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Supreme Court Overturns Conviction For Man Who Posted 'Threatening' Messages On Facebook
schwit1 sends news that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 in favor of Anthony Elonis, a man who wrote a series of angry messages on Facebook. The posts included quotes from rap lyrics containing "violent imagery," and were directed at Elonis's wife, his co-workers, law enforcement, and a kindergarten class. Elonis was charged and convicted under a federal statute that outlaws "any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another." The jury in his case was told the standard for judging such a threat was whether a "reasonable person" would interpret it as such. According to the Court's ruling (PDF), that standard was not enough to convict him. They call it "a standard feature of civil liability in tort law inconsistent with the conventional criminal conduct requirement of 'awareness of some wrongdoing.'" The case is notable for being the first Supreme Court ruling about free speech on social media, but the ruling itself was quite narrow.
It wasn't about being "offensive." It was about being threatening.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
To be fair, in the vast majority of cases, this is exactly what happens... cop engages brain, realizes that the situation either either something dumb, mistaken, or impossible to prosecute (and is otherwise not a crime), says as much to the complainant, and moves on. Or, in the case of what may be a crime but turns out to not be, same-same, with maybe a stern talking-to of the 'offender' that maybe he should not be so dumb in the future, or at least don't make the activity appear so damned suspicious. ...and then there's the small minority of police officers who are either overeager newbies, had a really bad day, decides he doesn't like the guy, didn't get laid the night before, a closet sociopath, or suchlike.
About the same sample size as humanity at large, really, but with one subtle-yet-important distinction: force.
Having studied the problems with law enforcement for years I can say confidently that in most departments what you've said is true. The real problem is that when that one guy really screws up the reflexive response from everybody in his department (and the DA's office) is to circle the wagons and protect the idiot cop. I've talked about it here before but look up the case of David Bisard in Indianapolis as a fine example where there are no gray areas. He got drunk on duty and ran over a motorcyclist who was stopped at a stop light, killing the cyclist and gravely injuring two others. The FOP paid for his defense and 19 cops who showed up acted as if they couldn't tell that a guy who would later test at .20% BAC (you read that correctly) had been drinking.
That's the real problem.
Do you have ESP?