Cyberbullying
The Tennessee legislature is peopled with idiots. I hope that causes some of them emotional distress, as that is my deliberate intent. Here’s why:
Among the bad bills passed by the Legislature this year was an amendment to the criminal harassment statute that made it a crime to communicate about another person or display an image via email, web postings or the like that deliberately caused emotional distress or fear. The law, which went into effect July 1, also lets cops and prosecutors demand records from social networks and other service providers to find out who posted any offending message.
This is idiocy. And our representatives should know better.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:05 am
I, personally, welcome my new cyber overlords!
All hail the persuasive, charismatic, intelligent and good-looking Tennessee Legislature! Their thoughtful, well reasoned, common-sensical and no doubt thoroughly legal erasure, infringement, and/or circumvention of the First Amendment to the US Constitution has to be one of the finest legislative feats since the Great Leap Forward of Mao, the Collectivization of the Kulaks by Stalin, and the decision to outlaw incandescent light bulbs by the US House and Senate.
All hail the Tennessee Legislature! All praise be upon them! May their heirs for seven generations acknowledge their greatness and wisdom!
/sarc
August 10th, 2011 at 11:11 am
First person charged under this will have a suit that will result in a nice payout.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:11 am
I’m going to sue everyone that posts pictures of bees. I have a phobia.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:20 am
I have an e-friend who is deathly afraid of spiders. This should be good..
August 10th, 2011 at 11:37 am
I’m actually at risk here since I pretty regularly criticize local politicians.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:39 am
While this might ultimately fall on constitutional grounds, until then you’re at risk of being barred from buying guns while under indictment, having your guns being taken away as a condition of bail and a black mark on all those “have you ever been arrested” questionnaires.
Not to talk the meanwhile easy records requests against that anonymous blogger who wrote bad things about the mayor drinking with the sheriff; that guy will be surprised how many stop signs he’ll be cited at for “insufficient stop” after his license plate number is in every cruiser on the force.
August 10th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Use the law to shutdown your local anti-gunners who threaten your gun rights. They certainly make me feel emotional distress and fear of the loss of my rights when they rant about gun control. Hoist them with their own petard. They want intrusive government; give it to them.
August 10th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
I find that pictures of the POTUS to be offensive, so can I consider that distressful enough so his likeness can be removed everywhere?
That would put a damper on his plans to have his image put on the new upcoming 3.00 dollar bill that he wants to introduce. [For the liberals reading this, that’s a joke; not racist hate speech].
@mikee: You are hilarious! I laughed so hard internal organs exploded.
Seriously though, the current “hate crimes” laws are in this very same category. Murder is murder, violence against another is simply violence. Punishments exist for these. Trying to add extra punishment because they said a derogatory remark while doing evil simply adds thought control to their mix of oppression tools.
I have to ask, when do I, as a non-racist, religious and God-fearing, heterosexual, white male get to have special hate crimes charges pressed against a person of some different race/creed/orientation, if I am the one who is attacked?
I’m holding my breath…I’m turning blue…crickets are chirping…and I expire from lack of oxygen…
August 10th, 2011 at 3:04 pm
This is idiocy. And our representatives should know better.
Who says they don’t?
tweaker
August 10th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
I thought we had a more conservative legislature which should mean less government in accordance with CONSERVING the Tennessee Declaration of Rights.
“The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.” –Cornelis Tacitus, Roman historian and lawyer
August 10th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
They don’t care. No real consequences for bad legislators.
1.Some girl committed suicide over facebook harassment, so the legislature gets its hammer out pounds down what looks like a nail.
2.Some politician is peaved, demands the police shut someone up, and they find this shiny statute.
3.The victim of this new statute sues, gets the statute overturned, and the tax payers pay for all of this.
Votes are more dangerous than assault rifles … vote poorly, and this kind of crap is continuous.
August 10th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Damn, you keep this stuff up down there, next thing you know, you’ll be Yankees!