Man Arrested For Parodying Mayor On Twitter Files Civil Rights Lawsuit

mpicpp (3454017) writes with an update from Ars Technica to this story: "The Illinois man who made headlines when he was detained for parodying the town's mayor on Twitter sued the Peoria politician and local police, claiming on Thursday that his civil rights were violated. As part of the April raid, the authorities seized the mobile phone and laptop of the 29-year-old prankster, Jonathan Daniel, and reviewed their contents, which he says was in violation of his First Amendment rights. Daniel, the operator of the @peoriamayor handle shut down by Twitter after the city threatened a lawsuit, was initially accused of impersonating a public official in violation of Illinois law. The authorities never lodged charges, however."

Comments

Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a crowdfunding site where I can donate to his legal fund? I can't stand Illinois, and any time somebody scores a victory against the government there it brightens my day.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Noah Haders]

you could mock the mayor on twitter. sounds like he deserves it.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't stand Illinois

Same here. I hate Illinois Nazis.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Joe_Dragon]

I'm at 1060 w addison come and get me

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Orange Whip?

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

You shouldn't falsify your driver's license renewal. It usually ends with you in prison playing the harmonica.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[PopeRatzo]

In this case, it's an Illinois Republican. Elected with 100% of the vote, yet apparently has somewhat thin skin.

And he's a numb skull if he thinks arrest is going to fly with higher courts. It's perfectly legal to parody a public official in the US.

In fact, I'm pretty sure most of our elected officials are parodies of public servants.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Frobnicator]

I don't think you'll need to fund it. If you haven't read the PDF of his complaint, the listing of facts is surprisingly strong.

Seriously, it is short, just read the few pages in the middle. Complaint in PDF.

The claims include that there are written documents (probably email) between the mayor and the chief of police, where the mayor tells the cops to do something, the police chief says there is no legal basis, and the mayor tells him to do it anyway. Then the claims include that the cops made written statements (again, probably email) that show officers were ordered to arrest him, they balked saying there was no legal basis, but the police chief ordered it anyway. If he has those emails, that is rather damning.

The list of claims continues by citing court records, where the police filed an empty form citing no probable cause even though the law requires proper documentation. Granting a warrant based on a blank probable cause statement is also pretty damning for those involved.

If he actually has those papers, city officials and court officials declaring that they knew it was illegal but did it anyway, that is going to be hard for the individuals to deny.

A few of them are likely just CYA papers, but if accurate, the exchange boils down to this: "Do this illegal thing." "Sorry boss, it is against the law." "I know it is against the law, do it anyway." If the allegations can be substantiated (and since the suit says those are all public official records, it should be easy to validate) then this case will be a quick settlement.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Frobnicator]

you could mock the mayor on twitter. sounds like he deserves it.

The mayor already resigned. He's still being sued, but he is no longer in office.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Same here, born in Pekin, moved to Peoria then realized the whole state sucks and left for Troy Michigan.

After living here and then revisiting IL for Christmas every few years I realize how bad it really is there. I'll only be in town for like 2 or 3 days yet I'll be harassed by cops, have them randomly floor their cars screeching their tires while riding next to me then slam on the breaks and then speed back up next to me and stare at me.

For no reason besides that I drive an Evo which is a very fast Turbo AWD rally car. I'll just be cruising and instantly get all sorts of harassment. North Pekin and Marquette Heights are the worst. Had a car fly up on me when a car was next to me.... Car behind has high beams on, I figured I'd speed up a tad to make room to move right so he could get past, soon as I did I get busted for my first speeding ticket at 18yrs old. He refuses to budge even after commenting that I "got away from them for 2 years so I must have it coming". Mind you this was my first ticket ever back when I drove a 95 Ford Escort and I have zero police records or interactions. All I did was politely move forward with my signal on to let an apparently faster car with high beams on by.....

Every year I visit I tell my Fiance that something will happen somewhat mockingly.... then before our very eyes Illinois Police then start driving like thugs within our view. Running red lights and screeching their tires. Then they get behind some random car and then tailgate him about 1 inch from his bumper. After a few intersections they stop at 7-11 and spend 25 minutes there chatting it up. I actually stopped to watch them, then phoned in their car number to the sarge and explained to him what was going on. I've learned to fight fire with fire.

Same night one comes up behind me in a drive thru which I had already been waiting at for nearly 15 minutes. I saw him coming down the road and suddenly he noticed my sports car. He whips 3 lanes to quickly turn at the intersection and into the restaurant parking lot to get behind me. Then he doesn't order anything, flies out right behind me as I'm done with my order and throws his lights on. I've literally moved like 10ft and haven't even had a chance to get up to 25mph. Then he rolls next to me, flips me off, then burns his tires back towards downtown and shuts his lights off....

I swear it's like a freaking police state. literally. figuratively. essentially....... Then I go back to Michigan where everyone is friendly, non-judgemental, and most importantly I'm not guilty of anything by driving my Red Mustang Cobra or Lancer Evolution until I actually break a law. In IL I'm profiled and stopped before I can even break a law. Literally pulling me over out of a drive thru that I sat at for a long time. How could I possibly have deserved that?

I've still yet to ever be arrested or actually taken to jail. Yet I've had like 10-15 police encounters in the years since living there and almost a guaranteed one every time I visit for 2 to 3 days ONCE A YEAR. Like clockwork they never fail to perform exactly as I mention.

It's basically Jocks with guns at this point. Jackbooted thuggery,

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the basement at 1060 w addison

Re:Shut up and take my money

[rtb61]

Based upon that, the fellow is tackling the problem all wrong. First up should be a call to Federal Authorities to file a complaint for infringement of his civil rights and let them do all the heavy lifting. Once the Feds have successfully prosecuted the case, his civil suit then becomes a simple manner of negotiating out the value of the claim.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think you'll need to fund it. If you haven't read the PDF of his complaint, the listing of facts is surprisingly strong.

Seriously, it is short, just read the few pages in the middle. Complaint in PDF.

The claims include that there are written documents (probably email) between the mayor and the chief of police, where the mayor tells the cops to do something, the police chief says there is no legal basis, and the mayor tells him to do it anyway. Then the claims include that the cops made written statements (again, probably email) that show officers were ordered to arrest him, they balked saying there was no legal basis, but the police chief ordered it anyway. If he has those emails, that is rather damning.

The list of claims continues by citing court records, where the police filed an empty form citing no probable cause even though the law requires proper documentation. Granting a warrant based on a blank probable cause statement is also pretty damning for those involved.

If he actually has those papers, city officials and court officials declaring that they knew it was illegal but did it anyway, that is going to be hard for the individuals to deny.

