Lars Vilks, one of many artists threatened over a Muhammad drawing, finished his lecture at Uppsala University in Sweden yesterday.
Total cost for 130 police officers and additional guards? Nearly 800,000 SEK (or $120,125.60 US dollars).
According to reader Richard:
The basic law is something like this: if someone is threatened for expressing themselves (in whatever way they may choose) the state will protect that persons person in all of her/his actions.
Trivial conclusion: There’s a cost to these threats even if we refuse to give in. If we give in, we lose the morals which makes our society great. If we don’t, we’ll have to pay for it by increasing security.
The cost of free speech is not just in our minds — people aggressively trying to stop free speech also cost us in tax money.
It raises an interesting question:
How much should the government and universities pay before we either take some sort of action against the terrorism or give in and not speak?