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Police Director Sues AOL For Critical Blogger's Name

Pippin writes "Memphis Police Director, Larry Godwin, is suing AOL for the names of the authors of the Enforcer 2.0 blog. The blog is rumored to be authored by a Memphis police officer, and is critical of the department, Godwin, and some procedures. Godwin is actually using taxpayer dollars for this and, interestingly, the complaint is sealed".

7 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Anon blogs may be best way to curtail abuse by SloWave · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Though most policemen are good people, I've heard stories of various 'Rambos' and other scummy types in police departments that would give the Zimbabwe PD a good run for the money. Most of these abuses are not reported by other cops because of guaranteed retribution. We need the anonymous blogs to get this crap in the open and dealt with. This case needs to be unsealed (public office after-all) and dealt with fairly.

  2. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by locofungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In an infinitely long thread, you are absolutely certain to have at least one mention of every single concept, object, philosophy and idea ever known to humanity, because of the way probability works.

    Only if the thread is irrational (just like you can find any combination of numbers in pi or e). In a nice, rational thread, you'll eventually get repetitions and the thread will loop back to itself.

    This doesn't follow at all.

    Liouville's constant is not only irrational, it's transcendental. But it only contains the digits 0 and 1.

    Tim.

    --
    God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = -@B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t," and there was light.
  3. Police need protection from the police by unlametheweak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So now the police need protection from the police. The privacy issues which they seek to deny civilians in the pursuit of justice they will adamantly defend for themselves. Of course there is a difference between Managers and Employees, but the symbolism is striking.

  4. Re:just flame a little more carefully by speedtux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Everything I ever say is either my opinion (what else should it be?) or it is the opinion of someone else,

    And it is your responsibility to make the distinction when you speak:

    "He committed this illegal act." (Implies "in the opinion of the people making up the legal system", which is the opinion that counts.)

    "I believe he committed this illegal act." (In your opinion, which probably doesn't count.)

    "The NYT reports that he commited this illegal act." (The NYT opinion, let them worry about it.)

    That's what it's all about: tell your audience whose opinion it is. That's your responsibility.

    Most statements imply whose opinion it actually is if you don't qualify them, and it's often not the speaker's.

  5. Re:Anyone else over the internet? by kaos07 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The interesting part is that unlike a news paper the company hosting the site doesn't have a great financial interest in free speech.

    Actually, they do.

    Bloggers don't want their opinions and views to be silenced by "the man". If AOL gets a reputation as a company all too willing to help hush-hush bloggers (The people who bring traffic and revenue to their site), they'll experience a backlash.

  6. Re:Send Larry the legal bill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    if they are merely critical of Larry then they should be encouraged at their efforts to improve the police service.

    But that's not the American way, sue sue sue is how its done these days

  7. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by ZombieWomble · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What the GP was thinking of was, I believe, normal numbers, which are defined as those whose digits have a uniform distribution. Obviously all normal numbers are irrational, but not all irrational numbers are normal, as you point out.