Discussion for article #223970
We had all better hope they come down on the side of this guy in the lawsuit, jackass that he was, or expect every single ugly insult or strange idea published electronically to result in hoards of angst-ridden teenagers and angry divorcee’s being hauled off to jail.
The police came to our family’s Father’s Day Dinner yesterday to question my daughter’s 19 year-old boyfriend about “suicidal and terroristic threats” he supposedly made on his blog.
He’s a sweetheart, a gentle, creative and funny English major struggling with his identity like every other 19 year-old, especially since failing enough classes in his first year of college that he’s taking a year off to work. Incidentally, he has suffered from Tourette’s syndome and ADHD his whole life. As a result, his inner thoughts and struggles are often not only deeper and more complex than most, he can eloquently and sometimes brutally write about them.
Someone saw a post he wrote describing the deep feelings of failure he felt after realizing he was not doing well in school. He never said he was suicidal, nor did he say he wanted to harm anyone, but the colorful way he described his train of thoughts during a late-night run in the rain last spring after being dropped from a class for poor grades and of how easy it would be for a weaker person to just jump in front of a car to end it all (which he also noted was a cowardly way to deal with life) was all the cops focused on–not the context of the essay, not the fact that it referred to something that had happened three months ago, and certainly not the fact that he denied, as did we and his parents, any desire to in any way harm himself or others.
After two hours in which 12 police officers alternately interrogated him him (“have you ever felt those urges, son?”) intermittently squinting over their smart phones ("what exactly is a ‘thanatos’?), of me and my husband almost getting arrested for advocating for him too forcefully in our own driveway by demanding they use their frigging brains, I finally raised the issue of the kid’s First Amendment right to free speech.
Only then did the lights seem to come on in their heads, and finally they left us and him alone.
But I worry, will they now follow his writing, will they now try to target him for future harassment?
Well this guy made eloquent death threats not only to his ex wife, but to the police officer who questioned him about those threats. Where exactly free speech is in play here?
The story states he wrote offensive rap lyrics, yet never harmed or actually used the writing to harass or intimidate his ex-wife directly.
Had he done so, that would constitute assault and/or battery. Those are punishable acts.
Thoughts, especially creative thoughts, are not YET a crime in the United States.