Poland Imposes Strict Ban on Communist Symbols

[Chris]

WARSAW, Poland —  Poland's president has approved legislation that allows for people to be fined or even imprisoned for possessing or buying communist symbols, two decades after communist rule ended.

The new law says that people who posses, purchase or spread items or recordings containing communist symbols could be fined or be imprisoned for up two years.

The new law has drawn criticism from left-wing lawmakers and other observers who say it is ill-defined and will be hard to implement. The law does not list the banned symbols and it also exempts from punishment their use for artistic, educational or collectors' purposes.

The legislation was initiated by Law and Justice, a right-wing opposition party that President Lech Kaczynski helped found and which has sought to purge Poland of the legacy of four decades of communist rule. The law was also supported by the governing Civic Platform party.

The law expands on legislation that already made it a crime to promote Nazism or other totalitarian systems. Communist symbols, however, were not specifically named in the earlier legislation.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577305,00.html

[Baruch Menachem]

I hope the Che Gueverra T shirt is included in that.  For some reason that really bugs me.

Idiotic law though.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

No more Obama posters?

[Chris_]

Idiotic law though.

Perhaps not so much if you were under the heel of a Russian boot since 1945..........

doc

[Baruch Menachem]

It bugs me that communists gets a pass, even though they have been worse than the other types of fascist creeps of the 20th Century. The Che T shirts really bug me in a big way.... What kind of moran would wear a shirt with a picture of Horst Wessel on it, but that was the role Che played.

The article noted that the law is modeled after a similar law in Germany regarding Nazi symbols. 

I agree that the commies were and are scum, but the whole reason we despise them is they try and do our thinking for us.   This law does not really move anything forward.  I can understand the pain that caused this, but this is kind of like kicking the chair you fell over while walking in a dark room.  It does no damage to the chair, but it makes your foot hurt twice as badly.