Seventy-five year old Danny Lim spends six days of every week walking the streets. He chats with pedestrians and waves at passing cars.

He always wears a sandwich board emblazoned with a message. But in 2015, one of his messages was deemed offensive and he was fined $500.

On appeal, the fine was quashed by the NSW District Court. The judge said the language was not criminally offensive, because the message would not provoke reactions such as anger, disgust and resentment in a reasonable person. 

This program contains strong language.

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lawreport/danny-lim-offensive-behaviour-fine-overturned/8869718





Iconic Sydney protester Danny Lim has been brightening the lives of city commuters for years now with his sandwich board signs emblazoned with colourful political messages designed to make a point as well as produce a smile from the passersby.
However, last Friday morning, several NSW police officers decided it was time to give the former Strathfield councillor a bit of a roughing up at Exchange Place in Barangaroo. The officers moved in and surrounded Danny. They tore his sign from his hands and forcefully handcuffed him.
The 74-year-old cried out for help and raised concerns about being separated from his dog Smarty. Onlooker Niki Anstiss, who filmed the incident, posted that it was the “most spiteful act of bullying I have ever seen, and NSW Police Force should be absolutely ashamed of themselves”.
The video footage of the incident went viral as Sydneysiders decried the treatment the officers subjected Mr Lim to. The activist later shared a photo on Facebook that shows his bruised and bloodied arms following the manhandling.

The crime of offensive conduct
As around 30 people looked on in disbelief last Friday, the police arrested and charged Mr Lim with offensive conduct over the sign he was displaying, which read, “SMILE CVN’T! WHY CVN’T?”
Section 4 of the Summary Offences Act 1988 stipulates that “a person must not conduct himself or herself in an offensive manner in or near, or within view or hearing from, a public place or a school.” It also explains that merely using of offensive language does not constitute this crime.
The maximum penalty for someone guilty of this offence is a $660 fine or 3 months behind bars. The legislation contains a defence to a charge of offensive behaviour, which is where the defendant has “reasonable excuse for conducting himself or herself in the manner”.
The Summary Offences Act does not define what constitutes offensive conduct or specify acts which may lead to a charge.

read more:
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/danny-lim-to-challenge-nsw...

Around the globe, well-informed and dedicated souls have for years been explicating the persecution of Julian Assange and its much broader implications. They include the likes of Suzie Dawson in New Zealand, Caitlin Johnstone in Australia, John Pilger in Britain and Joe Lauria in the United States, to mention just a few.

Their work has been invaluable for those who want to learn, or are at least susceptible to the facts of the case. But there is sadly little evidence that their efforts have yet to result in a fundamental shift in public awareness or concern. That is likely because the persecutors and their allies are more lavishly funded, better organised and more firmly established. 

Those malignant forces include the USA-led governments that have long conspired in the persecution of Assange and the corresponding threat to the basic freedoms of everyone. Equally or even more important, they also include all but a small and shifting segment of the world’s most influential media — including such venerable institutions as The Guardian which in the past has exposed and denounced government crimes rather than, as in the Assange case, aiding and abetting them. 

UNUSED POTENTIAL

What has long been needed is a large and well-organised structure which is capable of leading an effective challenge to the powerful conspiracy against Julian Assange and basic freedoms. There is much to suggest that the potential for such a structure exists. 

My experience of the Swedish population, for example, indicates that it includes many individuals who by various means have managed to acquire accurate knowledge of the abuses inflicted on Julian Assange and are anxious to support him in any way possible. But there is nowhere for them to turn with their offers of time, money and other resources.

In the prosperous and well-ordered country where Assange’s current plight began nine years ago, there is no established means to gather and mobilise what appear to be substantial resources waiting to be used. The same conditions almost certainly exist in many other countries, as well.

Clearly, there has been a woeful lack of leadership and organisation on the scale required. For that, I am as much to blame as anyone.

TIME TO ACT

The next major event in the persecution of Julian Assange is scheduled for the end of February next year, with a hearing in a British court on the USA’s extradition request. Assuming it takes place as planned, that hearing will be the start of a process which is expected to drag on for one to several years. 

That allows some time to organise a sustained, comprehensive campaign on behalf of Julian Assange and the basic freedoms at stake. To boost chances of engaging the general public, it would be advisable to focus on the basic rights at stake for everyone rather than on their denial to a single individual. That applies especially in this case, given the mainstream media’s relentless character assassination of Assange. As explained by Nils Melzer, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, etc.: 

In the end it finally dawned on me that I had been blinded by propaganda, and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed. Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide.”
Nils Melzer, Demasking the Torture of Julian Assange, Medium, 26 June 2019

One consequence is that thousands of commentators who have never met Julian Assange feel free, and for some reason(s) motivated, to revile his personality in no uncertain terms. Even those who condemn the abuses inflicted upon him often feel compelled to protect their own reputations against the risk of besmirchment by association.

