Can Someone Tell Me.........

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-65248924
....on what legal basis are the police allowed to remove property? It cannot be merely that it causes offence. Well if it is, is it enough that I call the police over anything I am offended by and they'll remove it?

[anneasquith]

I thought the avatar was in bad taste, but disagreeing sometimes on AB leads to negative responses .

[ToraToraTora]

ok ed avatar changed, just seen this may take a while to change everywhere.

[youngmafbog]

Ah, bad taste is banned.

This is a lefty liberal site with over censure and run for the minority clique, that is why it has never succeeded and grown like other Q&A sites. People are driven away by that sort of thing.

But hey ho.

[gulliver1]

What's wrong with having Bradley Walsh as an avatar.

[Peter Pedant]

spare - ed - so something useful and let poor Gully speak !
Down with censorship, I say!

any bets on how long this will last?

[Peter Pedant]

oh there he is !
hi sweetie!

I thought the Brad thingey doo dah was about the £72k a teenager won on his quiz show

"wodga gonna do wiv 72 kay" brad asked in his best essex accent

sit and look at it at the bank the shocked winner said

[Peter Pedant]

disagreement is what this site is all about Anne
I note no one has thought the intelligence leak in the US was worth a thread - others may er diagree.

I thought naughty TTT might have added a goobiwog as an avatar
and the spare ed had snatched the soft toy out of his pram - to the predictable squawks. -

Oh, he did ?

I am confused now

[THECORBYLOON]

Why is TORATORATORA's avatar missing from some of his posts?

[Peter Pedant]

He changed it, and even the er least woke ABer thought it in bad taste.

Miss told him to change it veet- and knowing Power speaks he said - "yes ma'am I am arn it"

[Deskdiary]

Perhaps we should have a poll of who was offended?

I wasn’t.

[ABSpareEditor]

Thank you, ToraToraTora.

youngmafbog, it was more than merely bad taste.

It doesn't matter if anyone was offended, Deskdiary. Read the article provided in the original post. You'll find that they are regarded as racist caricatures and due to the controversy, we won't allow members to use them as their avatars.

I don't think our request is unreasonable, particularly as there is a pub undergoing investigation for having "golliwog dolls" displayed.

[bhg481]

I'm surprised we don't have to abbreviate it to "The G word"; it would certainly raise eyebrows if we abbreviated it to the last 3 letters.

[ABSpareEditor]

bhg481, I wasn't sure what the correct reference would be so I quoted the BBC article.

[TheWinner]

ABSpareEditor, I heard it was the last three letters that were the problem, and to call them golly dollies.

[jno]

the word's not much older than a century and seems to have partly composed of polliwog, a tadpole (poll = head as in poll tax, wog related to wiggle)

[THECORBYLOON]

From the OED,

"The toy is now widely regarded as a racially offensive caricature. The doll's clothing is based on the typical outfit worn by minstrel show performers."

Regardless of the origin of the word or whether a different form of the word were used, the doll itself is racist and offensive.

[naomi24]

You say that as a statement of fact, Corby, but like, anything else it’s only offensive if you’re offended by it. Personality, like a lot of other things that appear to cause offence to some people, I think it’s ridiculous.

[naomi24]

*personally*. Blinking predictive text! Now that’s something that offends me. ;o)

[ladybirder]

You know you can turn that off Naomi??

[naomi24]

I do know, LB, but it's handy sometimes. No pleasing some people is there. ;o)