Time to prosecute the Free Republic vandal outright. (Vanity)

today | By Lazamataz

[Lazamataz]

There is an internet vandal who defaces Free Republic with very gross pictures (homosexual sex and stuff from rotton.com) as well as posting "ALL YOU F***** N*****S & JEWS SHOULD BE LYNCHED".

He pings a variety of people to his post, ensuring that the trash is still in their My Posts lists.

To me, this isn't the milder form of harassment that Eschoir engaged in so many years ago. The very worst he would do is ask if you ever committed sodomy, and he once used the screen name "Paula Jones Tw*t". This is mild.

What this sick piece of work is doing is much more egregious. I believe it crosses the line into criminal defacement and restraint of trade. Are there any Free Republic lawyers (especially prosecutors) who can address this issue, and are there any private detectives with internet savvy that will help track the identity of this person down?

[Petronski]

GMTA!

See my 257.

[jude24]

I may be naive, but I cannot believe any jury could be cajoled into believing that post was political in content. Thats why the banning is beyond question. But I don't think he did anything illegal, because he was an authorized user at the time he posted them (even though he was abusing those privileges), and because the content was inherently political.

The only thing I think we could hang our hat on was that "all n-----rs and jews" was directed specifically to appropriate minorities. (Which is odd - that indicates a fair amount of knowledge of the players here.)

[Velveeta]

OK, gotcha. :-)

The photos were simply dreadful.

[rdb3]

Has Jim Robinson given us any of his thoughts on this? I'm just wondering.

I've never had a conversation about this with Jim, or the Mods. Not to say that he hasn't discussed this, just not with me.

[Larry Lucido]

Just my 2 cents. There are myriad criminal and civil statutes that apply to one or more of this cretin's acts. Prosecuting would be the easy part. Finding him, well, the FReeper who can pull that off will go into the FReeper Hall of Fame next to Buckhead.

[Lazamataz]

I wonder if we could get him for terroristic threats.

You must be in the south. Only southern states call those "terroristic threats". :o)

[mhking]

I often post (mildly) offensive stuff that they have to clean up

You can say that again... ;)

[Total Package]

bump

[Lazamataz]

Finding him, well, the FReeper who can pull that off will go into the FReeper Hall of Fame next to Buckhead.

Imagine that. Me and Buckhead in the same restaurant Hall of Fame. :o)

[BulletBobCo]

Bump

[jude24]

You must be in the south. Only southern states call those "terroristic threats". :o)

I was looking at the Georgia Code, but I'm a law student in Buffalo.

[gridlock]

It's up to JimRob, but I like the way you're heading...

[sageb1]

"Maybe a vote button could be put on posts and if a certain number of no votes were given, then it would be deleted. You could even weigh the voting process to favor those with the oldest sign up dates."

Unfortunately, I think we need to just be watchful and hope the moderator will get here quickly. Moderators are human, too.

[Admin Moderator]

I'm not Mod material

Me neither.

[TheBigB]

I often post (mildly) offensive stuff

The Hell you say. :o)

[mhking]

That's about all that can be done. I'm not a lawyer but I'm 99.99999% sure that anything attempted legally would be laughed out of court.

Not necessarily -- at least not on a civil level. I'm sure that with the lower standard of proof necessary in a civil litigation, that something could be done there; now whether anyone has the fortitude to move that way is another question entirely.

[Lazamataz]

You can say that again... ;)

Yes, but I am a good witch, not a bad witch.

And the old saying is that a DA can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sand witch.

[Strategerist]

Prosecuting would be the easy part

Other than outright hacking which was not done in this case, the ONLY successful "prosecutions" I'm aware of remotely resembling this situation are a few cases where someone defamed a (profit-making) company on bulletin boards thus reducing their stock price, etc; they were civil cases and the companies were able to show financial losses because of the postings, etc.

[Petronski]

Seems like it.

It must be a GREAT idea if both you AND I thought of it. LOL

[TheBigB]

Sheesh. That figures. Not only a racist a-hole, but one with no imagination as well. Although maybe we can be thankful for that.