ok, you leftists need to chill out. no one's infringing on your rights. did you read the article eryn linked to? holy crap. i'd hope anyone stupid and/or violent enough to say something like that gets locked up. you shouldn't hide behind the first amendment just because you think you can. it's not a crutch. there's such things as protected speech and unprotected speech. our discussion of this situation is protected. violent, threatening speech isn't. would you expect this kid to get away with making similarly militant statements to people on campus? of course not. you can't encourage people to kill the police and not expect the police to get pretty pissed. it doesn't matter if it's a joke or not, it's still stupid and it's still threatening. just don't make jokes like that. it's pretty easy. you don't run around shouting "fire!" in crowded theaters, do you? it's the same thing. sure, there's the first amendment, but that doesn't entitle you to be reckless and dangerous
i'm sure many of you are bemoaning the whole thing as just the start of a big police state. relax. no one's out there trying to think of new creative ways to impinge on your rights. they're trying to protect you from the genuinely violent and threatening. if some nutjobs are going to pretend to be violent and threatening, then they get what's coming to them. better safe than sorry
does this burst the comfortable little bubble of anonymity you've created for yourself through your online personalities and profiles? certainly. but the internet isn't just a big free-for-all and you're not entitled to act like a jackass and say violent things, jokingly or not
i'm not even gonna bother refuting the stupid claims made in the post itself, because then we'd be here all day
I agree with a lot of what you have to say, but I would much rather have a friend or family member knock on my door the next time I forget my common sense, than the police.
Now, there are extreme cases, such as a public distubrance as you pointed out with yelling "fire!", where the police are appropriate. But was this one of those situations? In hindsight to my previous post, I don't know. I wasn't involved and even if I was, I couldn't possibly know all sides to it (Call me Sweden if you must).
i'm sure many of you are bemoaning the whole thing as just the start of a big police state. relax. no one's out there trying to think of new creative ways to impinge on your rights. they're trying to protect you from the genuinely violent and threatening. if some nutjobs are going to pretend to be violent and threatening, then they get what's coming to them. better safe than sorry
does this burst the comfortable little bubble of anonymity you've created for yourself through your online personalities and profiles? certainly. but the internet isn't just a big free-for-all and you're not entitled to act like a jackass and say violent things, jokingly or not
i'm not even gonna bother refuting the stupid claims made in the post itself, because then we'd be here all day
shane
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Now, there are extreme cases, such as a public distubrance as you pointed out with yelling "fire!", where the police are appropriate. But was this one of those situations? In hindsight to my previous post, I don't know. I wasn't involved and even if I was, I couldn't possibly know all sides to it (Call me Sweden if you must).
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