Posted on 06/16/2014 9:58:52 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
Pennsylvania man Anthony Elonis has historically enjoyed saying outrageous things on Facebook, such as how he would like to murder his estranged wife; shoot up an elementary school; sneak into an amusement park he was fired from to wreak havoc; slit the throats of a female co-worker and a female FBI agent; and use explosives on the state police, the sheriff’s department, and any SWAT team that might come to his house. Elonis has never actually done any of these things, but he did spend the last three and a half years in prison for saying that he would.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
My mother told me, “you listen to what people say. They’ll almost always tell you what they’re going to do. The important thing to do is believe them and take the appropriate action.” I rapidly found out she was correct. Generally, my action is to avoid those people. When people say they’re going to do something they generally, eventually, do it. Sometimes you’ll read a statement from a shocked neighbor, “for years he talked about killing her. But it was just talk. We never thought he’d actually do it!” Well, too frequently it isn’t “just talk.”
This doesn’t apply when the threats are made by a member of the bearded religion of savagery.
Stand on the street corner and tell passersby you are going to kill the mayor.
Or a nut. Wait...redundant...
Electronic harassment across state lines is a federal crime.
(a) Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing....and on and on and on.....
Sounds like an infringement of my 1st amendment rights. Oh, I forgot......that’s a California law.
People already to that and folks walk by shaking their heads and sying a prsyer for them. No one takes them seriously, except you apparently.
I searched the internet and couldn’t find anything showing it was a federal crime. Who would I report it to?
ROFL OMG At first I didn’t get that answer until it dawn on me. Your right ROFL ROFL
There have been federal convictions for this—I recall reading about one a few years back when an airline pilot based in Arizona or somewhere was harassing a woman via the Internet, and because it was across state lines he got a nasty sentence in federal court.
A friend of mine, a middle-aged widow, was being stalked and harassed online by a high-school boyfriend she had not seen or heard from in thirty years. He was in California and she was on the East Coast. She shut him down pretty quickly with the threat of federal prosecution. She also had him served for a personal injury lawsuit at his home, in front of his wife. It was hilarious. He was arrested when he showed up in her county. She lives in a state where they don’t like his kind frightening a nice lady and her little children.
I would collect evidence of threats and harassment, as well as communications in which you tell your correspondent to cease and desist. Then go to the US Attorney in your area. If he can’t help you, a personal injury lawsuit doesn’t have nearly the standards a prosecutor has to adhere to.
Thanks for the info. I’m currently putting together the posts. I’ve got people all over the country from various sites who will email me links and keep me apprised of new posts.
Have a search bot look, as well.
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