First Amendment absolutists don't condone death threats
I am a First Amendment absolutist and I would like to read, amid the discussion of how the Delete key should be wielded, some more nuanced discusssion than I have seen on just where anyone believes the line should be drawn in censoring the Web, blogs or any other speech.
Certainly the words and images directed at Kathy are hateful and abhorrent. If a law has been broken, the accused should be prosecuted. Let's do keep in mind, however, that that person is the one who created and posted the words and images.
Beyond that, I don't see what can or should be done publicly. In case anyone hasn't noticed, anonymous abusers are not the sort of people who "own their words." There are bad people in the world. They do bad things. Bad things happen to good people.
And it multiplies the violation when good people respond in kind.
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Death Threats | Free Speech | Online Violence
In this case, that's not the case
Submitted by liza on 16 April 2007 - 9:47pm.
there was a rush to judgement to accuse people of harboring the perpetrator(s) of the death threats and, in the process, not only was their reputation destroyed but friendships have been strained due the (lack of) wisdom of crowds mobs.
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Okay
Submitted by JJ Ross on 16 April 2007 - 9:58pm.
AND
we bloggers (generally) ought to be able to make sense of civic principles without knowing insider details for any specific case, yes? Otherwise it's hard to know anything about anything, until after it's over and it too late to act from principle?
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Oh, Is That How It Goes?
I was thinking it was more like
evil triumphing when "good people do NOTHING . . ."