A self-described Nazi on Tuesday became the first person convicted in the Australian state of Victoria of performing an outlawed Nazi salute.
Jacob Hersant, 25, gave the salute and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in front of news media cameras outside the Victoria County Court on Oct. 27, 2023, after he had appeared on a unrelated charge. It was six days after the Victoria state government had made the salute illegal.
The Federal Parliament passed legislation in December that outlawed nationwide performing the Nazi salute in public or to publicly display, or trade in, Nazi hate symbols.
A Melbourne magistrate found Hersant guilty, dismissing defense lawyers’ arguments that the gesture wasn’t a salute and that the ban unconstitutionally infringed upon Hersant’s implied freedom of political communication.
You know every now and then Oz gets a w, it’s rare but appreciated
who else started reading and fully expected it would say he becane Gouverneur or some shit
And a thousand free speech absolutists cried out ‘but now the Nazis won’t be publicly known!!!’
Nothing good has ever come from public gatherings of Nazis.
Yeah I don’t know what the right way to stop them is, but the Marketplace of Ideas sure as fuck isn’t preventing Nazi delusions from spreading and taking root. I think we are ready to try alternative solutions such as jail or punches in the face.
Yes, this is the correct way to deal with Nazis. Everyone do what Australia does thank you.
How the heck is he 25? Dude has bushy old-man eyebrows and greying hair. He looks 55, not 25.
Hate ages you quicker than drugs
While I agree on him, some people do grey early. I started around 15 or so, and my father around 13. I still think some of his other features make him seem older as well though, like the eyebrows you mentioned.
Bad genes, which are also responsible for his criminality. Also probably an immigrant.
Seriously I was confused too, I thought that might be his lawyer.
I’m in my 20s and always thought I was aging pretty badly but jeez yeah he fully looks mid to late 40s. A good mid to late 40s but definitely no younger if I were to guess.
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Strongly agree. The fact that a nazi shithead felt safe enough to out himself in public means that more nazis need to be seeing public consequences for being hate filled oxygen thieves.
Being a nazi should be like being a pedo; you should be living in constant fear that someone is going to find out and that when you eventually get out of prison your friends, family and society at large want nothing to do with you
There‘s a tiny detail that makes Nazis even worse than (at least non-offending) Pedos:
Beeing a nazi is a choice!
when people talk about pedophilia in this context they usually mean child predation, not the psychological condition. I doubt anyone cares if you have this as a condition but seek help for it without violating anyone.
Of course, we need to destigmatize the idea that someone who has sexual thoughts about children is automatically a monster first. People with such thoughts that have never acted on them don’t seek help precisely for that reason.
I wish there were some sort of public campaign to get people who have not acted on those thoughts to get the help they need, but I have a feeling that such a campaign would get a huge amount of negative pushback from people who say that you’re just enabling pedophilia or something.
N…Nuance? In this day! In this age! In this post! Completely on Lemmy?!?
I don’t even think it’s all that nuanced a take. You want to protect kids? Get these people help before they prey on them.
The generation that dealt with Nazis didn’t teach their children about bayonets, and here we are again learning the hard way.
Yall doing that and meanwhile in America we are allowing one to run for the presidency.
Obviously this guy is a scum bag but what even is his angle here?
“look at me being punished for breaking this law everyone universally thinks is a great idea”
It’s the Jordan Peterson tactic. Except unlike Peterson, there actually are consequences when you do the thing this asshole did.
A stupid man does stupid things and has real consequences. Anyone who is not stupid, even if he is a Nazi, will not have these problems
🦀 Nazi punks fuck off and rot in prison 🦀
I saw the picture and my brain filled it with…first Prime minister… And I was bummed 😞. Not Australia! Then I finished reading and that made me jump like a kangaroo 🦘. You guys rock! Don’t let a Trump ruin your nation too!
We’re gonna need a new punk rock movement to get all these nazi punks to fuck off
Jacob Hersant
With a name like that…
The thing is: that Nazi scum will now be placed in an enclosed space that is full of marginalised people by going to prison. His time in there with them will perpetuate the culture of harm and discrimination.
Imprisonment is always the least-bad option out of a bunch of bad options.
I’m not really into the “send a message” aspect of punishment, I don’t want this guy punished so that others of similar mind fear being punished.
However, I’m glad that his imprisonment clearly demonstrates that our society has resolved that nazism will not be tolerated.
If the price is this idiot being more extremified then so be it.