The basic formula is that it is important to concern oneself with the persecution of Assange ”even if he is a terrible person who has done terrible things”. That is not a message which is likely to incite a mass awakening on his behalf. 

This almost certainly helps to explain why it has been so difficult to arouse public outrage at the gross mistreatment of Assange. It may also help to explain why so few leading figures in the arts, academia, entertainment and other fields have thus far, publicly at least, become engaged in the case and what it so alarmingly represents. 

PLAN & ORGANISE

As the most urgent priority is to prevent the extradition of Assange to the United States, a major shift in U.K. public and political opinion is the evident primary task at hand, at least to begin with. But interest in his case is global, as is the growing awareness that the issues involved concern everyone. It has even begun to dawn on some mainstream journalists that their own fates are inextricably linked to Assange’s. 

In light of the above, I propose that a conference be held as soon as possible to plan and begin to organise a major international campaign in defence of Julian Assange and freedom of expression, including the unrestricted freedom to publish. 

Anyone who is interested in participating in and/or offering advice on such a conference is very welcome to contact me via e-mail at [email protected] or tel. +46/8 731 9200. 

All who respond will be kept informed of developments, if any.

Al Burke is an editor and translator who in 1988 immigrated to Sweden from the United States. Websites: www.julian-assange.se and www.nnn.se


Read more:https://off-guardian.org/2019/08/02/defending-assange-and-basic-freedoms-think-bigger-much-bigger/
See also:killing democracy...

The offensive behaviour case against a prominent Sydney activist has prompted a court to examine the advertising of fashion giant French Connection.

Key points:

• Danny Lim was arrested at Barangaroo in January and fined $500 for offensive behaviour over his sandwich board sign
• His lawyer Bryan Wrench today compared Mr Lim's sign to advertising by UK brand French Connection
• In 2017 a District Court judge overturned a fine and conviction over a similar sign worn by Mr Lim

 

Danny Lim, 75, is well known around the CBD for his sandwich boards which often target politicians and include a play on words.

He was arrested at Barangaroo in January and fined $500 for offensive behaviour for wearing a sign that read: "Smile cvn't! Why cvn't?".

Mr Lim is contesting the fine in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, where his lawyer Bryan Wrench today compared the double entendre to French Connection UK's advertising.

"It's my fashionista coming out, your honour," Mr Wrench said while cross-examining one of the arresting officers.

Mr Wrench showed Detective Senior Constable Tufan Salman a photo of a large shop sign that read "FCUK".

"Could that sign also be interpreted as f***? Mr Wrench asked.

"It could be," the policeman replied.

Mr Wrench said advertisers often used attention-grabbing methods to promote their products.

Senior Constable Salman insisted he interpreted Mr Lim's sign to be hinting at what he said was a far more offensive word.

Witnesses 'social justice idiots'

Mr Lim has previously had overturned a conviction and fine which were imposed after he wore a similar sign that referred to former prime minister Tony Abbott and used the word "cvn't".

In 2017, a District Court judge found the earlier sign was in poor taste but not offensive, citing the "impugned word" in question as being prevalent in everyday language, particularly in Australia.

The court was played body-worn camera footage in which Mr Lim told police his hand hurt after being arrested, and one officer replied he was "bullshitting".

In the vision, witnesses could be heard describing the arrest as "disgusting" and "unbelievable" and were told to move on.

One officer is also heard describing the witnesses as "f***ing pathetic".

"They're all the social justice idiots. 'Oh my God … police brutality'," he said.

The officer said if Mr Lim had not "carried on" the way he did, he would not have been in handcuffs.

Police told Mr Lim they had received "a number of complaints" about the sign, which was taken from him as evidence.

But the court heard the arrest was triggered by a single complaint from a woman who was walking to work at Barangaroo and called a nearby police station.

When asked how offended she was, she replied: "As a woman, I found this word highly offensive."

The prosecutor said comparing Mr Lim's sign with French Connection's use of "FCUK" in advertising was "comparing apples and oranges", and told the court it was school holidays and the Barangaroo area was very busy.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-07/activist-allegedly-offensive-sign...

 

Time to let Danny Lim free... His attack on politics is more important than his muddled words, which most school kids would already know — and more... 

 

Ah... I see: French Connection United Kingdom...

Famous 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg who recently delivered a speech at the National Assembly in France that caused a number of negative reactions from French politicians for its alarmistic trends, has recorded a “time to rebel” essay-track with well-known English pop rock band The 1975 that was released in July, 2019. 

Jamie Oborne, the manager of The 1975 English pop rock band that has a track featuring an essay by controversial teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg recently revealed that a number of famous artists have refused to work with her, the BBC reports.

"Other artists didn't want to do it - it's madness. Bigger artists than The 1975", said Jamie Oborne during a new BBC Introducing podcast that will launch in September.

