Posted on 09/08/2013 5:18:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Before firing off that next email to an elected official, you’d better cross your fingers and hope the politician is not feeling anxious about your message.
A judge in Oklahoma Friday ordered the co-founder of the Sooner Tea Party to be tried on felony blackmail and computer crimes charges for sending an email to a state senator who said he felt threatened by its tone, The Associated Press reported.
The judge ruled that probable cause exists that Al Gerhart committed the crimes when he sent an email allegedly designed to intimidate Oklahoma state Sen. Cliff Branan, the Republican chairman of the Senate Energy Committee.....
(Excerpt) Read more at bizpacreview.com ...
” He tried to blackmail him and deserves to be punished.”
Hardly qualified as blackmail as he says he has nothing, but will search diligently to discover some dirt.
Looking is legal.
As for family being off limits, remember what the Presstitutes did with the Bush daughters?
“We will dig into your past, your family, your associates, and once we start on you there will be no end to it.”
It’s OK if the government does it.
Uh, Sen. Branan, your actions are the intimidating ones. !
Isn’t this what the media did to Sarah Palin?
Shut up and be a good comrade. You know we have every email and phone call you ever made, and can search and mine and analyze them all in a nanosecond.
How so?
Threatening to engage in legal activity is protected speech, especially in the case of a public figure. There is no actionable threat here.
Oh. Well it sort of seemed that way to me. I am not a lawyer but it seems as if when the fellow is talking about family, friends, and “no end” it’s sort of a nonspecific threat. That said it’s hard to get a conviction on this sort of thing. Very well, I am corrected.
“I will make you the laughing stock of the Senate” is a threat, but only a political one, and is protected free speech. There is certainly no crime there.
If this type of pressure is illegal, a large percentage of political speech will have been ruled out. Maybe we'll all be the better for it.
But I doubt it.
I'm siding with the First Amendment on this one. Despite the fact that I think this particular TeePer has made an ass of himself.
The threat sounds kind of like what was actually done to Sarah Palin but not as bad.
What is he threatening to do that is illegal? Absent illegality, where is the tort?
That aside, if someone went after my family, I'd have to qualms about "taking care of" the situation as soon as the situation is known by any means necessary. Go after me all you want. Family? I'll do what I have to do - and it will never be in the threatening person's favor because now it's personal.
Yes, I see. I am not a lawyer. Perhaps I am wrong. As I posted earlier I thought the business about friends and family was spooky.
It is spooky; it’s meant to scare the guy. That’s how the IRS coerces compliance. So long as the threat is to do something not illegal, no tort is committed.
HHS has told employers that background checks are discriminatory. The president has obscured his so...
It was a stupid thing to use such a childish threat.
This is exactly why lots of us “normal citizens” who participated in early Tea Party Rallies saw the idiots trying to take charge and backed away.
A tort is a civil wrong. He’s being charged with criminal felony.
"Generally speaking, "assault" occurs when someone threatens bodily harm to another in a convincing way. Assault often is followed by battery, which is defined as unlawful physical conduct (often an act of violence, but also unwelcome sexual contact). Not all threats are considered assault. To rise to the level of an actionable offense (in which the plaintiff may file suit), two main elements must be present: The act was intended to cause apprehension of harmful or offensive contact; and the act indeed caused apprehension in the victim that harmful or offensive contact would occur. Therefore, a person who intends to cause apprehension of imminent harm and succeeds in doing so has committed the tort of assault, which also is a crime.
See more at: http://injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/elements-of-assault.html
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