A few of them are likely just CYA papers, but if accurate, the exchange boils down to this: "Do this illegal thing." "Sorry boss, it is against the law." "I know it is against the law, do it anyway." If the allegations can be substantiated (and since the suit says those are all public official records, it should be easy to validate) then this case will be a quick settlement.

A quick settlement is not the correct course of action. I don't want quick, I want heads to roll for this kind of shit.

Otherwise, it does nothing to prevent it from happening again, and when the law has deeper political pockets, it won't be so easy to dismiss illegal activity, no matter how damning the evidence.

Just ask those who are "too big to fail" If you think that shit won't happen again due to the utter lack of punishment, your ignorance is immeasurable.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[evil_aaronm]

Two questions: 1. How long are you in town? And 2. How's the veal?

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Got any video of this? I'm from another country and just can't imagine anything like this. (Note that I'm not saying I disbelieve you, or that I'm demanding evidence. I honestly can't imagine it.)

Re:Shut up and take my money

[pepty]

I'll only be in town for like 2 or 3 days yet I'll be harassed by cops, have them randomly floor their cars screeching their tires while riding next to me then slam on the breaks and then speed back up next to me and stare at me.

For no reason besides that I drive an Evo which is a very fast Turbo AWD rally car. I'll just be cruising and instantly get all sorts of harassment. ... I saw him coming down the road and suddenly he noticed my sports car. ...

You're driving a Mitsubishi compact sedan or hatchback. Unless you've tarted it up with bric-a-brac (spoilers, coffee can exhaust, stickers, etc) or you're a leadfoot the police think you're driving a Mitsubishi compact sedan or hatchback.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[dbIII]

I see this (like the insane Terry Childs situation) as yet another reason why having city police instead of just state and federal police is structurally unsound. A state police department could consider it as a request to arrest a potential lawbreaker while with city police it's an order from their boss with little or no oversight.

And he's a numb skull if he thinks arrest is going to fly with higher courts

I don't think he cares, the arrest alone is a punishment and a demonstration of "might makes right" Soviet style.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me guess: bleachers behind 3rd base, about 2/3 of the way out, just close enough to reach for foul balls?

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

No a lancer evolution comes from the factory with 300 horsepower and 300ft/lbs of torque from as low as 3000rpm. That's V8 grunt. Except the engine a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder with a massive turbocharger breathing 23psi. In Europe the same car is available with up to 440 horsepower and 415ft/lbs of torque from the same 2.0 liter engine. It's called the FQ440. They also sell 400hp/360hp/330hp/ and in America only the 300hp version.

It has a full-time four wheel drive system with a mechanical limited slip front differential, hydroelectrically actuated center differential, and a planetary yaw control electronic rear differential. The suspension is entirely forged aluminum front and rear. The roof is made out of aluminum as well as the front clip and doors. Launch control modes with a 2-step stationary rev-limiter at 5500rpm that pre-spools the turbocharger. Factory 0-60 is 3.9 seconds on the higher output versions.

The computer can be flashed and tuned by using a $75 dollar cable and free software. You can datalog/flash as many cars as you want without any further fees. You can get 400 horsepower at the wheels without replacing the factory turbocharger. Meaning you retain warranty even for basic mods that get you 400 ponies. I destroy Corvettes and Mustangs with superchargers all day long. Zero wheelspin off the line and even when it's raining I can put all my power down without any wheel spin.

Despite all that technology it's only $35K base, and around $40K well optioned with a manual trans. People have made over 1500 horsepower using this motor and it's essentially Mitsubishi's race car wearing sheep clothing. You think a Mustang was serious? In 1995 when the Mustang V8 5.0 made 215 horsepower the Evo had AWD and 270 horsepower from their earlier 2.0 4 cylinder engine on a car that weighed less.

The previous models are compared with Lamborghinis and fare well on Top gear.... http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/evo-v-lambo-p1

Owning a car like that still doesn't warrant such behavior. Not when I've just driven from Michigan to Illinois and have zero interest is screwing around after driving 8+ hours. Literally putting around at the speed limits doing zilch. No joke.

I've YET to have any bad Police encounters in the time I've been in Michigan. No one messes with me because I'm not breaking any laws or speeding. I have a perfectly clean driving record dating back 5+ years. But in IL suddenly I'm treated like a big criminal.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Same here. I hate Illinois Nazis.

I think this wooshed most folks here.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

@therealpreoriamayor approves this message

captcha - adultery

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

His criminal charges were dropped, the only legal stuff he has left is his lawsuit against the city which the ACLU is taking care of. I would suggest becoming a member of the ACLU and donating to them so that they can continue standing up for everyone's civil rights.

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

soylentnew.org
 
FTFY. And thanks, never heard of that site but heading over to check it out. When /. "forgets" my choice to view in classic mode I just go somewhere else. If /. goes with the Beta look full time I for one will not bother coming back again.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, but close enough to grab yours when you come visiting

Re:Shut up and take my money

[mrchaotica]

You're driving a Mitsubishi compact sedan or hatchback. Unless you've tarted it up with bric-a-brac (spoilers, coffee can exhaust, stickers, etc) or you're a leadfoot the police think you're driving a Mitsubishi compact sedan or hatchback.

Evos come tarted up with bric-a-brac from the factory.

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

For a country keen on its seperation of powers, I'm constantly surprised there aren't independent police and prosecuting authorities. Appointments at the top are one thing, but direct orders from politician to police should be third world stuff.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[AmiMoJo]

At this stage he probably doesn't have much confidence in law enforcement.

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Your computer must be broken because from the list of stories in my RSS reader they posted 13 stories Wednesday, 15 stories Thursday and 14 stories yesterday. (For reference I'm on British Summer Time, so you might get a slightly different story count if you are in a different time zone.)

There may be fewer comments on the stories over there, but there is a higher signal to noise ratio.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Based upon that, the fellow is tackling the problem all wrong. First up should be a call to Federal Authorities to file a complaint for infringement of his civil rights and let them do all the heavy lifting. Once the Feds have successfully prosecuted the case, his civil suit then becomes a simple manner of negotiating out the value of the claim.

That might work if American government was a legal language interpreter.
However, you are talking about asking the Department of Justice, the head of which (Eric Holder) has been called before Congress several times, in a state where a good friend of theirs has become Mayor of Chicago. DOJ won't want to embarrass leadership in another locale.

He'd be better off bringing a Federal civil rights lawsuit - using the win from this case as a foothold to leverage 'standing'. With a criminal case, the prosecutor has to agree to bring charges, but all you need to file a civil suit is a hired lawyer and a judge that can't find an easy excuse to throw out the case.

