A court in the United Kingdom has jailed a homeless man because he had thrown away poppies used to remember wars Britain has contributed to.
The magistrates in Wiltshire, in southern England, ruled that Ashwani Kumar, 54, should spend eight weeks in jail for disrespecting the remembrance poppies that had been put on a war memorial in Swindon.
Police had described the act of throwing the wreaths of poppies around Cenotaph War Memorial in Regent Circus last weekend as “a total disgrace”, saying it was an act of vandalism. Local media also condemned the move, saying it had caused a “huge amount of upset” in the local community”.
However, the imprisonment comes as many in the UK are opposed to the use of poppies and even campaign against it, arguing it is an instrument for cleansing Britain’s history of contribution to brutal wars.
Anti-poppy campaigners also believe that the remembrance object is dubiously used by politicians to sell…