Let’s spare a thought for CJ Hopkins who stands trial tomorrow, Tues 23 January 2024, for the manufactured offences that @Everyman, fully accurately, described as Covid thoughtcrime last August, here
I’ve sometimes found CJ’s satires a little laboured, but he’s a sound bloke, seems very affable but with firm and absolute resilience during the last 3 - 4 years. An example to us all. I couldn’t possibly summarise his situation when it is all set out so clearly here:
I have an uncomfortable feeling that he will be made an example of, as Craig Murray was, and the big risk of taking this to trial is not only that an exemplary verdict will be given, but that a deliberately harsh sentence will be handed down (well in excess of the ‘plead guilty’ maximum of 2 months).
The American author and satirist @CJHopkins_Z23 has just been acquitted of the criminal offense of “spreading anti-constitutional symbols” by the Tiergarten district court. The crime he was accused of was two tweets in which Hopkins included images of his book title “The rise of the New Normal Reich,” which depicted a mask with a “translucent” swastika. In her verdict, the judge stated that she considered Hopkins’ statements in his closing argument to be literally “ideological nonsense” - but such was not punishable. Their acquittal would reflect that he was wrong and that we are not in a “totalitarian system” as Hopkins claims. The judge did not want to be photographed by the press before the trial began, which is usually the case. At the end of the hearing she left the room wearing an FFP2 mask. It can be assumed that the judge feared the international press response that would come from an internationally well-connected American author whose case had already been reported on by the New York Times. If she were convicted, she would have proven Hopkins’ statements right and Germany might have fallen into disrepute internationally because of state-orchestrated attacks on opposition figures. The acquittal is to be welcomed, but it may only be due to international pressure. Numerous judgments are currently being made against opposition journalists in Germany for allegedly criminally spreading anti-constitutional symbols; a case that I personally know of will not be heard again in Bavaria until next week. Opposition members in Germany are REGULARLY accused and convicted under the pretext of this crime, which I can personally attest to. Opposition members without an international background do not enjoy Hopkins’ “protection by international publicity” and have been routinely convicted in Germany since 2020 for the alleged criminal offense of “spreading unconstitutional symbols” when, for example, they publish historical reports on the “Third Reich” and in this context - which actually does not fall under the criminal offense of distribution - a swastika appears figuratively somewhere. Mr. Böhmermann and the public media, on the other hand, are allowed to throw around swastikas - satirically, journalistically, in any context - and they are neither ever in court for it nor are they ever convicted for it. Equality before the law has become porous in Germany - even though it seemed very important to the judge today that this does not reach the international media. A detailed process report will follow shortly.