Jacob Hersan is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday and could face 12 months in prison and a fine.

A self-described Nazi on Tuesday became the first person convicted in the Australian state of Victoria of performing an outlawed Nazi salute.

Jacob Hersant, 25, gave the salute and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in front of news media cameras outside the Victoria County Court on Oct. 27, 2023, after he had appeared on a unrelated charge. It was six days after the Victoria state government had made the salute illegal.

The Federal Parliament passed legislation in December that outlawed nationwide performing the Nazi salute in public or to publicly display, or trade in, Nazi hate symbols.

A Melbourne magistrate found Hersant guilty, dismissing defense lawyers’ arguments that the gesture wasn’t a salute and that the ban unconstitutionally infringed upon Hersant’s implied freedom of political communication.

    • metaStatic@kbin.earth
      0·
      2 months ago

      The generation that dealt with Nazis didn’t teach their children about bayonets, and here we are again learning the hard way.

    • RegalPotoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Strongly agree. The fact that a nazi shithead felt safe enough to out himself in public means that more nazis need to be seeing public consequences for being hate filled oxygen thieves.

      Being a nazi should be like being a pedo; you should be living in constant fear that someone is going to find out and that when you eventually get out of prison your friends, family and society at large want nothing to do with you

        • pyre@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          when people talk about pedophilia in this context they usually mean child predation, not the psychological condition. I doubt anyone cares if you have this as a condition but seek help for it without violating anyone.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
            0·
            2 months ago

            Of course, we need to destigmatize the idea that someone who has sexual thoughts about children is automatically a monster first. People with such thoughts that have never acted on them don’t seek help precisely for that reason.

            I wish there were some sort of public campaign to get people who have not acted on those thoughts to get the help they need, but I have a feeling that such a campaign would get a huge amount of negative pushback from people who say that you’re just enabling pedophilia or something.

  • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.ccEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Obviously this guy is a scum bag but what even is his angle here?

    “look at me being punished for breaking this law everyone universally thinks is a great idea”

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      It’s the Jordan Peterson tactic. Except unlike Peterson, there actually are consequences when you do the thing this asshole did.

  • metaStatic@kbin.earth
    0·
    2 months ago

    didn’t even clear his shoulder, fuckin’ weak attempt. if he hadn’t said hail Hitler I don’t think anyone would have mistaken it for a salute.

  • fluxion@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    We’re gonna need a new punk rock movement to get all these nazi punks to fuck off

  • StarlightDust@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    The thing is: that Nazi scum will now be placed in an enclosed space that is full of marginalised people by going to prison. His time in there with them will perpetuate the culture of harm and discrimination.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.ccEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Imprisonment is always the least-bad option out of a bunch of bad options.

      I’m not really into the “send a message” aspect of punishment, I don’t want this guy punished so that others of similar mind fear being punished.

      However, I’m glad that his imprisonment clearly demonstrates that our society has resolved that nazism will not be tolerated.

      If the price is this idiot being more extremified then so be it.

  • Foni@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    A stupid man does stupid things and has real consequences. Anyone who is not stupid, even if he is a Nazi, will not have these problems

  • flubba86@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    How the heck is he 25? Dude has bushy old-man eyebrows and greying hair. He looks 55, not 25.

    • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      While I agree on him, some people do grey early. I started around 15 or so, and my father around 13. I still think some of his other features make him seem older as well though, like the eyebrows you mentioned.

    • tlou3please@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      I’m in my 20s and always thought I was aging pretty badly but jeez yeah he fully looks mid to late 40s. A good mid to late 40s but definitely no younger if I were to guess.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I saw the picture and my brain filled it with…first Prime minister… And I was bummed 😞. Not Australia! Then I finished reading and that made me jump like a kangaroo 🦘. You guys rock! Don’t let a Trump ruin your nation too!