Eivind Berge, the Norwegian Men’s Rights blogger who was arrested after making repeated death threats against police on his blog, has been released from jail. The country’s Supreme Court has ruled that his comments – in which, among other things, he talked about how killing police was on his “bucket list” – are not illegal. His property will be returned to him and he is evidently entitled to compensation for his time in jail.
As far as I can figure it from the Google-translated articles I’ve read, the Supreme Court has ruled that statements on the internet are not “public” and therefore his threats don’t count as “incitement” under the law. Here’s what one article says:
Supreme Court’s Appeals Committee believes statements Berge has made on his blog are not covered by the Freedom of the definition in the Penal Code. incitement to violence and murder of police officers are therefore not presented publicly in the legal sense and therefore is not criminal, says the Supreme Court.
Apparently the issue was a fairly narrow legal one. According to the same article, the law under which he was prosecuted (written long before the birth of the Internet) “operates with a public safety and publishing concept that … do not take account of electronic publishing on the Internet.” The majority on the Supreme Court, the article goes on to say, felt that “the indictment includes actions that are clearly worthy of punishment,” but that existing law does not allow punishment for statements made on the Internet.
If anyone here knows Norwegian, let me know if this is correct. Here and here are several more articles in Norwegian, translated by Google. Here’s an article in English, written before the Supreme Court rendered its judgment, that spells out the issues a little more clearly.
On his blog, Berge celebrates his victory in the courts:
My blog is legal after all. The police had no lawful basis for pursuing criminal charges against me. This means the case has collapsed for the prosecution and I will be entitled to compensation for the three weeks I spent in prison. I was arrested and jailed for speech which the Supreme Court has ruled is legal, so obviously the entire prosecution was utterly baseless.
He considers his release a giant victory for Men’s Rights:
Being a political prisoner provided a welcome boost to my activism. … The entire process has been tremendously empowering for the Men’s Rights Movement. This spectacular prosecution of an MRA sparked debate and demonstrated to the horror of the feminist establishment that there are more antifeminists out there than they knew. I am not some kind of extremist easily dismissed, even though some of my writings may appear somewhat ungenteel. While my kind of violent rhetoric is legal, it is no longer needed. We are strong enough to fight feminism in more elegant and subtle ways now.
I will highlight some of Berge’s “ungenteel” opinions in future posts.
See here and here for previous posts of mine on Berge, which include many examples of his “violent rhetoric.”
Rutee, it’s not the guards who view them that way…..It’s the other prisoners. Many large state prisons in the US are overcrowded and so the guards essentially permit inmates to form their own social order because that makes their job easier. And if you think american prisons are bad, you should hear about African prisons! They are 1000 times worse when it comes to Rape. The most notorious being SAfrican prisons.
You grand idiot, I understand the premise. It’s generally accepted amonst law enforcement that child killers/rapists are the bottom of prison’s ‘hierarchy’ and cop killers are near the top of it, f’rex. I’ve never seen any evidence that these things are true, just as you’re not providing any now. And I’ve never heard of run of the mill rapists being anywhere near the bottom.
Look, idiot, you seem to think all prisons use the same hierarchy within the same country. Let me just cut to the chase; Prisons for women use ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MODELS OR ORIENTATION than ones for men. You don’t know shit about prison society, stop trying to pretend you do.
@hrovitnir I didn’t say rape was funny. Dopey. Talk about 1+1=5. Although if I were a police officer in Norway where this fuckwit publishes his inciteful opinions of violence against police officers, I would probably laugh my guts out if he phoned me for help .
And if you think a “gratuitous description of violence” = bleeding bum, don’t ever get hemorrhoids love. The gratuitous violence perpetrated on your nether regions will probably blow your lobe. Good grief.
Sandra: you used the image of someone getting raped as an Ironic Comeuppance. That’s treating rape as funny.
fuck off
Now that’s funny!
Truly the height of wit.
*Holds up a scorecard with a 5.2 on it*
Sandra: You made a joke of someone getting raped. You got called on it. Cope.
As to the question of hemorrhoids, dear heart, there is a difference… the “bleeding bum” you were saying you’d laugh about, is the result of a violent assault.
So, may you be unfucked the rest of your days.
Hey, David and others, it’s Robert. This is my new blog and I’ll be posting from here from now out.
Sorry, I still don’t see where he called for murder of police officers. I mean, I simply cannot equate hypothetic statements like “I will do that or you should do that if you were victim of psychiatry” with outright calling for murders of police officers. Obviously, the court couldn’t equate that either.
Mentioning that you’re watching somebody and 77 body bags is extremist rhetoric but again, I see no overt threat to the prosecutor. Imprisoning people is not a small deal and I see preventive imprisonment due to extremist rhetoric as a greater danger to society in the long run that Breivik’s murders were. It will eventually expand the definition of threat to where any controversy will be punished.
Sharculese, Berge himself explained that he wrote about being close to stabbing an officer who was dealing with drunk people after the event had transpired. That’s not a threat, he was talking about a past event.
Citizen Justin, I think you’re the one lacking awareness. Incel can certainly destoy the lives of men, if more men were unable to find even a short-term partner for extremely long periods of time there would be a lot more massacres and the society would be a lot more stable, with more men having nothing to lose.
