The Brazilian courts sentenced Leo Lins, a comedian, to 8 years for so-called racial crimes. It’s still under appeal, but this just shows the Americans are right to keep a close eye on high-level Brazilian officials. I’m not even a big fan of his type of humor, so I don’t watch it, but we’re supposed to live in countries with free speech, and that freedom is seriously fading.
What’s even crazier is that he got sentenced under a law that didn’t even exist when he made the joke. Like, come on, with that logic, anyone could be thrown in jail. Their excuse? The video is still up on YouTube, so they claim it counts as ongoing.
It sucks to see Brazil heading down this road. I’m dropping the court ruling PDF in Portuguese for whoever wants to check it out.