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Hosting a Highly Inflammatory Document?
IndianaKim writes "I have been asked if I can host or assist in hosting a highly inflammatory document that reflects poorly on a Police Department. I want to help, but I also do not want the headache and possible subjection to search warrants and/or illegal searches. The document is so inflammatory that it could interest the FBI and DoJ and cause them to investigate the government officials involved. I live in the same county, but not the same city, and therefore could be subject to a search (legal or not) by some of these government agencies. I have been asked to host it on a server outside of the US. At this time, I do not have the ability to do that, but I could set it up if I needed to. My question is: would you host it if you were asked? How would you go about protecting the document and yourself?"
This document is "so inflamatory it might interest the DoJ or FBI"?
Then send it to them. Or, if it's valid at all, send it to the closest trustworthy newspaper you can find. Or if nothing else, HIRE A CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER so you know where the line is where you need to stop -- and so you know what to do if an illegal search comes up.
A random document on the internet means NOTHING to an investigative agency. You might as well walk up and make a random phone call from a stolen cell phone. It's not even probable cause to investigate if you don't have a name to go with the charge.
Go home, read the Constitution again, and decide if you want to help someone throw mud for zero effect, or if you want to actually see change. Our forefathers fought and died for our right to speak what we believe to be true; you are a coward if you will only exercise that when there is zero effect.
(Oh, and for the main question: no, I wouldn't. And I wouldn't try hosting it overseas, either; few countries have as strong a free speech protection as the United States.)
The point of a free society is not that power is never abused, it's that there are effective mechanisms for opposing the abuse of power.
Which is what is happening.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
I've got a permanent scar from the police beating I got after lying down in the snow and putting my hands behind my head. Police can do anything they want, just like you can, and they can get away with it just fine. According to the police report, I got the scar while trying to climb a fence and escape, and three officers attested to that in writing.
Cops are thugs who happen to work for the most powerful gang of all. That's it, that's all.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Fear not, every stop had a legal basis.
Once I was driving a suspicious car. Oddly enough, it was the only one like it in the area that I knew of.
Once it was that I kept looking in the mirror. Of course I was. A patrol car was following me around.
Once I was told "I observed you tailgating a red truck at through ___ intersection." I clearly remembered that I was following a black car, becuse he was driving slow. I was following at 20mph (in a 35 zone) at about 8 car lengths.
Many were "random" traffic safety stops.
And the hold I mentioned, the officer detaining me did not have any information on why I was being detained, but to keep the situation peaceful, he politely requested me to stay with the car. He was actually very polite, because he had no clue what it was about. He did say that he didn't have legal authority to detain me, but it would likely be escalated by the local PD (he was county). Rather than cause an incident by refusing to stay, I stayed. He sat in his car waiting for further instructions. I stood by my car, and until just before he said we could leave, he wasn't on the radio. This was before the days of laptops in every patrol car, so I know he wasn't doing anything more nefarious.
A lawsuit wouldn't go far. In the area, the "good ol' boy" system was well in place, which is why this was happening in the first place. Me, being a 16 through 19 year old boy during the period, I made enough money to buy gas for my car and a few other things. I definitely couldn't afford a lawyer. I did have several opportunities to speak with lawyers on the subject (on my side). I was advised that I would never beat them. The most I would do would be to upset them more, and find myself in more "random" trouble. My options were to:
1) File lawsuits, and keep appealing up beyond the local "good ol' boy" system. That would be somewhere in the high 6 figures, which it was doubtful I'd ever recover.
2) Get a different car. This worked for about 2 months.
3) Move out of the area. I did this at about 19.
But hey, I don't care if you believe me or not. I know most of the "harassment" stories I read are total irrational paranoia. I thought it was just me for a while, until friends and family started getting annoyed by it, especially when they were in the car with me.
I was informally accused of several crimes. The "where were you on __ day" question was kind of hard. 6 months ago, at 10pm, where were you? I had no clue. At home asleep? At a friends house? At the movies? As the interrogation continued, it became clear that I was the only suspect in a tv/stereo store robbery. As it turned out later, it was insurance fraud, and I was just a good candidate to harass. Maybe it would have been better if they could have solicited a spontaneous confession. I was so clueless on the whole matter that I couldn't even say something wrong that would match the crime. I've since learned (now being older and wiser), STFU. If they want you to confess, even idle conversation will come back to bite you. The smart ass answer "Ok, you've seen my car. How many TV's did I fit in it?" didn't help the situation at all. Luckily, there were no stolen TV's in the crime, but they did use it to continue questioning me on being there. I wasn't.
It would probably help if I explained more of their motive, but ... well ... honestly, I don't want to tell. It was absolutely nothing criminal in nature though.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.