Tim writes:
>> Again, do make it quite clear. Timmy caused no hurt. The people who
>> reacted irrationally and quite idiotically did. Tell me how this
>> doesn't matter.
> Just so, on all points. Some here would like to extend the criminal
> or tort class of speech to include derogatory remarks, insults, and
> "false" statements.
So Tim doesn't believe extortion should be a crime either?
"I have your kid and if you don't put $50,000 in a brown paper bag, I'm
sending you an ear."
Now, if you picked up the phone and heard that, would you suggest that
this particular false statement should be free of criminal and civil
consequences, or that you bore the complete responsibility for losing
$50,000 because you acted irrationally?
Speech is a continuum which runs the gamut from innocuous speech, to
speech such as that described above.
At some point along the line, the speech becomes criminal or tort speech.
The reasonable debate is over where this line is drawn, not some
absolutist position that all speech, by its very nature, cannot harm
unless someone acts idiotically based on it.
One good criteria is the "Reasonable Person Test." Would the speech make
a reasonable person iminently likely to act in a way which placed themself
or others at substantial risk of death or serious injury.
Examples: Yelling "Poison Gas Attack" in a crowded subway.
Saying "You can cross the street now" to a blind person when
a speeding cement truck is about to cross the intersection.
One interesting side note. Now that kids are getting encouraged to rat
out their classmates for anything related to violence and guns, no matter
how much of a stretch, the families of kids unjustly accused and jailed
are suing the families of the little snitches and winning.
The California solution? Pass a law immunizing kids who accuse other kids
of anything, even falsely and with malice.
This is an example of Tim's "It's only speech, deal with it" mentality,
carried to its logical conclusion.
--
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"
