Trade215:

“The police hierarchy should have clarified this with the prosecutor FIRST.”

Absolutely!

Why couldn’t an opinion have been sought from the DPP or a magistrate, quickly, without the disruption of the exhibition, let alone the confiscation of artworks?

Was it just extraordinary incompetence?

Was it a belief within the police force that they can act with impunity, without having to know or care about the full context of their actions or whether they are in fact acting against illegal activity or just against the possibility of illegal activity?

Was it connected to the war on porn? Would it have happened if there hadn’t been a major sting operation underway to net hundreds of people who have accessed child porn on the internet?

What ever the case, the police action was entirely vile, and grossly unacceptable.

"Could the wowsers and hysterics get down from their soapboxes now?"
Posted by CJ Morgan, Friday, 6 June 2008 4:12:40 PM

Well there you go.
It really doesn't do to disagree with the elite and liberated does it?

This is a discussion forum.
I have a right to disagree with you if I wish. And I do.

That has subjected myself and others to accusations of seeing adolescent bodies as dirty;-and somewhat paradoxically;-condoning pornography!

It is noticeable that those who opposed Hensonart, are largely missing from this thread.
Is it really because the charges against the man have been dropped? Do you really believe that the dropping of criminal charges would alter my view? How naivé.

Or, could it be that those who have opposed this so-called art have been subjected to some fairly strong denigration, and are reluctant to continue to be categorized as they have done?

Ginx, i think the raiding of the galleries, all to the drumbeat of a crusading media, can fairly be characterised as wowserish and hysterical. you are free to argue against it. but those are descriptive terms, not merely derogatory.

i agree that the absence here of supporters of hetty, or her article, is peculiar. (not that i find much to support). is it because people are being shouted down? possibly. but a lot of yelling goes on in OLO, and i don't see that it diminishes the responding.

Perhaps the point is that Hetty's article trumpets "the debate we had to have", but her actions weren't about debate: they were about promoting a police action doomed to absurdity. perhaps her creation of a prosecutorial farce has distracted everyone from whatever debate we had to have.

CJ's post was gloating, but why shouldn't it be? for anybody who looked at the law, it was always completely obvious that henson couldn't be found guilty. it was simply a question of time, and how many people could look how foolish before it happened.

If you want to argue something, argue it. but as far as i can see, CJ has described the whole episode, and its promoters, pithily and perfectly.

BB, I have read your posts on this matter, and as such find your response to me entirely predictable.

I have nothing further to add to what I have said in my previous post.

"I'm hoping now that the Classification Board has made its very sensible judgment that these images are "mild" - at most "moderately" offensive - and do not show their subjects as sexualised "in any way whatsoever", a little bit of sanity will prevail in this debate. "

The 'mild' Henson material has been classified as child pornography elsewhere, and that makes Henson what there?.

I didn't see you give Rudd much scope for free speech. The sign-ons to your letter were a pack of hypocrtites. In my opinion it is only a matter of time before the police in a more enlightened jurisdiction come to terms Mr. Henson.

Bill Henson's full-frontal nudes kept out the back
NEWS.com.au, Australia - Jun 6, 2008
By Kara Lawrence and Michelle Cazzulino FULL-frontal photos by Bill Henson of a 12-year-old boy displaying his genitalia were kept from public display by a ...
Henson saved full frontal nude photos from public view Scopical
Henson's photographs also contained naked boys LIVENEWS.com.au
all 449 news articles »

So a rich pedophile with an interest in little boys gets to go out back for a gawk at the secret stash? What did the classification board give for those?

I think you will find that Henson has his geography seriously restricted from this point on, he can hardly exhibit in countries which have branded his 'mild' material child pornography can he?

ginx, that's fine. that's your choice.

i'm sorry to be predictable, and thus boring. (i guess at least i'm consistent). it is probably true that i've said the little i have to say on this issue once (at least) too often.