Free speech requires a bit of common sense

Last weekend Tiki Taane was arrested and has been charged with disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence. He sang Fuck the Police when cops were doing a routine check through the bar he was playing at.

I believe, as I think it is safe to say many of you do, that the right to free speech must be upheld completely and in all likelyhood when this case gets to court on friday it will be dismissed pretty quickly.

Free speech is one of the tenets of our society that make it a great place to live. We have a society in which a painter can paint whatever he or she desires or a writer can say anything (though obviously there are still defamation laws in place which must be observed and upheld).

Tiki claims it was a tongue-in-cheek act and most cops would have seen it as this an laughed it off. This is where the problem comes in, a song such as this sung in the wrong place at the wrong time could well incite violence. By all accounts this was not one of those occasions.

It seems luck just wasn't on Tiki's side and he got the cop that took it the wrong way.

No one was really at fault here, the cop took things too far and Tiki's choice to sing this song was perhaps not a great idea but neither of them can be blamed, they both did what they thought was right.

I have to give the cop credit for coming back later to arrest TIki when the crowds were so as not to antagonize the situation further.

Free speech is essential to our culture but with it comes the need for common sense and the realization that what you say can have consequences.