Unspeakable (Censorship)

 

“UNSPEAKABLE”


As a writer of many a controversial subject, I have always fell victim of the censors. Yet, never as bad as the systems attempt to silence me on a cold winters night back in November 2008.

Upon leaving a local supermarket one Friday night I noticed a couple police cars fly past me, I thought nothing of it and kept on walking. All of a sudden, out of know where, I felt myself falling to the floor at pace, within the blink of an eye to my despair I was rumbled into the back of an unmarked police vehicle.

It was like some kind of crazy kidnapping attempt from a scene in some budget B movie.

Clueless to my fate, I was driven to Basildon Police Station where I was read my three charges:

Threats to Kill

Slander

Harassment

Wait for it!

Via poetry and rap lyrics...Wow!

Chamillionaire was right, the hip-hop police do exist, going home tonight, I wouldn't be.

The following Monday morning I was up in front of the judge at magistrates, my charges read out... amused by the seriousness of it all, I laughed out loud.

It was at that point the judge spoke,

"Mr Dunne you are hereby remanded by the court!!"

My heart sunk, this just got very real indeed. No longer amused was I.

According to my solicitor, I was looking at between nine and eleven years for the three charges for hip-hop lyrics and poetry.

How could this even be???

It turned out my own father had reported me to the Hate Crime Unit in Grays, Essex, after reading the endless amounts of writing I had published on the internet, detailing his abuse towards me as a child and the disowning of his first and only grandchild at birth. The reason being, the tone of her skin, mixed race!!

Remanded in Chelmsford prison for total of 26 days, I was then bailed to appear in Crown court, the following June of 2009.
The judge's speech was as follows:
"Mr Dunne, you set out to destroy your parents with poetry and rap lyrics. You succeeded and that's why we are here today!"
What a great quote for my book, I thought lol...
After five days continuous in crown, the threats to kill and slander charges were dropped, thankfully, yet the harassment charge wasn't. I was charged with harassment through poetry and was given; a 2 year suspended sentence, 180 hours community service AND a FIVE YEAR POETRY AND RAP CENSORSHIP!!
The first of its kind in the country!!
I was banned from recording, writing, performing & publishing, the whole works.

This basically meant I was banned from telling my childhood story, talking about the racism within my family towards my daughter or even mentioning my father's name, whatsoever for a total of five years.

I was even banned from drawing offensive pictures and returning to the village I grew up in, both of which I had never done lol. Of course I breeched absolutely everything I was told not to and carried on writing, naming and shaming those involved on many different social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube & Writers Cafe, where I become one of the top five writers on the page by 2013.

I was constantly harassed within the first few months of my censorship by an officer known as PC Arthur, from Grays Hate Crime Unit. The same officer who was assigned to my case and had shoved previously unseen photos of my daughter in my face during the interview process, as to provoke a reaction from me. Well he sure got his just deserts, when I continually lyrically mocked him on the net for months, until the point he had taken long leave due to stress, true story! Lol.
Mr Dunne 1, Grays Police 0.

As you can probably tell by now, I'm not the type of man to take censorship seriously. The way I see it if you're big and brave enough to pick on and try to destroy a child through manipulative, narcissist actions, then you should be man enough to take the exposing and retribution on the chin. Yet with all cowards and abusers, silence is what they demand as the truth is what they fear the most.
With this in mind, as with any social injustice, this is how I will strike back at the censors.

Firstly Censorship of any form of literature never works.
Whether a paragraph from a book or the whole book itself, the act of censorship only gives the original text a newfound mystery. No matter the subject or how offensive it is deemed to be, altering any material only makes the original seem a lot more alluring.
A great example is the film, Clockwork Orange.

Throughout the years, I have read of endless writers having their material censored, for both political and non-political reasons, many of which have lead to the authors being imprisoned for their actions, some of which will never be released.

Whilst researching the topic of censorship, I can honestly say I'm in total shock to how many well know books have been censored or ultimately banned from existence.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and Little Red Riding Hood by The Brothers Grimm being just two of the titles to have been censored.

As expected, there's also a huge back catalogue of artists who've had their songs censored, from Greased Lightning by John Travolta to Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, Love Game by Lady Gaga to In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins!
Even the multi-platinum selling hit “Rolling in the Deep” by the extremely talented Adele has been a victim of the censors!! Isn't nobody safe?!?

Others in this list include, Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Imagine by John Lennon, the highly controversial God Save the Queen by The Sex Pistols and The Real Slim Shady by Eminem.
The list in its full entirety is truly an eye opener and well worth a read, music fan or not!!

Those who enforce censorship are basically saying two things, yes it happened but we will not allow you to tell anybody. Isn't that the same MO of a sexual predator, just a thought...?

This brings me to the second part of the subject, those who enable the censors.
Censorship could not and would not exist in today's world, if the censorship itself was rejected.
As with any man made law, each individual law can only thrive when the masses adhere to the demands of the draconian elite and it's constant efforts to suppress public information, which all of mankind have the right to access, whenever the need arises.

I for one will never be dictated to when it comes to what I can and can't write, now that is total freedom, one of their biggest fears when it comes to their need to control the people.
A free mind is a dangerous mind, whereas a caged mind can never be free of its owners.
Freedom is a must and together we must never give up, at the end of each day when the day is done, love and hope is all that we have......

I'm a strong believer in 'What Goes Around, Comes Around', as Karma itself is very real.

“The voiceless, will not be voiceless forever.”