I am an incel myself and I know it destroyed my life completely. I am also a member of an incel community and we have had suicides and suicide attempts. It’s heartless and stupid to say all of these events were due to depression alone and not caused by a long term deprivation when the men who commited/tried suicide themselves said it’s due to deprivation. Many were also unsuccessfuly treated for depression, which could not be removed because the underlying cause couldn’t be helped.
As for Breivik, Eivind Berge said that killing of kids is not a solution and that he does not justify that act. He said that he admires the brilliance of the plan ( but one can be an anti-nazi and still admire the brillance of Norway and France campaigns, for example) and Breivik’s handling of the psyhiatrists, which we both see as charlatans. Show me where he said he admires Breivik for what he did. He never said that.
weatherby,
(a) a Breivik admirer;-I explained why I don’t see he is a Breivik admirer and neither am I… I see Breivik as a political activist who chose violent means to promote his ideology. I oppose islamization of Europe as well but don’t think that violence is the answer. I don’t think he’s mentally ill and I have no emotional stance towards him.
(b) an aggressively outspoken rape apologist;- like somebody said, he considers rape a crime which is similar to affirmative action, as it makes men poorer and therefore unable to attract a woman, making them incel. I agree that incel as a painful as rape, if not worse, and will always defend that point. Eivind made a great point about rape being a trauma which doesn’t have to prevent you from having a normal sexual life and the which is left behind by time while incel follows you around, never stopping being a problem. However, I initally disagreed with him because I thought that men can be attractive despite the lack of monetary funds and socialy status. On the other hand, the more I get to know women more I think he might be right, most of them are extremely hypergamous.
(c) someone who has frequently fantasised about murdering policemen; I don’t hate policemen nor do I think much of them. I think he focuses too much on cops because they’re not the ones creating laws but I am not appaled by his views on them. Working a job connected to criminal law, I agree that their interrogation techniques are often dirty and designed to make the person admit non-existing crimes and am disgusted with the fact that they will always believe the female accuser but I can’t say I hate them. I just don’t care if he does.
(d) someone who has gloated about the death of actual policemen;- that’s to be expected if he hates them that much but, like I said, I have no problem with him hating them even if I don’t
(e) someone who has visited forums for male survivors of female sex abusers to tell them that they got “lucky”…- That was obviously obnoxius and stupid as many of them saw it as a painful and traumatizing experience. I agree that 14 year-old boys fucking their teacher are lucky and not victims of some statutory rape. However, even if Eivind thinks that unpleasant experiences during forced sexual encounter with a woman are merely assault I don’t see how assault victims are lucky. Maybe I got all that he meant wrong anyway, saw that ages ago.
“Jesus, Robert, I know MRAs have trouble with the concept of words meaning things, but come the fuck on.”
Yeah, MRAs don’t get the meaning of words, probably because they’re stupid utter redneck rapist scum. This is worthy of a blog whose name would be “Misandry. I mock it.” Btw I’m not really an MRA, I’m a lot more concerned with incel issues but certainly closer to anti-feminism, yes.
“Anybody who is okay with Anders Breivik is not ok to be in the general population.”
Brrrr, I would not like to live in your ideal world.
WTF
Dude, I think you’re likely incel because women meet you and see red flags and hear alarm bells — and they’re absolutely correct to stay far away. You can say and do all the “rights things” but it is very hard to hide these levels of self-absorption and WTFery.
This is my new blog and I’ll be posting from here from now out.
And you’re off to a great start with your first and only post, “Welcome to WordPress.com!”
I’ll give you four of those things, and it’s NOT redneck.
Snowy, could you please make an argumented refutation as to why incel isn’t as bad as rape? Try by not starting that incel doesn’t exist or that men are exclusively to blame for it or that prostitutes are a solution to incel. And, please, please, don’t say that incels should just be litte safe brainless worker beeswith no needs because that just shows how blind feminists are to human nature.
As for 14 year-old boys they enjoyed fucking an older woman and most of these “crimes” were reported by them bragging about it or through a third person finding out.
cloudiah, that’s simply a bunch of silly assumptions. You never met me in real life or even had a discussion with me online. Women reject me due to my inexperience, lack of seduction skills and neediness due to deprivation once I enter a relationship every few years. All of them see me as a nice guy friend material and I never talk about my beliefs I will soon expouse in my blog (I believe that the government should arrange dates for permanently incel men, who should also be helped by their parents).
hellkell’s post consists of plain insults. To be expected from most of people who come here.
On the other hand, if Snowy is a woman a concept of incel could be entirely alien to her….
Oh, take your tone trolling and your incel garbage over to your own blog where it belongs.
have you ever considered that your major issue with women is you say stupid shit like this?
this is rapist shit
Oh sure thing, I have an argumented refutation for you. Why don’t you fuck off to your pitiful blog you rape apologist shart? Does that meet with your approval, good sir?
guys his blog is called ‘government girlfriends’. that is the angle he is leading off with.
“Government Girlfriends,” LOL. The gov’t. can and should do a lot, but getting Robert’s lame ass a date is not one of them.
Holy crap, you’re one one the creepiest person I’ve ever seen on this blog. You actually need people to explain to you why rape is worse than not getting laid? Fuck off. And it’s far from being as horrible, but wtf is with incel thinking having issues finding a lover is just a man problem. These guys are incredibly self centered.
The incels who come here never go the fuck away, either.
In B4 “Women can have any man they want, WAAAAH!”