‘Keyboard warriors’ shouldn't be sentenced to prison, Church of England bishop says
A prominent bishop in the Church of England contends that "keyboard warriors" shouldn't be jailed for commenting on social media about the spate of riots that broke out in the U.K. after a man murdered three young girls in a mass stabbing.
The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt. Rev. Rachel Treweek, said she believes the individuals jailed for allegedly inciting the riots by commenting online shouldn't be punished with prison time.
Treweek, who speaks for the Church of England on prison issues, said that while she believes there must be "consequences for all of our actions," the prison sentences for alleged online incitement were "not right."
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“I understand people immediately want that person to be punished, but if you want that person to be changed and not incite that hatred and not cause broken relationship in our communities, we have to be asking what sort of intervention will actually enable us to help that person be changed, to look upstream at some of the underlying issues,” she said, as quoted by The Telegraph.
“Sending someone to prison for a number of months or years, and expecting that that person will come out and suddenly come back and contribute to a stronger community, if there’s been no appropriate intervention, is just foolish.”
The bishop was also “hugely concerned” with the idea that streets would be safer if more people were imprisoned, saying that there was “no evidence to show that locking more people up for longer makes our streets safer.”
“Indeed, our rates of reoffending are extremely high,” she said. “And if we want to create communities which are good for the victims of crime, for those who’ve offended, for families in the wider community, we do have to be asking that long-term question about, what do we think we are doing and what is prison for?”
Instead, she said, many offenders, including those who incited hate online, should receive probation sentences and championed “more appropriate community sentencing.”
One of the people recently sentenced for allegedly inciting online hate was a 53-year-old woman named Julie Sweeney, who responded to a post on Facebook about the cleanup from the riots by saying: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. Don’t protect the mosques. Blow the mosques up with the adults in it.”
“So-called keyboard warriors like you must learn to take responsibility for your disgusting and inflammatory language,” Judge Steven Everett said when sentencing her to 15 months, The Telegraph reported.
“In circumstances such as these, even people like you need to go to prison because a message must go out that if you do these terrible acts the court will say to you, ‘you must go to prison.’”
Late last month, a teenager named Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a second-generation Rwandan immigrant, fatally stabbed three young British girls aged 6, 7, and 9, and attempted to kill 10 others in Southport, England, which is about 17 miles north of Liverpool.
The mass stabbing sparked violent protests across the U.K. after false reports claimed Rudakubana was a Muslim asylum seeker. Approximately 600 people were arrested, with over 150 reportedly charged since July 30. Some have been accused of targeting mosques and immigration centers. Muslim men armed with knives and machetes were also out in the streets and attacking protesters.
In response to public comments on social media, London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley threatened to extradite U.S. citizens for making incendiary posts.
Earlier this month, a group of religious leaders, including Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, signed a joint statement sent to The Times of London denouncing the violence and commending those working to repair the damage.
Other signatories include Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, Chief Imam and Director General of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society Sayed Razawi, and Imam Qari Asim, chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board.
"Over the last few days we have watched in horror as a small minority has brought hatred, violence and vandalism to towns and cities across the country," read the statement, in part.
"We have seen anti-Muslim hatred and the targeting of mosques; asylum seekers and refugees attacked; violence directed towards the police and private property, all of which are a stain on our national moral conscience."