Also he could take the blank sheet of paper that was used to generate the warrant to the Illinois Bar Association and request the judge that provided the warrant be disbarred. Probably easier to do that task once he wins this suit, but a step that should not be skipped. Fight at least for censure, but disbarrment is clearly the appropriate course.

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Is their site dependent on javascript and or cookies? If so, that may be the reason. I refuse to use them. Risks involved are many with them and I only use those on ecommerce or banking sites that demand db driven access and state control. Thanks for the answer. I've seen the place, looks good, just like classic here and probably minus the damn trolls and idiots who try to be "funny" and only clot the pages here with useless bullcrap. I'd gladly attend there in fact IF I knew they don't depend on those 2 shitty things that help ruin the web and others' systems (yes, they get abused for that and we all know it). I am not bullshitting you either but I do suspect the cause may be those for me seeing stories there that are 2 weeks old on the main page. I am starting to get sick of this site actually with all the trolls and fools that ruin it for everyone actually. It's served its purpose for me here and like much in life, you can always do better (like finding a better woman for instance as an analogous comparison here).

Re:Shut up and take my money

[pepty]

No a lancer evolution comes from the factory with 300 horsepower and 300ft/lbs of torque from as low as 3000rpm. That's V8 grunt. Except the engine a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder with a massive turbocharger breathing 23psi. In Europe the same car is available with up to 440 horsepower and 415ft/lbs of torque from the same 2.0 liter engine. It's called the FQ440. They also sell 400hp/360hp/330hp/ and in America only the 300hp version.

All of which is housed in the body of a Lancer, which is what the police see unless you're a leadfoot.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[JimSadler]

I've seen this type of behavior with cops in other places. Somebody has put the finger on you or maybe your family or past associates. They will continue to harass you and it can be dangerous. Sometimes this can start because you dated a girl that one of the cops liked. It can also be a false accusation made by an enemy. Another frequent source is a business that complains about lack of police presence or police behavior. In some cases the shift sergeant will actually instruct the shift to lean on an individual. Whatever you do simply do not allow yourself to get angry or be less than polite no matter how insulting they get. I once had a cop try to bait me into attacking him. There was a backup squad car hiding in the dark. If I had so much as twitched I would have been beaten down or arrested. Ex wife was dating a cop in a nasty divorce----

Re:Shut up and take my money

[JimSadler]

I would not count on the Feds to help much at all. One tactic employed by the Feds is to take so long to open or investigate a situation that statutes can no longer be enforced. If it is a civil violation you may have a very short time to file a suit. The expense of such a suit may be crushing for you as well even if you win. On top of all of that state or county sovereignty rules may make such a suit next to impossible. This is the false promise of our legal system at work. How often do we see companies like Microsoft pay fines in the tens of millions of dollars. But these companies make more money than the fines cost them and it is actually an encouragement to keep on breaking the law. So you pay a 50 million dollar fine but you made 750 million by committing the illegal acts. Imagine a jury, composed of tax payers, who know full well that any significant law suit will increase their property taxes and other fees. In effect you are asking a jury to take money out of their own pockets. That rules out a big win.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Rigel47]

Wow.. so adding IL to FL on my "do not visit" list due to their infantile and corrupt police.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Rigel47]

The real question is where the fuck are the indictments? This is *criminal* behavior and yet the taxpayer is going to shoulder "justice." Until cops and elected officials get put in cuffs when they break the law this sort of BS will continue to happen.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

> The mayor already resigned. He's still being sued, but he is no longer in office.

That is false. Jim Ardis is still in office.

It is the Chief of Police who resigned to take a job as head of north american security for Caterpillar where he is surely making even more money.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

From the mayor's official statement about this lawsuit at http://www.peoriagov.org/content/uploads/2014/06/Mayor-release-2014-06-12_1402599759_add.pdf :
"I will protect my rights and the rights of my family at all costs. I am exploring false light and defamation as well as other actions against those responsible for the placing and hosting of the libelous comments."

It sounds like not only is he not backing down, he could be considering going even farther and countersuing or even suing Twitter (the host of the comments)

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

dammit both of you it's http://soylentnews.org

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see why the mayor lost it...the parody...

Re: Shut up and take my money

[rochrist]

And six more stories so far today.

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Would someone answer this question I am curious also now http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see new stories posted today on their site with javascript and cookies turned off. I don't know how your computer is set up but it seems
the over use of abandonware and minimalism may be causing unnecessary hardship on yourself if you can't even browse the web fluently like everybody else, for probably no extra personal security benefit since you are still using the same browser for the unsafe sewage web and your sensitive banking sites anyway. The right approach for security is not to reject emerging technologies like a cyber amish.

It's better to separate you sensitive banking sites away from the sewage web on different computers or virtual machines, or even different ISP lines if you are paranoid (to avoid things like Google Analytics tracking you or matching your keyword searches as coming from the same user for both your private browsing and public browsing). Then you tighten your private banking computer down to the specific addresses it can access, what software can be loaded and what it's allowed to do in its restricted sandboxed environment, securely firewalled and disk encrypted.

On your other public environment for the sewage web you can do all the unsafe browsing you want on it, javascript, cookies, flash, potential malware downloaded from complete strangers on peer networks, knock yourself out. It really doesn't matter what vectors of attacks you subject yourself to because you never inputed any info that can link you to your true identity on it, and it can never discover your other private environment through random virus infection or more targeted hacking attacks. You can simply reboot your virtual machine from a readonly image and all that nasty goes away in an instant under 2 minutes.

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

That's all I needed to know (if it needs javascript or cookies). I just don't trust them. I use them only if absolutely necessary (ecommerce, banking, etc). It may be some other factor as I liked what I saw there but it only shows stories from June 1 about Turkey.

OK new finding: It was in my browser cache. I had to click on the SOYLENT NEW logo for it to refresh and update. A simple fix.

I have been meaning to join that site since this one is infested with trolls and morons that forums slide the good posts out of site or down moderate really good comments just because of them being angry with people here but not based on the posts' actual merits or real demerits. Just downmod and run type stuff.

Thanks for your help. I had to, as I said above, simply refresh the page and the browser cache (I shouldn't have to do that though, I don't have to here for example or on other sites).

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate Illinois Nazis.

In this case, it's an Illinois Republican

Same difference. ;)

(It's a joke, laugh. And yes, had PopeRatzo said Democrat, I would have made the same joke.)

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I live around Peoria, and visit Pekin periodically. I drive *actual* V8 cars with exhaust and paint that is not subtle; not some riced out economy car. My Chevelle dynoed at 523HP, for example. I do not drive particularly conservativly, including at one point doing a donut in an intersection in front of a cop (which i was definitely ticketed for). I have never seen a cop spin his tires, and I've never been harassed by cops regardless of what I'm driving.

