If you were to advocate and prepare for the violent change in government, the government would certainly have a right to intervene, since you would be guilty of sedition. However, Jordans’ case doesn’t fall under ‘treason’ or ‘sedition’ by any stretch of the imagination. Its not obvious that Jordans actually did anything to obstruct other people’s liberties, nor that he was organizing a following that intended to violently challenge the powers that be.

Freedom of speech presupposes deeply uncomfortable viewpoints being voiced in public forums. We may not like what we hear, but presumably the alternative is far more unattractive.

To be sure, I dont think Jordans should have been allowed to just go about his day. As Kaza points out, freedom of speech has and should have its limits. However, actual imprisonment seems like a step too far.

I dont see what is to be gained by putting the guy into prison. Will he repent and come out a changed man? Unlikely. Will the public be any safer from his dangerous and subversive ideas? Nope. If the minds of the masses are really a genuine concern here, Jordans’ imprisonment is an ineffectual punishment which changes nothing. He is not the first or last to spew Neo-Nazi hatred.

If anything, putting him in prison only puts his ideas further into the public eye and makes him into a hero/martyr in his own circles. I bet he can’t wait to get out of jail, just to be hailed as the new king of Latvian skinheads and to pursue his ethnic hatred agenda with even more fervour. Any “American History X” scenarios seem unlikely.

Besides, you’d hope that most people are sane and that Jordans’ intolerant rants would fall on deaf ears. Jordans’ imprisonment is a bit of an inslut to the public at large, since it implies that this guy’s opinions could actually have been a genuine threat to public peace and tranquility i.e. we’re all amoral sheep, who have forgotten our own history.

Jordans’ should have been given a slap on the hand penalty and we ought to have continued with the rest of our days like adults, rather than self-righteously putting him behind bars just to show how seriously we take intolerance here in Latvia.