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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."
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.
punishment for officials who abuse their power. Sort of a use your enemies to fight each other strategy
This is open-and-shut case, and the only question is what the settlement and payout to Jonathan Daniel would be.
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.
They must have been, especially since the US had never ever seen any problems with corrupt local politicians before Obama became president!
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.
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.
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.
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...
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...
Why does the summary not mention the name of the mayor? It's pertinent, no?
You are welcome on my lawn.
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.
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.
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?
Write failed: Broken pipe
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.
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.
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.
Why is Snark Required?
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.
Write failed: Broken pipe
Quoting:
The account had fewer than 50 followers, yet now "there are more than a dozen copycat accounts."
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.
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.
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").
We have two eyes and ten fingers so we will type five times as much as we read. http://www.shlomifish.org/
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.
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.
Perception is the thin dividing line between reality and fiction.