This punk clearly antagonizes the cops, calling in their car numbers when he thinks they're misbehaving, etc. He probably would be one of those morons with YouTube videos of how you should only crack your window when pulled over and the like.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[pete6677]

That petition is a bunch of socialist BS. The real victims have already been compensated - AI is just making a shameless cash grab.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[drainbramage]

Tried to source your statement, did you pull it out of your ass?
Google searches show this guy is an independent, does not being a democrat sycophant mean republican to you?
For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Re: Shut up and take my money

[SvnLyrBrto]

Or it could be old-fashioned racism. There are plenty of places in the US still where, if you're driving a Japanese car, the locals will see you as some kind of commie mutant traitor.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Maxo-Texas]

I think this part is cool.

"The claims include that there are written documents (probably email) between the mayor and the chief of police, where the mayor tells the cops to do something, the police chief says there is no legal basis, and the mayor tells him to do it anyway. Then the claims include that the cops made written statements (again, probably email) that show officers were ordered to arrest him, they balked saying there was no legal basis, but the police chief ordered it anyway. If he has those emails, that is rather damning."

It shows the police still have a conscious and awareness they were breaking the law. I know it's bad that they went ahead and broke the law in the end.

That warrant makes it sound like a judge was also in on it. So the system failed.

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Gr8Apes]

You can wipe cookies and local data at will. You can also run with a variety of browsers, VMs, etc, so that you possibly could never be tracked. Use TOR on top of it all, and now you might, just might, reach tin foil hatter stage.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[whistlingtony]

The ACLU is amazing. Anonymous Coward has no idea how much the ACLU stands up for him.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

At this stage he probably doesn't have much confidence in law enforcement.

At this stage, who does?

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Since I have never been harrassed, and know of no one personally who has ever been harassed, regardless of their skin tone, I think youre feign of innocense is ridiculous.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[tapi0]

You're driving a Mitsubishi compact sedan or hatchback. Unless you've tarted it up with bric-a-brac (spoilers, coffee can exhaust, stickers, etc) or you're a leadfoot the police think you're driving a Mitsubishi compact sedan or hatchback.

this is a factory Evo: http://images.pistonheads.com/...

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Rujiel]

"politically motivated"? like how the ACLU sued Verizon, as its customer, for selling out its customers to the NSA? You must be a fox news viewer--i can't find any other way to explain your profound ignorance.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

Appreciate the info. Deputy Mayor Ballzack just sent him a message through his contact form.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[PopeRatzo]

Tried to source your statement, did you pull it out of your ass?

Your google-fu is very weak.

The very first line of his Wikipedia entry:

Jim Ardis is the Republican mayor of Peoria, Illinois, a position he has held since 2005. He served on the Peoria City Council from 1999 through 2005.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Shut up and take my money

[PopeRatzo]

And yes, had PopeRatzo said Democrat, I would have made the same joke.

So would I.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see much there to support the claim that he's a republican though except one line in a wiki article. You've got to take that with a grain of salt after all. Micheal Bloomberg is the perfect example. After being affiliated with the democrats for 20+ years, he switched to republican for an election, stayed there two years and then switched to independent. And then everybody calls him a republican. Despite that he donated how many million to fight the recall elections of a couple democrat state senators in Colorado? Look at their voting record, not what they (or somebody else, especially a wiki page) says they are.

That being said, this is a neutral post, I have no idea what his voting record is and I don't care enough to look it up.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I see you've never seen an evo in you're life. Yes, it's a lancer. With body kits installed as standard. An evo only looks vaguely like a lancer, but is a lancer in name only. An idiot could tell the difference between the two at 200 yards. Any cop is not seeing a lancer, they're seeing an evo.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

you could mock the mayor on twitter. sounds like he deserves it.

Yes, I'll do that after logging in to my neighbor's WiFi.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Lost Race]

Maybe he doesn't want to bankrupt the defendants before extracting maximal settlement value. They can go to prison after they pay him off.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[evilviper]

I would suggest becoming a member of the ACLU and donating to them so that they can continue standing up for everyone's civil rights.

I wouldn't. Not that they don't do good stuff, and they certainly trumpet it on their front-page. But it isn't until you're a member that you start getting the full story. It seems the overwhelming majority of their cases are dedicated to suing every municipality that doesn't immediately take down any even vaguely religious symbol that someone else put on anything that even smells like public land. Or fighting even the most reasonable laws that impose some minor and sane restrictions on late-term abortions, and whatnot.

I'd suggest sending your money to the EFF, instead. No bait-and-switch there. They advertise what they actually do, and they do plenty of good.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[PopeRatzo]

I don't see much there to support the claim that he's a republican though except one line in a wiki article.

Not one line, the first line.

I don't care enough to look it up.

You could have looked it up in less time than it took to write your stupid post.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Altus]

Maybe if you cover up all the EVO badging and take off the stock body work that differentiates it. It may not be that different but I can spot them (or BMW M series cars, or Audi R series cars) without much trouble. I'm sure a cop who spends all day driving around and pulling over cars would also get pretty good at it.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Altus]

You know the score, pal. If your not cops your little people.

Re: Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I shit you not -- The mascot for Pekin's school was the fucking CHINKS until the 80's. Pekin is the most racist place I've ever been to.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Druegan]

I seriously have to wonder about Cat's decision there. If it weren't for the high likelihood of the job being given to Settingsgaard as a reward for "looking the other way" when some Cat Exec's kid (or the Exec themself) got caught with hookers and blow at some downtown hotel, I'd think they were insane.

No well-heeled global corporation would go hiring for a "security professional" at the Peoria Police Department, primarily because "encouraging lazy acts of random thuggery" and "complete failure to do your job except for covering your ass by collusion with the media" aren't exactly traits that one wants to encourage in one's security department..

Yes, I've had the misfortune of living in Peoria most of my life, and yes, the PPD *are* that bad. When you see cops, prosecutors, and judges all snorting coke together in the back of the Judge's Chamber (bar) downtown, you know your city is rotten to the core.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[coolsnowmen]

My parents.

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...

Re:Shut up and take my money

[Anonymous Coward]

http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...

A plague of lawyers seems appropriate

[Crashmarik]

punishment for officials who abuse their power. Sort of a use your enemies to fight each other strategy

Re:A plague of lawyers seems appropriate

[Quixote34]

And they will be quick to point out that the mayor has merely taken his cue from America's leading criminal-satire case, celebrated almost in the manner of a witch-hunt in New York and on "bible" blogs around the country. See the documentation at: http://raphaelgolbtrial.wordpr... Despite being widely reported on in the press, the case — including the dissenting opinion (on free speech grounds, figure that) of the chief judge of the New York's highest court — has been largely ignored by legal commentators, so it's not surprising that thugs with badges now feel free to go after the creators of Twitter accounts embarrassing to wealthy and powerful members of the community, whether they be politicians, university presidents, or anyone else ordinary people might choose to mimic and mock on the Internet.

Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[sinij]

This is open-and-shut case, and the only question is what the settlement and payout to Jonathan Daniel would be.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

This is open-and-shut case, and the only question is what the settlement and payout to Jonathan Daniel would be.

It is really what the taxpayers are going to be paying the lawyers...

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[JMJimmy]

I don't think it is open and shut... perhaps for illegal search but they detained him legally, I believe, and released him without charge. The question is whether they had grounds to detain him. He can claim parody but there's not much indication of that. He used actual pictures of the man, made slanderous statements, and may have made claims to be the real mayor (not sure on this as I've not read the tweets). Very little of it seems parody-like from what I've read. I'll bet there will be a counter suit for slander if the statute of limitations hasn't run out.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[LordLucless]

Right - they never lodged charges, but they stole his stuff, and read his private papers anyway. That's sorta the whole point.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Coligny]

" As part of the April raid, the authorities seized the mobile phone and laptop of the 29-year-old " You are either an idiot or a contrarian troll... Either ways, go back to your cave...

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Did they..................have a warrant? That's the due process, described in the Constitution. You know what the Constitution is, right?

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

the question is not if they had grounds to detain him. You can FIND grounds to detain anyone. Searching his phone without a warrant though is (should be) serious trouble. The cops should have known better. And if you'd seen the tweets, it was pretty obvious this was NOT the mayor.... I think it has good standing as Parody, but IANAL.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Sarten-X]

Shush. You're interrupting the Two Minutes Hate.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[sumdumass]

The fourth (warrant) doesn't really matter (and yes they did have one). This guy is claiming 1st amendment US constitution and article 1 section 4 of the Illinois state constitution here.

He is saying he has a right to mock politicians. Even if they filed charges, his first amendment claims simply becomes a defense but it appears that the only charges they could file is if the fake account attempted to impersonate a government official in their official capacity. The problem here is that the comments or tweets were about smoking crack, eating pussy, and crap like that in response to the mayor's actions. For the law in question to apply, he would have had to say something like the mayors office is supporting the Gay KKK rally or something of the sorts that would make the public believe government was taking an action or position on something. But it appears to have all been personal degradation and character assassinations (which may open a civil suit but still would have no net effect on the first amendment claims).

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[DMUTPeregrine]

It was listed as being a parody account several days before the raid.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[plover]

But it appears to have all been personal degradation and character assassinations (which may open a civil suit but still would have no net effect on the first amendment claims).

Libel laws have much tighter requirements in the case of a "public figure", where actual financial harm has to be proven. The (real) mayor can't simply claim "his false statements made me embarrassed, so I want $10,000 in pain and suffering", he has to show real losses, as in "when he claimed I smoked crack, my boss filled out an HR form that said they had to fire me because they couldn't have a drug user driving forklifts, so I was fired, and lost $10,000 in wages."

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Sabriel]

He's not arguing they didn't have a warrant, he's arguing they didn't have the "probable cause" you bolded and they performed the "unreasonable searches and seizures" you didn't bold: in other words, that they didn't follow due process to obtain the warrant they used against him.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully the Judge that signed the warrant gets in some shit as well.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is the Mayor (depending on state laws for who controls to police, mayor, city council) abused his powers, and probably forced the police departments hand, and this is why Police Chiefs and their departments are corrupt. The police should have refused any request by the mayor, and made a public statement that they are not going to violate laws because the Mayor has no sense of humor.

And the article is over the very fact the police illegally ceased his phone and laptop, then illegally went thru the entirety of the content. I'm sure the Mayor will abuse and hide behind some law over a political officials life being threatened to no avail. Just like in national politics local mayors can hold a monopoly from idiot companies and special local interest groups, and the brain dead residents who wont make any change becuase while the current moron hasn't done anything to hurt their city, he hasn't done anything to help it out, and he is wasting tax money on stupid stuff like this, only the Mayor knows what other wasteful spending/pocketed money he has done.

Your comment seems to be for the Mayor as opposed to be more open, I've read other comments that indicate the man was making fun of the Mayor and not trying to do anything more. I find with today's citizens sick and tired of political corruption, in house fighting, ect., if the Mayor was going to sue is would be next to impossible for this dipshit to win.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[NemoinSpace]

I was hoping this might occur to someone else. In fact the judge is guilty of a far greater crime and deserves jail time.
blocking AC's is censorship.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

They had a warrant, but it was granted with no probable cause. Due process includes all of the above (affiant giving probable cause, place and things to be searched, warrant granted). If you have a warrant without probable cause, it's still a violation of the 4th Amendment.

dom

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

they detained him legally, I believe, and released him without charge

False arrests need to be treated as felonies and the police responsible need to be placed in prison like other felons.

With all of the thousands and thousands of laws which were designed to allow police and 'officials' to create charges out of thin air, none of them applied to this person. This person did absolutely nothing wrong in the eyes of the law, yet an armed paramilitary wing of the city government came to kick his door in. The problem with this paramilitary wing coming to kidnap you is that they have a checklist where they can start shooting you for 'officer safety' and get away with it. This checklist includes things such as 'he looked like a drug crazed domestic terrorist who had a firearm somewhere in the house' and 'he owned a dog'.

Put the police in prison where they belong.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

Judges cannot be held liable no matter how badly they disregard the law. The city officials might be on the hook for damages, maybe, if they *knowingly* violated this man's rights (but there would need to be supporting evidence, such as emails, otherwise it's an ordinary lawsuit challenging a government practice rather than going after officials for damages)

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

I think any reasonable court would hold that the Twitter account is protected speech and that as such, they have no legal basis to detain him.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[PJ6]

This is open-and-shut case, and the only question is what the settlement and payout to Jonathan Daniel would be.

Normal people aren't allowed to pay their way out of jail for their crimes.

Why are there settlements instead of sentences when a business or any other type of organization is involved?

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it's a lot looser in the case of a "public figure" (whoops, just about wrote pubic *whistling*) because they have "reputation" that can be damaged. But even in this case, if it could be linked to the mayor feeling like he was forced to resign there's material damage right there on top of the damage to his reputation.

Re:Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[pete6677]

It's actually the opposite. Libel and defamation laws offer public figures virtually NO protection. Otherwise any politician who lost a race could sue the winner for defaming him through those nasty attack ads, etc etc.

Re: Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Rujiel]

Wow, it's Sarten. the establishment trolls are here, now? But where's cold fjord?

