this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2025
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Malicious Compliance

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People conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request. For now, this includes text posts, images, videos and links. Please ensure that the “malicious compliance” aspect is apparent - if you’re making a text post, be sure to explain this part; if it’s an image/video/link, use the “Body” field to elaborate.

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[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 226 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)
[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 169 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

About five minutes later, the arresting officer approached him again. “He said: ‘I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.’ I said: ‘What’s the good news?’ He said: ‘I’m de-arresting you.’

“And I said: ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me.’ And then I walked free, while all the real heroes are the people that are actually getting arrested.”

The officer seems to understand his mistake at least

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 86 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The poor copper lost all that time arresting a guy with Plasticine Action on his t-shirt only to have to de-arrest him when he could've been arresting an old lady with the words "Palestine Action" written down on a piece of paper for her to be prosecuted and maybe even get a jail sentence.

That mistake was making it hard for him to make his quota of arrests for that week, the poor bloke.

[–] callouscomic@lemmy.zip 25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (18 children)

This is why I always imagine it'd be funny to ask a cop "so how many murders got solved this week?" whenever they're wasting time on mundane shit.

I've never had an interaction with a cop where they didn't make it unnecessarily intense.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Their job is not to solve crimes, their job is to get people convicted, the subtle difference being that they'll turn non-crimes into crimes (for example, they'll chose to legally interpret things which can go both ways as crimes which require prosecution, which is why one often sees kids criminalized for childish bullshit) and it doesn't matter if the person convicted is innocent, all that matters is that somebody got convicted (so, for example, they won't try and find exonerating evidence).

This partly explains their tendency to take an adversarial posture towards people who aren't from their group, also partly explained because that posture itself indirectly feeds back on them (people are weary of them because of how act towards the general public, which in turn makes them feel apart and suspicious hence they behave even more so) and partly because they do tend to get exposed far more than most people to the seedy side of humanity all with a judgemental mindset and an aim to see crimes, so even a lot of the stuff they see which most people think is just silly fun (say, most drunkenness), they'll see as crimes.

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[–] ExhaleSmile@lemmy.world 123 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Pardon my ignorance, but is wearing a shirt with the word Palestine on it and arrestable offense in England?

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 170 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Palestine Action yes. An activism organization called Palestine Action was classified as a terrorist organization a few weeks ago by the UK government.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 120 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Y'all seem to have a lot going on across the pond, what with "who's a terrorist," or "is this dystopian?"

Have y'all considered electing a terrorist leader so that you instantly know the answers to those questions?

We are all domestic terrorists

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 17 points 2 weeks ago

Ah yes, the accelerationist approach. Fight fire with fire, etc. Let's see how it pans out!

[–] ExhaleSmile@lemmy.world 34 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Ah, thanks for the explanation

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 91 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Some people of Palestine Action threw ink on a military plane parked on some airbase which is normally used for the surveillance flights of Gaza that the UK is doing to give the data to Israel, hence they were officially classified by the Home Secretary - Yvette Cooper - as "terrorist group" via a process which has no strict well defined criteria or Judicial oversight at all.

Because of that anybody who supports them in any way (including merelly voicing their support for them or holding a written paper with the name of the group) risks a prison sentence of (if I remember it correctly) up to 10 years.

Hence in the UK wearing a t-shirt with the words "Palestine Action" in it is a terrorist offense with a prision sentense of up to 10 years: it's all pretty similar to the legislation Putin has to stop people in Russia demonstrating against the invasion of Ukraine, only I believe the prison sentences in Russia are actually lower.

(Britain isn't quite at the "hold up blank piece of paper" stage like Russia yet, but judging by the copper arresting somebody wearing a "Plasticine Action" t-shirt, the police are already thinking along similar lines - the coppers in Britain are well aware that their job is to "serve the powerful" not "serve the public")

Britain is a complete total authoritarian clown shown nowadays, though this shit is a pretty natural stage in the evolution of authoritarianism and represssion masquerading as Rule Of Law over there since around Tony Blair's time.

[–] sad_detective_man@leminal.space 57 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

so weird how we've mangled the word terrorism around to mean impeding a military machine or body. maybe this is just my brain turning to worm food but I could have swore it was explicitly when you kill civilians or destroy infrastructure in order to coerce a policy change. but that alteration probably wasn't intentional or for any specific purpose.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 31 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

25 years ago, the day I stopped watching TV news- the dramatic talking head told me that terrorists had attacked a US military base in Afganistan.

[–] sad_detective_man@leminal.space 24 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

oof. yeah. I don't like pointing at 9/11 and desert storm as the time when it changed but it REALLY seems like that was when it changed. I was 9 and got in a lot of trouble for not saying the pledge of allegiance and even though I was way to young to have a real opinion bback then you really can't fault anyone for coming to the conclusion that we might be the fucking baddies

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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

By an amazing coincidence over-broad legislation made on top of a legally undefined word ended up used against things and groups which weren't at all the claimed targets of that legislation.

