Equality Before the Law?

"Hate" crime one:

A churchgoer who left pork products outside a mosque during a hate campaign against Muslims has been put behind bars.

John White, 63, left rashers of bacon outside the religious building in South Shields, and similar products outside worshippers' homes.

'Such foul discrimination is offensive to all right minded people, regardless of their religious beliefs.'

But the judge said White, who lives near the mosque and has attended a church in the same street for over 30 years, must be kept in custody until he is sentenced in September.

So, White will be kept in prison until his sentence is passed in September - for 5 counts of "religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress."

Whilst I don't condone what he did, I'm convinced the courts have set far more dangerous and criminally minded people free to walk amongst us - is he really a huge threat to society?

"Hate" crime two:

A taxi driver ranted racial abuse outside a Jewish school after getting stuck in a traffic jam.

Taha Osman shrieked ‘All Jewish children must die!’ after his car was hemmed in by parents picking up pupils outside King David School in Crumpsall.

Two mums on the school run and a teaching assistant were singled out in a foul-mouthed and ‘frightening’ tirade witnessed by kids, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Osman – an Iraqi Kurd who has settled in Britain – also shouted that Jewish people were ‘animals’ who ‘should not be allowed in this country’.

Say what you like about this chap, but he certainly doesn't do irony, does he?

The 36-year-old denied causing religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress in a trial, but was found guilty by the jury.

The court heard Osman launched his tirade on October 5, after a traffic jam formed on Seymour Road outside King David School.

Osman was on his way to Tesco when he got stuck in the congestion lost his temper at the driver in front of him, Sigal Bar-Ilan.

Caroline Franks told the court that she had collected her children, aged four and six, from the school, when she saw him shouting at Mrs Bar-Ilan.

When Mrs Franks got out of her vehicle to help the woman manoeuvre her car, Osman screamed vile racial insults at them both.

Mrs Bar-Ilan said her daughter began to cry and her son asked ‘Why’s the man shouting at you mummy?’ She told the jury the incident ‘scared the hell out of my children and out of me’.

Mrs Franks said the abuse continued even after she got back in her car, and Joanne Cantor, a teaching assistant, said she was ‘shocked’ by the rant, which led the victims to contact people.

Sentencing Osman, of Roch Bank, Blackley, Judge Stockdale said that his language had been of the ‘utmost offensiveness’.

He added: “Your rant on that afternoon crossed the boundary between what would have been ill-mannered, foul-mouthed loutish behaviour into the territory of criminal behaviour.

So, White admitted the charges against him, wasn't actually threatening or abusive to anyone, and seems to be a man with mental health issues who bizarrely thought leaving pork outside a mosque was some sort of revenge for the poppy-burning protest held by Muslims in London on Remembrance Day last year.

Osman genuinely has a violent hatred for a certain section of British society, and seems to be a man whose temper is on a knife-edge, even around children - plus he denied the charges against him and had to be subject to an expensive trial.

What penalty did Osman receive?

Sentencing him to a community order, Judge David Stockdale QC said it was a ‘particularly nasty offence’ – but did not warrant a jail sentence.

Of course it didn't.

In fact, many would probably be surprised at just what doesn't "warrant a jail sentence" in New Britain. Just so long as you keep those packets of bacon to yourself, you can pretty much do what you like.

It really is beginning to look like some thought criminals are more equal than others, isn't it?