The first song on The 1975’s new album Notes on a Conditional Form aimed to be released in 2020 presents a track where Greta Thunberg calls for “civil disobedience”, accompanied by instrumentation by the band.

The track was made available in July, earlier that the scheduled release of the album, with all the potential revenues from the track set to contribute to the environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion.  

"After we met her in Stockholm and recorded it, we agreed it just wasn't a statement that could wait six months to come out. It felt like that would've made it a vanity exercise", Oborne said.

The 1975’s manager nevertheless acknowledged that the group were not yet “completely carbon efficient as a band”, a cause that a 16-year old environmental activist is fighting for.

"We have to acknowledge that the older generations have failed, all political movements in their current form have failed, but Homo sapiens have not yet failed", says Thunberg in the track.

Greta Thunberg is a teen Swedish environmental activist and a Nobel Prize nominee, who became famous in 2018 after her solo protests to combat climate change outside the Swedish Parliament led to a worldwide movement of school strikes, with thousands of teenagers calling for reduction of carbon emissions into the environment and making her a worldwide phenomenon. However, she has also come under increased scruntiny from some politicians and lawmakers who've criticised her alarmism and fearmongering, with, for example, French Republican leadership candidate Guillaume Larrive calling her the “guru of the apocalypse”.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201908121076531915-greta-thunbergs-music-...

 

 

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Picture by Gus Leonisky...

 

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Sydney sandwich board activist Danny Lim has won a legal battle over a double entendre after a magistrate blasted his arrest for offensive behaviour as "heavy-handed and unwarranted".

ty Key points: 

• Mr Lim was arrested at Barangaroo during school holidays after a complaint by a city worker 
• Police body cameras recorded officers saying Mr Lim was "full of shit"
• Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge said the sign was "provocative and cheeky, but not offensive"

 

The 75-year-old gave evidence at Downing Centre Local Court today with his dog, Smarty, sitting in his lap and said he "just wanted to make people smile".

Mr Lim was arrested at Barangaroo in January over a sign that read "Smile cvn't! Why cvn't?"

He contested his $500 fine, prompting the court to tackle the question of whether the "c word" is considered offensive in an everyday setting.

Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge criticised the police response and said Mr Lim's sign should not have been considered offensive.

"It's provocative and cheeky, but it's not offensive," she said.

Magistrate Milledge said the view of a "hypothetical reasonable person" must be considered, and that person should not be thin skinned or easily offended.

"It's about someone who is robust … who can ride out some of the crudities of what life has to offer," she said.

Mr Lim told the court he had the highest respect for police and did not make any money from his signs.

"Australia gave me a chance and I wanted to give something back. I have a chance to go out, a chance to listen and a chance to learn a lot," he said.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-30/danny-lim-wins-court-case-over-sa...

 

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A Queensland study found that Indigenous people are 12 times more likely than non-Indigenous people to be charged with or receive infringement notices for public nuisance or offensive language. Where these matters were dealt with in the court, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were more likely to receive a custodial sentence.

Sadly, this also supports what we already know: Aboriginal people are massively overrepresented in the criminal justice system of Australia. They represent only 2.1% of the total population, yet more than 28% of Australia's prison population is Aboriginal.

They are also the group most likely to die in gaol.

 

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/screw-it-swearing-sho...

 

 

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Stephen Langford’s day started with a defiant poem and ended with a conviction, after a Sydney court ruled a pro-refugee message the 62-year-old scrawled on a billboard in liquid chalk met the definition of an aggravated graffiti charge.

On a ground-level Darlinghurst billboard advertising Jaguar vehicles with the slogan “sorry to appear aggressive”, the retired nurse and long-time human rights activist had, at 9.15am on August 14, 2019, used a liquid chalk marker to add his two cents: “Sorry to bully innocent people in concentration camps for six years. But that’s Australia.”

 

He was caught in the act by two police officers, who attempted to rub off the writing with their hands but found it wouldn’t budge and subsequently charged Mr Langford with aggravated graffiti offences.

Mr Langford, who is facing separate charges for glueing an A4 poster detailing the massacre of Aboriginal people at Appin in 1816 to a statue of Lachlan Macquarie in Hyde Park, was met with supporters as he arrived at Downing Centre Local Court on Friday. He recited a ditty before heading inside: “We’ll go into court/The day will pass/If there is a penalty/They can stick it up their arse.”

 

Mr Langford’s barrister, multi-award winning journalist Mark Davis, argued that the charges against his client “impinge upon the implied rights of political speech”.

He also told the court the “fleeting” mark made by chalk “was not what the legislation intended in the Graffiti Act as an infringement”.

 

But Magistrate Carolyn Huntsman said the label on the marker stated it was “permanent on cloth, leather, paper and other porous surfaces”.