This was also totally unexpected and nobody could ever had foreseen how they could be leveraged for such uses when those laws were first drafted and approved.

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[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 16 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah it's supposed to be the use of violence to spread fear, usually for some political aim. I guess we're counting "violence" against property now too 🙄

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[–] obinice@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago

They graffitied two planes in protest against England's support of Israel's genocide, which makes them evil dangerous terrorists!

Not that I'd support them of course, I'm no terrorist - I fully support whatever genocides my country wants to participate in please do not gulag me Kid Starver oh no he's in the hou

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[–] Acamon@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago

Pretty sure that's Scotland, not England (Glasgow to be specific). But yeah, the British government decided carrying a Palestine Action sign was basically terrorism.

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[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 109 points 2 weeks ago (35 children)

I've got a friend trying to move from the United States to England to escape our current shit show, and I've been telling him that England tends to do what America does, just with a posh accent to give it an air of legitimacy.

[–] huppakee@feddit.nl 38 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

If you think they do it with a posh accent you've not been to England lol

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago

I'm mainly thinking of Tony Blair making the same case for invading Iraq that George W. Bush was, just with the accent.

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[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 89 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

It’s already working. Due to the terrorism claims, each of these arrests requires a special review, and the system is being overwhelmed. Get a few more hundred or thousands of people to get an arrest for this, and the whole government scheme will have to be abandoned, because there will be no practical way for system to follow the required procedures for each case.

[–] Bamboodpanda@lemmy.world 46 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Fascists get pretty clever at solving that problem. They create these camps where they can just concentrate them in one place.

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[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

See how that worked out for USA, when push came to shove - the law was abandoned.

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[–] Banzai51@midwest.social 73 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

You have the right to free speech...as long as... you're not dumb enough to actually try it.

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[–] Metostopholes@midwest.social 57 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Not fans of claymation, I guess.

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 96 points 2 weeks ago

Not fans of AI, actually. Under the Plasticine Action, it says "WE OPPOSE AI GENERATED ANIMATION"

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[–] callouscomic@lemmy.zip 54 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

In what other profession are you allowed to just stand there in public with a constant hand on someone?

[–] JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world 61 points 2 weeks ago

Who is Donald Trump on Jeffrey Epstein’s island, Alex.

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 32 points 2 weeks ago

Pal,It'sTime ~for~ Action

Oh sorry didn't see you there officer, I was just saying its time for my #sick dance 🕺 moves, is dancing a crime, officer? 😏

[–] wulrus@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

To be fair, the (good) British cops are by far not as likely to assault an innocent person as many others. But they do love to stop you and have a chat if even the tiniest thing stands out. I once walked around London, 15 years old, with toy handcuffs on one wrist. Cop came up to me and wanted to know the whole story, like one of those super-chatty people. Where are you from, how old, name, where are the cuffs from, why am I wearing them right now at this moment, ...

He seemed happy with the answers, and we both moved on.

Well, it's still a bother, especially when you are not free to walk away at any moment.

[–] Doorbook@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago

If the toy looked like the real thing, You are 15, an underage with handcuffs, for all he know someone was trying to keep you captive and you manage to get out or you plan to cause damage and handdcuff someone. Good for him to make sure no one actually was hurting you..

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah before anybody spoke I was fairly clued in that this was not America by the fact that the cops were just standing there acting chill instead of holding him on the ground and screaming at him to stop resisting arrest.

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[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Palestinian Faction is still allowed, no?

[–] bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Would have also taken Pleistocene reaction.

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[–] themaninblack@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

British authorities: you not only have to decide that approximations of a representation of an outlawed group are illegal, which is shaky ground at best, but you would also have to decide that open support of a group that is guilty only of vandalism of military assets is also illegal. To do so, without encroaching on the fucking Magna Carta, which y’all invented, would require an assertion that direct action on behalf of a subset of members of the group disallows the freedom of expression to support the group writ large.

UPDATE: apparently the Magna Carta had to deal with power dynamics between the crown and various lords but was symbolic in that it reduced the power of the crown in its formerly dictatorial approach.

Apparently censorship is a complex ass topic in English history and has undergone continuous stepwise changes over the centuries, in areas as diverse as theatrical plays, print media, and speakers corners in Hyde park.

Y’all still be a bunch of bitches when it comes to freedom of expression though. The country of Orwell my hairy ass.

[–] Codandchips@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago

Are you sure it's the T Shirt and not those socks they're arresting him for...?

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Someone should make a TMHT shirt with "Plastron Action" on it.

I won't, 'cause I don't live in the UK.

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