Bob Dylan charged with incitement to hatred in France

[cali]

Bob Dylan is in legal trouble in France because of a year-old interview he gave to Rolling Stone in which he compared Croatians to Nazis.

Dylan, 72, has been charged with incitement to hatred for statements that appeared in the magazine's Sept. 27, 2012 issue, according to AFP. The news service says the singer was charged while he was in Paris to accept France's Legion d'Honneur for his distinguished music career.

"Blacks know that some whites didn't want to give up slavery — that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can't pretend they don't know that," Dylan was quoted as saying in the Rolling Stone interview. "If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood."

In the 1990s, Croatians and Serbs were involved in bloody ethnic warfare in the Balkans that killed thousands, including many civilians.

During World War II, the Independent State of Croatia

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/12/02/bob-dylan-charged-in-france/3825827/

[ananda]

1. Oh I see. Some Croatians complained.

Well, maybe old wounds need to be healed and not reopened and inflamed.

[cali]

2. I think the charge is moronic

makes me appreciate the 1st Amendment all that much more.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Has Dylan apologised?

I wonder if he could have headed this off by doing so. I can see why what he said is offensive (comparing a whole ethnicity to the Klan and Nazis).

[cali]

6. I hope not.

He made the comment to Rolling Stone which isn't even a French Publication. And offensive or not, I see this is ridiculous bullying.

Fuck the French Prosecutors.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. What's your opinion of Croatians?

You don't think they deserve an apology - is it that no-one should ever apologise for anything, or do you think they deserve to be classed with Nazis and the Klan?

[cali]

11. I don't have an opinion of Croatians- or Germans or Jews, etc.

But I don't think that what Dylan said remotely rises to the level of hate speech and I get what he was trying to say about racism in the U.S.- btw, he was more "insulting" to the U.S. than to Croatians.

this wasn't a hateful rant with the intent of demonization.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. In the USA, he limited his remarks to descendants of slave owners

He went for the whole of Croatia.

Is hate speech the only thing people should apologise for?

[cali]

15. Look, I'm not the high poobah of what people should or shouldn't apologize for

so I'm not going to respond to what I consider a rather silly and overly generalized question. I've responded to this specific incident.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. OK, but I didn't know if that's because you give Dylan a pass on things,

you didn't like Croatians, or what. All you have told us is that you hope Dylan hasn't apologised. It seemed reasonable to ask you why, even if you have refused to answer.

[cali]

20. I think I made it clear that I bear no animus towards Croatians

I told you specifically, that I don't believe that what he said rises to the level of hate speech and it's certainly not incitement.

I don't know how to much clearer than that I think this is a case of ridiculous overreach on the part of the prosecutors. that's why I hope he doesn't apologize.

I really, really dislike this kind of government censorship.

[eridani]

3. Tudjman and Itzbegovic actually were Nazis

Not as in generic snarl word nazi, but actual WW II allies of Hitler.

[warrant46]

4. Its nice the US has the First Amendment

The French need to rein in the prosecutor here.

If this is all they have to do, something is seriously amiss in their society

[sabrina 1]

25. We better start protecting it here because it's on shaky ground. When a country

starts talking about prosecuting journalists for doing the job of a journalist and the suggestion has made its way into the Corporate Media with even some Democrats believing it has some merit, I wouldn't be feeling too secure about freedom of speech right here.

[hobbit709]

7. My response to France is: Vichy France.

[cali]

8. I would hazaard a guess that that would be their response to you as well.

[hobbit709]

10. look deep into my eyes, do you see any concern down there?

[el_bryanto]

12. France's overreaction is pretty stupid, but Dylan's statement is pretty stupid too

I mean it's poetical and maybe even biblical but do you really believe that American blacks have some sort of sense that tells them who has sinful klan/slave owner ancestry?

What I think they can tell is when someone is a racist because they treat them in a racist fashion, and in many cases racists do have that kind of history - but often times they don't. And often times the ancestors of slave owners/klansmen have rejected that past.

Bryant

[JaneyVee]

13. In other news: Croatia just constitutionally banned same sex marriage.

[Laelth]

17. Croatia does, indeed, have a spotty history.

Dylan is right about that. I am confused about French law on this subject, but this all seems quite strange to me.



-Laelth

[pampango]

18. Europeans have historical reasons for sensitivity about demonizing groups of people, but

this is going too far.

Everyone knows that all Croatians are not Nazis though their political leadership would have been fairly characterized as such.

[KurtNYC]

19. Wait. Don't the French hate EVERYONE?

The Japanese can't even go shopping in Paris without developing a psychiatric breakdown:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/6197921.stm

The French banned religious garb, head scarves and the like so Dylan is basically their scapegoat.

[cali]

21. good points. And they just bestowed their highest honor on him

Maybe some prosecutor just really hates Dylan's music.

[PasadenaTrudy]

23. I remember that article

Pretty wild!

[DirkGently]

22. Not a crime, but an ugly, stupid sentiment. Dylan should stuff it.

He's a great artist, but the idiotic irony here is that opining on all the conclusions you can draw by what's "in your blood," is the exact rationale for the ethnic hatred and violence he's purporting to criticize. If descendants of slaves can hate slaveowner "blood" and descendents of Nazi victims can hate "Nazi blood," etc. etc. we're right back to where we started.

The entire point is that no one's biology or ethnicity is a basis for judgment in the first place.

I don't think there's been a better songwriter in America, ever, maybe, but Dylan sounds like an idiot here and ought to take the hint. He's not likely to be prosecuted (and shouldn't be) but he's wrong.

[Freddie Stubbs]

24. Zimmerman!

[NoOneMan]

26. They'll stone you

[lunasun]

27. Why would he say hateful things against Nazis?

or any genocide prone group I do not know!

I am glad Dylan still is pissing people off in a way with his opinion.........what up with the charge ?