Re: Jonathan Daniel won the legal lottery

[Sarten-X]

To be a "troll" would mean that I make comments to bait others into angry responses. With very few exceptions, I don't do that. I do, however, hold opinions different than your own.

I feel that the stability and predictability of following established procedures are more important than the immediate gratification of making exceptions for causes that were lucky enough to become the blessed champions of the Internet echo chamber. Sure, the so-called "establishment" makes mistakes, and injustices happen. The "establishment" is designed for that. That's why we have an appeals process and an ever-growing body of legal precedent. We make mistakes, but ultimately learn from them.

When events as momentous as Snowden's leaks occur, I think it's important to use the situation to improve our laws, and by extension the country and world. I disagree with the calls to overthrow various parts of the government, because I don't see any long-term improvement in them. Snowden's might get freedom, but wht about the other whistleblowers who come after him, and what about genuine traitors who intentionally harm, then claim "whistleblowing" as a defense? Do we treat future situations similarly, or do we craft a new "justice" for each instance according to the whims of a capricious public?

Ultimately, that's the question on which we disagree: do we, as a society, care more about the public being able to declare judgements, or to predict them? I choose the latter.

Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

If that guy was in Sudan, and the entire incident transpired in a backwater country like Sudan, it would seem to make some sense

But this happened in the United States of America, the supposed land of the FREE

What has happened to FREEDOM and LIBERTY ?

Have they been stripped off by the Obama Administration, along with the Privacy of the citizens ?

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[JMJimmy]

Didn't you know? It's FREE*

*With purchase of power, results may vary. By reading this you agree to give up all your legal rights.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[CRCulver]

Have they been stripped off by the Obama Administration, along with the Privacy of the citizens?

They must have been, especially since the US had never ever seen any problems with corrupt local politicians before Obama became president!

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

What has happened to FREEDOM and LIBERTY ?

Have they been stripped off by the Obama Administration, along with the Privacy of the citizens ?

Bush happened. Obama promised change. He lied.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Have they been stripped off by the Obama Administration,

No. Rather they've been stripped off by the Obama Administration, the Bush Administration, the Clinton Administration, etc etc.

And we all let it happen. Sometimes we switch it up and vote for "the other guys", only to remember a few years later why that was a bad idea too.

We're not smart enough to vote for anyone but the main two, so on it goes.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

the Clinton Administration

What did Clinton do to you? Still blame him for the DMCA? Maybe if you actually read the DMCA sometime, you'd know that the Internet is full of pirated movies because the DMCA takedown process provides the very legal loopholes that allow pirate sites to operate. Before the DMCA, pirate sites were shut down and stayed down. After the DMCA, pirate sites follow the takedown process and still stay up.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

George Washington happened.

FTFY. The role of president has been a continuous slide into chucklefuckery from the very beginning.

I sadly can't think of a better alternative, though. Could you imagine a government where the legislative branch didn't have to fight with an autocratic dreamer? Shit would be even worse.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Still blame him for the DMCA?

Yes, a law that allows censorship without so much as a court hearing, and makes it illegal to break most DRM.

Before the DMCA, pirate sites were shut down and stayed down. After the DMCA, pirate sites follow the takedown process and still stay up.

Spurious correlations...

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[NoKaOi]

I sadly can't think of a better alternative, though.

For a start, how about calling "campaign contributions" what they really are, "bribes," and make it illegal.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[philip.paradis]

Your suggestion will only result in a cycle of election of candidates who already have ever-increasingly large sums of money to spend on their campaigns. Are you sure you've thought this through?

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a spurious correlation, it's a direct causal relationship. Without the safe harbor provided by the DMCA, pirate sites could be closed down and their owners sued into oblivion. Don't you ever wonder why that doesn't happen all the time? Don't you ever wonder how so many sites continue to operate with impunity? Because the DMCA is the thing that shields sites from liability when users upload infringing content.

You ignorant. But dude, please, continue spouting irrational hate for the DCMA because your "bros" tell you to hate the DMCA.

DMCA Title II, the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act creates a conditional safe harbor for online service providers (OSP) (a group which includes internet service providers (ISP)) and other Internet intermediaries by shielding them for their own acts of direct copyright infringement (when they make unauthorized copies) as well as shielding them from potential secondary liability for the infringing acts of others.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[currently_awake]

I am thinking that rich men don't get rich by spending their own money on stuff if they can avoid it. If you are already rich you don't need to get elected to loot the country.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[philip.paradis]

I suggest you take a much closer look at how power is consolidated in politics, and at how many of your elected officials greatly benefit from "career public service" for the duration of their lives (and their children's lives, in many cases). These points aside, you also appear to have a limited understanding of the fundamental desire for power over others; this is a characteristic that is frequently presented as a desire to "help" fellow citizens, when the end results are all too often anything but helpful.

I am certainly not opposed to people achieving great financial success, nor am I claiming that all or even most rich men desire elected office. It must still be noted that elected representatives, especially but certainly not limited to those holding certain federal offices, already heavily tend toward possession of far greater financial resources than the majority of the people they govern. The GGP suggestion that campaign contributions should be made illegal would only serve to further increase that trend, which is an outcome I believe NoKaOi would be unhappy with.

"Boss" Tweed serves as an interesting case study in some of these points. Unfortunately, while the sheer magnitude of his transgressions outstripped those of most of his contemporaries, his behavioral patterns remain disconcertingly common among politicians in the present day. This is an unfortunate side effect of basic human nature having remained wholly unchanged in the interim.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[whistlingtony]

You haven't had real freedom for a LONG time. Blaming Obama just makes you look like an idiot.

Ask yourself how many wars we've been in since WW2. How many of them were fought for the freedom of Americans, and how many of them were fought for economic interests?

Ask yourself if what the CIA did in South America from the 50's was about freedom, or economic interests?

America hasn't been a bastion of Freedom for a long time. Don't blame Obama. Don't even blame Bush. We have less than 50% voter turnout. It's OUR fault.

Re:Is this still the Land of the Free ?

[Anonymous Coward]

What if you could not fund your own campaign, and the government funded equal campaigns for everyone running? Or if we funded equal campaigns(as opposed to government doing it). There must be a solution for taking money out of who ends up speaking the loudest.

Ever seen a parody ?

[tquasar]

According to Aristotle it's OK to do stuff like this. Make a person look like an ass because they do ass-like things in a public place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... No due process in the streets.

Let's hope its a section 1983 suit

[dbc]

Section 1983 lawsuits for deprivation of civil rights under color of authority allows piercing the immunity of public officers and going after their personal assets. In this case, the mayor, and any of the police that participated. Their. Personal. Assets. Not the taxpayers.
http://legal-dictionary.thefre...

