by Marc J. Randazza
Lèse-majesté means “to do wrong to majesty.” It is an offense in many countries to insult or offend the sovereign.
Famous Examples
In North Korea, as you can imagine, any insult toward Kim Jong-un or one of his ancestors will land your ass in hot water. That hot water is probably going to be in a work camp.
Ok, but that’s North Korea. This doesn’t happen in the “civilized world,” does it?
I dunno, Thailand “civilized” enough for you? A US citizen linked from his blog to an unauthorized biography of the Thai king and faced 15 years in prison. More recently, Wanchaleom Jamneanphol was charged with lèse-majesté for calling a princess’ dress “ugly.”
In the Netherlands, a man got a week in prison for calling Queen Beatrix a “whore” and another man got a month for “intentionally insulting King Wilem-Alexander. The Netherlands has, however, repealed its lèse-majesté law as of 2020.
But not here, right?
Certainly, this does not happen in the United States, though, right? Well, no … we have no such law on our books, but we most certainly have a shadow lèse-majesté regime in place. I’ll show you two examples, one from the left and one from the right, so you don’t think this is a monopartisan problem.
Today, the news is abuzz with a man charged with assault. Why? Because he tapped Giuliani on the back while saying “what’s up, scumbag?” Giuliani claims that it caused severe injuries, but apparently ol dribblehead didn’t realize that there was surveillance video that shows how hard he was lying. Of course, any cop on the scene, including those who arrested the man, would have seen the lie for what it was. You think that Giuliani would have had the man charged if he had slapped him on the back and said “attaboy, you go get those liberal fucks, Rudy!” ? No, not for a moment.
And from the left, I give you Rachel Rollins, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts (at the time, she was the D.A. for Suffolk County, Massachusetts.
Hear that guy in the background heckling her?
For that, he faced 10 years in prison.
10 fucking years in prison.
Why? Because Rachel Rollins didn’t like being challenged. You think if he had been there cheering for Rollins, he would have been charged? Not in a million years. But, Rollins had her cronies prosecute him – and I am proud to say that I got the charges dismissed. The entire case file is here, if you want all the receipts. When the case was going on, the Boston Globe stuffed the story, but Reason.com and Turtleboy had the courage to report on it.
Not to sprain my elbow patting myself on the back, but, what if nobody had stepped up to represent DePina pro bono? Do you think he would be free now, or would he have been coerced into pleading to some lesser charge?
Giuliani and Rollins are both examples of thin skinned scum who abuse their power.
You insult either of them at your peril.
Lèse-majesté in the United States.
