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.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    12·
    1 day 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.