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Five charged with felonies for tweeting or retweeting a cop’s photo

arstechnica.com

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Re: Five charged with felonies for tweeting or retweeting a cop’s photo

#3
> Update (~4pm ET): Mid-afternoon on Friday, August 7, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office dropped its cyber harassment charges against all five defendants, the Asbury Park Press reports. These charges stemmed from an incident involving a Tweet attempting to identify a New Jersey police officer. Our original story on the situation appears unchanged below.

Sometimes a little publicity is all the defense you need.

Re: Five charged with felonies for tweeting or retweeting a cop’s photo

#4
post #2

I hope they get good lawyers and tell the prosecutors to pound sand. What a sick joke.

Yes and can they sue for this too? Not sure how it works but this does sound it is like creating unfair stress for people to have to now defend themselves because they retweeted something or expressed an opinion on twitter.

Re: Five charged with felonies for tweeting or retweeting a cop’s photo

#5
post #2

I hope they get good lawyers and tell the prosecutors to pound sand. What a sick joke.

Yes and can they sue for this too? Not sure how it works but this does sound it is like creating unfair stress for people to have to now defend themselves because they retweeted something or expressed an opinion on twitter.

I have the impression that being charged with a crime has permanent consequences even when it is rapidly dropped.

There may be rules about how people and organizations aren't supposed to hold it against you, but if records are retrievable then it won't go away.

Someone with more legal knowledge might chime in, but I feel like I've seen questionaires asking something like "have you ever been arrested, charged, or convicted of a crime..."

It's like in court when the judge tells the jury to disregard something, can they ever really do that 100%?

Re: Five charged with felonies for tweeting or retweeting a cop’s photo

#7
post #2

I hope they get good lawyers and tell the prosecutors to pound sand. What a sick joke.

Yes and can they sue for this too? Not sure how it works but this does sound it is like creating unfair stress for people to have to now defend themselves because they retweeted something or expressed an opinion on twitter.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences, in most of the jurisdictions harassment is a crime and its for the courts to decide.

Re: Five charged with felonies for tweeting or retweeting a cop’s photo

#8
post #6

"If anyone knows who this bitch is throw his info under this tweet." - it's not just "tweeting a cop's photo"

True, it's not just a photo; it's also a request to identify a police officer, which has legitimate purposes.

Unless you think that calling a police officer a bitch is a felony.

Re: Five charged with felonies for tweeting or retweeting a cop’s photo

#9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and can they sue for this too? Not sure how it works but this does sound it is like creating unfair stress for people to have to now defend themselves because they retweeted something or expressed an opinion on twitter.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences, in most of the jurisdictions harassment is a crime and its for the courts to decide.

Thats the question. Is this harassment? Is the retweet harassment?

Re: Five charged with felonies for tweeting or retweeting a cop’s photo

#10
post #8
post #6

"If anyone knows who this bitch is throw his info under this tweet." - it's not just "tweeting a cop's photo"

True, it's not just a photo; it's also a request to identify a police officer, which has legitimate purposes. Unless you think that calling a police officer a bitch is a felony.

It's usually a request to get their address, get their family members fired, etc. BLM people on Twitter are truly disgusting.
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