-in-action-army-lt-col-david-cabrera-was-a-soldier-of-kindess/2012/11/02/0dce8cf4-e1a6-11e1-98e7-89d659f9c106_story.html

There are many honorable persons out there which that shithead wouldn't be worthy to wipe their ass.

Disclosure, I know someone directly affected by this sad death. I hope I am not demeaning his sacrifice by mention.; 11/12/12, 7:58 PM
Oso Negro said...: The scale of the sacrifice is difficult to get one's mind around. If you are going to visit battlefields in France, I strongly advise visiting Omaha before you go traipsing around the Somme.; 11/12/12, 7:59 PM
sean said...: Wow, before everyone gets all holier than thou about America versus Britain, let's remember that you can and will be punished pretty harshly on most college campuses for racial slurs (though not for insulting veterans, I fancy).; 11/12/12, 8:07 PM
XRay said...: I guess, to stay on topic, I should add/say that that worthless asshole 'should' have the right to say whatever he wants to.

Though he'd pay the Danegeld for sure, when push came to shove.; 11/12/12, 8:14 PM
Lyle said...: Thank the lord for our Bill of Rights.

The English are some ridiculous cunts.; 11/12/12, 8:24 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: virgil xenophon:

We should just switch our Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and devote November 11 to remembrance of the glorious dead like everyone else in the Western world.

Also re: Flanders Fields -- I think this is one of the weaker specimens of Great War poetry, even if it did lead to the iconic poppies. Better are:

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into the mind those men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

Or the lines --

A bird among the rain-wet lilac sings,
But we, how shall we turn to happy things,
Or listen to the wind or rain or streams,
Made holy by their dreams,
Nor feel the heartbreak in the heart of things.

Or even Rupert Graves' bit about a corner of a foreign field that is forever England. I also like Marian Allen's The Wind on the Downs, and for years, Larkins (not contemporary, obviously) poem about the war would bring me to tears.; 11/12/12, 9:06 PM
Balfegor said...: Rupert BROOKE. Rupert Graves is some kind of actor. haha; 11/12/12, 9:11 PM
LYNNDH said...: Last yr we visited WW1 sites in Belgium. Battlefileds, cemetarys, memorials. Very moving. Visited the place where Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD was working at a battlefield hospital, less than a mile behind the lines. Seeing the area and understanding what went on there (same in Normandy) is heartbreaking. Note that Dr. McCrae died in the war too.; 11/12/12, 9:18 PM
n.n said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/12/12, 9:44 PM
Eric said...: Of course burning it will anger people. But just because it makes you angry doesn't mean it should be illegal.
The problem, though, is maintaining a common culture, and I'm sympathetic to that.

The culture used to be maintained by the neighborhood veterans who would kick your ass for doing something like that, and by the local barkeep who wouldn't serve you, and by the local ladies who wouldn't talk to you.

If you went to the cops to complain about your ass-kicking they'd tell you to be more careful climbing stairs.

That system had its bad points, but they weren't all bad points.; 11/12/12, 10:09 PM
Unknown said...: There will be massive rioting, looting and revenge shootings throughout the Judeo/Christian world right?; 11/13/12, 12:18 AM
Darrell said...: UK papers have reported attacks on poppy sellers over the last few years and the attacks are spreading--outside of the usual central urban areas.

For example--

Security is being provided for young poppy sellers in Bradford this year after some were attacked last year...Young Army cadets will have chaperones to protect them from repeats of the abuse some suffered while collecting for the charity.

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/9997320.Poppy_sellers_to_get_minders_after_sick_abuse_last_year/; 11/13/12, 5:12 AM
Anonymous said...: reposting a comment from the other thread on this:

And in the UK. They understand the meaning of "Remembrance Day", beyond being a bank holiday.

Red Poppies, Flanders Field, white feathers, etc

The UK Army does several things better than Yanks, and one of them is the Regimental system. One of the by products is that each regt recruits from a county or groups of counties and if, as in the case now of most of the Brit Army, a Bn is inactivated, the colours go to the local cathedral, where they hang in the rafters. In York Cathedral, off the Nave, there is a memorial to the Yorkshire Regiment. In WWI, they raised 11 battlions. Each of perhaps 600-700 men. All in all, about 65 thousand men served in the unit during the war. of those 65 thousand, the casualty book there in the Cathedral, has the names of the more that 20 thousand wounded and the 6500 dead. All from one county.

One doesn't understand European history unless you have seen the granite obilisks in every tiny village in France, Germany and England with the lists of their dead...; 11/13/12, 6:16 AM
kentuckyliz said...: Yes, most people are blissfully unaware that the subjects of Britain don't have individual constitutional rights.

That's where my parents are from, and much of my extended family live there.

I was not aware of this fact until fairly well into my adult life.

Explains why they are SUBJECTS and not citizens, and why they are such SHEEP.; 11/13/12, 6:26 AM
Anonymous said...: The most beautiful place I have every seen is the American cemetary overlooking Omaha. It is just overwhelming. The orderly and pristine crosses, the beauty of the vista, the sacrifice of the fallen...

Here's to the "boys from Bedford, VA" A Co, 116th Inf Rgt, 29th Division.

Of all the units in the first wave of D-day, nearly all of them were caught be the current and shifted Left. The one that wasn't was A/116, that landed right on target, all alone on the right flank of the beach (Dog Green), and paid the price. A/116 was a National Gaurd unit from rural VA. Bedford supplied 35 young men. One of those places in flyover country where the Armory floor doubles as the HS basketball court and where the senior prom is held. e.g. the center of civic virtue.

Within 10 minutes the company was gone. By the end of the day, only 18 men of 230, were left unhurt. Bedford lost 19 dead of its 35 young men in a single day, with 14 more wounded.; 11/13/12, 6:43 AM
Rusty said...: Oso Negro said...
The scale of the sacrifice is difficult to get one's mind around. If you are going to visit battlefields in France, I strongly advise visiting Omaha before you go traipsing around the Somme.

Just drive around Normandy. Narrow freakin' little roads. Not even a divider stripe down the middle. Little intersections. Not even a freakin' stop sign. Maybe just a couple of houses and a barn. But in the middle of just about every intersection there's a monument. Usually with a little iron fence around it.Some flowers. They all say something like,"Dedicated to the American soldiers that died to liberate this town." In both English and French. A barn and a couple of houses. A town. And if you're driving with somebody old enough when you stop to read the monument, somebody will come out of their house or barn and offer you a glass of wine and kiss both their cheeks and thank them. There are a lot of little crossroads in Normandy.; 11/13/12, 7:10 AM
Clyde said...: They should give him community service cleaning latrines in a veteran's hospital.; 11/13/12, 7:28 AM