Re:Let's hope its a section 1983 suit

[guygo]

wonderful. that would be the only way to stop them, and it is certainly appropriate. and thank you for the education. I had no idea they could lose their OWN shirt. excellent.

Re:Let's hope its a section 1983 suit

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a civil rights lawsuit. Mr. Daniel charges a conspiracy to violate and the violation of his rights under the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution and of Article I, Sections 4 and 6 of the Illinois Constitution and brings his action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983 and 1988, 28 U.S.C. 2201 et seq., and the laws and constitution of the State of Illinois. Mr. Daniel seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and monetary damages.

from the Introduction (emp. mine)

Re:Let's hope its a section 1983 suit

[OurDailyFred]

That was exactly my thought when I saw the paragraphs seven through 12 containing : "He is sued in his individual capacity," with section 12 using a plural instead of singular for the two defendants. Section 13 likely has a bearing on the "individual capacity" in case the judge finds they were not acting under "color of right" although I am not schooled in Illinois law. I do know that the state has incarcerated a sizable percentage of recent governors, but I do not know the statistics on former mayors.

Left something out

[PopeRatzo]

Why does the summary not mention the name of the mayor? It's pertinent, no?

Re:Left something out

[Anonymous Coward]

the original poster didn't want to be arrested.

Re:Left something out

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not pertinent to a summary. To the story itself yeah, but in a summary what matters is that he's mayor who abused his authority. Knowing his name doesn't add useful information the way including the town's name does.

Re:Left something out

[Anonymous Coward]

For what it's worth, it's Jim Ardis.

Re:Left something out

[PopeRatzo]

So the name of the parodist is pertinent but not the name of the more notable person who got parodied?

I don't understand journalism, apparently.

Re:Left something out

[Anonymous Coward]

> I don't understand journalism, apparently.

You are correct. You don't understand.

The parodist is a regular person who holds no title, thus his name is really the only way to identify him.
The mayor is a government official who abused the power of his office, thus his office is the most relevant identifier.

You are making a mountain out of a molehill, in that uptight, semi-autistic, refuse to acknowledge that your personal perspective isn't necessarily the one true perspective, sheldon cooper way that geeks often do. Don't. Its just a summary written by a regular person here on slashdot.

Re:Left something out

[Anonymous Coward]

http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...

Re:Left something out

[Anonymous Coward]

http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...

The can't you take a joke defense.

[Anonymous Coward]

The can't you take a joke defense.
It was just a joke. Can't you take a joke.

Re:The can't you take a joke defense.

[Anonymous Coward]

It wasn't a joke. It was parody. Learn the difference.

May be Even Worse than First Reports

[Anonymous Coward]

It is starting to look like this wasn't just a case of going after j random twitter user.
Instead, it was probably an attempt to discredit the local newspaper.

I bet he had a bug up his ass about the newspaper for some story they wrote in the past and so he convinced himself that the anonymous twitter user was really this reporter and that if he could expose the guy he would get even with the paper. That would totally explain why he had such an over-the-top reaction to the parody, he was already primed and looking for revenge on the paper and thought this was the ticket.

I hope the loses big time, that kind of vindictiveness does not belong in office.

The right to complain

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the surest signs of democracy is the open right to complain. Specifically about either elected public officials, public policy, or any business or person that has failed to live up to promises or contracts. The antithesis of this: the surest sign for a non-democracy is the objection to complaints directed towards either elected public officials, public policy, or any business or person that has failed to live up to promises or contracts. Clearly with the arrest of this man for bringing public scorn and criticism to the mayor, this man is not living in a democracy. Perhaps law enforcement where he lives is aping China, or the new government in Iraq. Lock him up and toss the key! Crap on the US constitution! Burn the Magna Carta! It all goes hand in hand with the cops that arrested this guy, and the politician who doesn't understand what democracy is. This *isn't* China. Its *not* an internal matter. Jon Daniel should sue the personal cops who were part of the raid, their boss who ordered them in, and the politician. Their collective houses are now his house, their collective bank accounts are now his bank account. It must be made clear to the politician and the cops that what they did --in a democracy-- is not allowed. Autocratic states can get away with this: 'autocratic' and 'atrocious' go hand to glove.

Will there be an act 2?

[Required Snark]

Given the genius level of legal reasoning in Peoria, I wonder if the defense will try and contact the judge by email and tell them that the city should be protected from financial liability because of taxes.

Quote.

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting comment.

This from the linked story is interesting, also:

"News of the raid spread quickly beyond Peoria as coverage appeared everywhere from the Los Angeles Times to Al-Jazeera. New parody Twitter accounts popped up, including @notpeoriamayor, which featured the official photo of Ardis -- topped off with a Hitler mustache."

More:

[Anonymous Coward]

Quoting:

The account had fewer than 50 followers, yet now "there are more than a dozen copycat accounts."

section 242: send them to jail

[raymorris]

Also section 242 makes it a crime to violate someone's civil rights under color of law, with sentences ranging from one year to the death penalty.

During settlement negotiations, his lawyer could mention that she has an appointment with federal prosecutors to discuss the case. The mayor, judge, and chief of police may sell their houses and cars to pay a settlement which makes the Curtin happy enough that he doesn't feel the need to press for a federal criminal case.

Re:section 242: send them to jail

[Anonymous Coward]

What warrants the death penalty? Using the color of the law to get someone wrongly executed?

Re:section 242: send them to jail

[Anonymous Coward]

I would guess that if the victim dies while being harassed ("stop resisting! stop resisting!" and dies).

Re:section 242: send them to jail

[dbc]

The Civil Rights Act of 1871 was signed by President Grant to deal with the Klan and others in the aftermath of the civil war. So, yeah, if the sheriff is at the front of the pack wearing a white sheet when somebody gets hanged for trying to vote, that might get the death penalty for the sheriff.

Re:It's simple to get around it... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Like this?

You mean like this?

216.34.181.45 slashdot.org
216.34.181.45 beta.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 news.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.news.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 developers.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.developers.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 hardware.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.hardware.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 ask.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.ask.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 it.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.it.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 linux.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.linux.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 tech.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.tech.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 yro.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.yro.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 science.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.science.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 2idle.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.2idle.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 apple.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.apple.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 books.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.books.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 games.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.games.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 interviews.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.interviews.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 mobile.slashdot.org
216.34.181.48 beta.mobile.slashdot.org

?

causing death, kidnapping, rape, attempted murder

[raymorris]

Here is the statute. Notice the race stuff is surrounded by the word "or" twice. That has been held to mean it applies if your rights or violated OR if you are punished on the basis of race.

Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years , or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

Sounds like a stupid strategical mistake

[Shlomi Fish]

Arresting a man for parodying a local politician on Twitter sounds incredibly stupid. I'm glad the politician in question did the right thing and resigned after that, and if I were the blogger in question, I'd stop being vindictive and make peace with the politician. Hopefully, he can later help pass a law protecting people similar to him from future abuse while remaining on good terms with his target of criticism.

As a citizen and resident of Israel, I should note that something like that seems highly unlikely to happen here. I have been a humorist, writer/blogger and amateur philosopher for a long time, and my site and other sites and mediums where I've blogged features a lot of positively blasphemous stuff (or stuff that was formerly considered blasphemous) including: jokes about the holocaust, a reflection about holocaust denial, racist or nationalist cliches, sexism, sexualism, critiques of local politicians, critiques of a lot of the constitutional foundation of Israel, an in-your-face Illuminaty/Elders of Zion pan-historical conspiracy theory, and many parodies and criticisms of Judaism (including the Old Testament, the Oral Torah and later additions). I left almost no stone unturned.

And almost nothing happened to me except some people who told me I Was being out-of-line (Often truly) or some threats from non-officials, or getting myself removed or banned from some Internet forums. The USA may wish to consider how much of a free country they are compared to other parts of the civilised world. The 2001 bombings made many Americans paranoid and paranoid people are miserable, and miserable people are insecure and unsafe. So if you want to be safe, be happy and don't be afraid. Israel now has much laxer national security, which makes us safer in the long run. And as opposed to popular belief, most of Israel since 1990 was never really a warzone, and certainly isn't now, and I believe that Jews, Palestinians and non-Jews mostly live in peace and even friendship even in the occupied territories. There's still a long way to go for close-to-100% harmony here, but we're much closer than before.

Cheers from Tel Aviv, -- Shlomi Fish (a.k.a "Rindolf").

Jim Ardis

[Anonymous Coward]

resigned!

It was answered, here's more... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Answered here (browser cache needed manual refresh) http://yro.slashdot.org/commen... odd considering that's not needed on slashdot proper itself (I know, I have tried both & saw the same damn thing... i.e. -> I had to CLICK on the Soylent news logo to get it to show stories PAST June 2 on Turkey where it stopped... even doing a REFRESH in Opera 12.17 64-bit didn't work, but clicking the logo did).

Odd considering Soylent news uses "slashcode" (then again, I run RINGS around slashcode's massive weaknesses, with no limits on me like most ac's in 10 posts a day - it's how & why I totally BURN the mod bombing trolls, letting them exhaust their modpoints (which only brings them out illogically & off topic ac trolling me then which is fine - I get the satisfaction of exhausting their only effete 'weapon' in the unjustifiable downmod).

APK

P.S.=> That did it for that person, it did for me too (he uses the web as I do, no cookies, javascript, java, by default, except I go further for security purposes not allowing plugins active (Opera allows "by site" preferences, & globally I disallow those & also only use those risky tools for state demanding sites with cookies + scripting for db access alao banking or ecommerce shopping online as he noted).or Iframes either (big security risks) by default also)... apk

The fix works (& I do far more too)... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't accept 'em @ all as noted earlier default. Tinfoil hat stage LONG ago (Wrote the VERY 1st security guides online for Windows as far back as 1997).

I also stick to Opera 12.17 64-bit (Last TRUE Opera, not Chopera - I don't trust Chrome though it's quick like Opera (the speedking for ages on html + Javascript long before Chrome existed & gives it a run for its money even now OUT of development: Google's TOO advertising-centric).

Opera gives you FAR MORE granular control of cookies, plugins (only on demand even), frames/iframes, javascript, & more - IE doesn't, FF does to an extent but needs addons & even MORE than Chrome commandline options & GUI easier too w/ Opera.

(All NATIVE to Opera & others copied it less efficiently since addons add memory, cpu (man, look at adblock adding messagepassing overheads + tearing up 5gb RAM & huge CPU here -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... [mozilla.org] for example, whereas I use hosts & do FAR MORE with less in 1 file + NOT IN SLOWER USERMODE, but instead PURE KERNELMODE faster!))

Turning off a usermode faulty w/ large hosts dnscache in Windows & caching via another kernelmode subsystem the diskcache instead saves faulty usermode services' RAM, CPU, & other forms of I/O expended on it, making up for indexing w/ the technique I showed others in this VERY exchange albeit for redirect protection another benefit it has besides speed (faster than remote DNS lookup + protecting not only site redirects as shown but also vs. DNS' kaminsky redirect bug flaws too) placing 24 of my fav sites currently @ the TOP of my custom hosts file which equates to 2-3++ million indexed seeks - MULTIPLE BONUS, more efficiently & effectively via this program I wrote http://start64.com/index.php?o... [start64.com] to do all that, + FAR MORE for added speed, security, reliability, & anonymity BETTER than any single browser addon out there mind you on MULTIPLE levels!

APK

Addendum/added info (No TOR)

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot's suppresses detail I can post (I hate that, forces me to write bad too): I Don't NEED TOR: I have "no limits" here posting as an AC as often as I like - far faster than TOR & same end result too.

I can't give away HOW I do it (magicians don't give away ALL their tricks, lol!) and additonally as an addendum to my last post? Hosts = default 1st item for resolutions too that happens LONG before addons operate on ANY webbound program + far more efficiently & effectively for FAR more on ANY platform really that's BSD IP stack based (see link to extoll those virtues in my program).

APK

P.S.=> Trust me - I've got ALL the bases covered (especially for security, even more than speed, but oddly SPEED comes along for the ride (the "joyride" as no sites make a buck off my views or track me too) per my "layered-security"/"defense-in-depth" security guides I noted from 1997, updated in 2006 here ->http://www.bing.com/search?q=%22how+to+secure+windows+2000%2fxp%22&qs=HS&pq=%22how&sc=8-4&sp=1&FORM=QBLH&cvid=cc03307273a6426d8d8ee62c7dede38f that even GOT ME PAID (The Lord works in mysterious ways for "The Lord of Hosts" (me, but not really... everyone here KNOWS I am the hostsfile guy, lol, after all)) - especially for BOTH speed & security online and yes, local to your system... apk

Parody

[Anonymous Coward]

If the subject were Obama, MS/NBC and the DoJ would be roasting the prankster now. 'Racist!!!' would be the cry from the rafters.

Please make youtube videos

[Bardez]

You can help by showing that this Mayor Ardis is prone to making unwise choices. He released a press conference where he actually read some of the tweets aloud, and this video is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I think people know what needs to be done.

Re:Yes (very good)... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't know about frying, but your posts are generally too boring to read. Luckily if I browse at 0 I don't even see most of your posts. And for that I probably owe some moderators a beer.