While there was no further attempt to clean the vinyl skin of the billboard before it was replaced, Ms Huntsman said the mark that was left nevertheless met the definition of graffiti.

As for Mr Langford’s right to free political speech, in lengthy reasons considering the constitutional implications of his argument, Ms Huntsman found the Graffiti Act did not “impermissibly burden” that freedom when weighed against the need to protect private property.

“A person can put political messages in chalk on footpath... a person can stand with a sign on the street,” she said.

She declined to “impose clean-up orders on a pensioner”, saying “he’s not a tagger”, but convicted and fined Mr Langford $400, describing the penalty as “relatively lenient”.

Outside court, Mr Langford said his father fled Austria in 1938 at the age of 17 when it was annexed by Nazi Germany, and he felt “pissed off” that “people with a well-founded fear of persecution, like that, are being locked up” now with little outcry.

“It’s a last resort really, to write something publicly,” he said.

 

Mr Davis said the case reveals “how thin our right to political expression is in Australia”.

“Australians tend to believe we have the right to political expression, and yet when it is tested in court as it was today, continually it is shown that we do not.”

Mr Davis said people should be able to defend such charges on grounds of political speech without having to prove that the law is unconstitutional.

“It is continually disappointing, heartbreaking actually, that it’s regarded as almost bizarre to run this type of defence in the local court,” he said.

Mr Langford will return to court later this month on separate charges relating to the poster pasted on a statue of Macquarie.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/that-s-australia-retired-nurse-fined-over-message-scrawled-on-billboard-20210514-p57s2h.html

 

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW *&^%$#@@!!!!!!!!

NSW Police have launched an independent review after Sydney sandwich-board activist Danny Lim was taken to hospital after falling while being arrested.

Warning: This story contains a graphic image

Video footage posted on social media shows officers trying to detain the 78-year-old man about 11am on Tuesday in a shopping complex on George Street in Sydney, NSW Police said in a statement.

During the attempted arrest Mr Lim appears to be forced to the ground, falling headfirst. 

NSW Police said "an independent review has been launched, which will examine the actions of police during the incident".

Lawyer Chris Murphy posted an image on Twitter of Mr Lim at St Vincent's Hospital with a black eye and bloodied cheek.

The caption read: "latest photo shows ... black eye, subdural haematoma and condition serious."

Officers were called about 11am by the shopping centre's security, and issued the protester with a move on direction but he failed to comply, NSW Police said.

"The man's arrest was discontinued after he struggled with police and sustained an injury to his cheekbone," NSW Police said. 

 

 

READ MORE:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-22/danny-lim-injured-during-arrest-in-sydney/101685200

 

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW≥................

A snap protest will take place in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon after the injury of well-known street personality Danny Lim “touched a nerve” in the community and prompted politicians to complain that excessive police force was damaging Sydney’s reputation.

Greens senator David Shoebridge told the federal parliament Lim, 78, had a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain and remained in St Vincent’s Hospital following his attempted arrest at the Queen Victoria Building on Tuesday morning.

Police began arresting Lim after he allegedly refused to comply with a move-on order, but “discontinued” the arrest when he sustained a cheekbone injury. Footage posted to social media showed two officers struggling with Lim and pushing him on to the hard stone floor of the QVB.

Police confirmed the “independent review” it promised will be conducted internally by an officer from another command within the Central Metropolitan Region of police. The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission would have oversight of the investigation, NSW Police said.

 

A rally against police brutality will take place at 5.30pm on Wednesday evening outside Surry Hills Police Station, organisers said.

 

 

READ MORE:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/excessive-police-force-is-damaging-sydney-s-reputation-minister-told-after-danny-lim-arrest-20221123-p5c0no.html

 

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I’ve seen the footage of two policemen hurling Danny Lim, 78, headfirst into the stone floor of the Queen Victoria Building (“Street figure injured in QVB arrest attempt”, November 23). This unnecessarily punitive approach has no place in a civilised society. We are told that the “arrest was discontinued after he sustained a cheekbone injury” and that “police have promised” an “independent review” of their actions “has been launched.” Independent? Really? Time for the premier to conduct an inquiry into the culture which has bred this approach. Like everyone else the police need to be held accountable for their behaviour. 

Bernard Shirley, Edgecliff

 

There needs to be more than a police inquiry into the manhandling of Danny Lim. We need to examine the events leading to police being called; this is not the first time it’s happened to him. We have to enquire as to how society has become so intolerant. Danny Lim is a legend. He is the sentinel fowl in the ongoing attacks on freedom of speech and expression. An ageing, ethical man with a smile and a sandwich board is not a threat; increasing intolerance to peaceful protest is, however, a major threat to our democracy. 

Marie Healy, Hurlstone Park

 

READ MORE:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/leave-danny-lim-alone-urgent-inquiry-into-police-culture-needed-20221122-p5c0e9.html

 

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