I believe that Jim Mork is referring to the 1964
US Supreme Court decision in the case of the
New York Times v. Sullivan. This ruling became an
important precedent, meaning it has affected many
other court cases since then. Without looking it up,
my recollection is that the court ruled that in a case
for libel or slander, the party being slandered would
have to prove "actual malice" on the part of the
party who said or wrote the offending words, if
the subject of the alleged slander was a public
official. But if the person being slandered is a
private party, that's another story. We'll have
to check who qualifies as which one... obviously
elected officials are public officials, but I'm not
as sure about individual police officers. A smart
attorney like Brian Melendez may want to jump
in here with more info about the case.
Normally this wouldn't be a "mpls issue" but it is
if we're going to get into the issue of whether
people can be sued for things they say about
other people in their list postings.
Speaking of which, it looks to me as though people
are sending private replies to people, and then the
recipients are reposting those private replies to the
whole list. Unless I'm mistaken, this has happened
THREE times just today! And I think they were all
private messages from Jim Mork to other members.
Now, it may be that Jim's messages were just fine
and no harm was done, but I think our esteemed
List Manager will remind us to be careful about this.
There may be cases when people want to send a
private reply and not have it seen be everyone....
so while we uphold freedom of speech, let's uphold
the other side of it and respect the right to privacy.
Don Jorovsky
New Brighton
----- Original Message -----From: Tamir NolleySent: Friday, January 24, 2003 5:05 PMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Re: [Mpls] 3rd ward raceJim,
I can call anyone a thug. This is my right under the
First Amendment, but as it happens, I'm only calling
the majority of Minneapolis Police officers thugs, and
working in the community to stop the brutal things
that they do to the people that I care about.
I don't know who Sullivan is, but I'm a former city
council candidate and a current law school student.
Barbara Schneider (murdered by MPD 2000) was a member
of my mothers congragation. Fidel Depaz, the brother
of Efrain Depaz (murderd by MPD 2001) is a friend of
mine and to date every encounter I've had with a
street level Minneapolis police officer has been
abusive and bordered on violent.
I'm not rich at all, in fact, I'm usually broke, but I
know the difference between right and wrong. My
great-grandparents were Holocaust survivors and they
grilled in to me when I was young that you do not stay
silent when those you care about are brutaly
mistreated.
I have only refered to public individuals, (police are
such) as thugs, and only police and only Minneapolis
Police at that. I think most people actually agree
with me, particularly on the North Side.
I did call Clara Schmitt-Gonzales a control freak, and
I stand by that. I myself, being on the MTN board of
directors am also a public official, though I don't
actually do that much.
If someone tries to sue me than much of this will
become a matter of public, legal record and that will
only help change policies for the better. Anyway,
Jackie Cherryholms already tried to sue a list member
for something he said on the list and it didn't work.
My neighborhood is in the middle of a contentious
election and I have every right to make my views known
and try to influence the policies that may result from
this election if not the election itself.
Tamir Nolley
Holland
--- Jim Mork <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Tamir: Sullivan protects you when you call elected
> officials "thugs", but you could end up on the wrong
> end of a lawsuit if you call private individuals who
> just happen to have some relationship to a political
> official a "thug". Just how rich ARE you, anyway?
>
>
> --------------
> Jim Mork--Cooper
>
> "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those
> who brought war into our Country deserve all the
> curses and maledictions a people can pour out." Gen.
> William T. Sherman (1864) Letter to the Mayor of
> Atlanta.
>
> Get your free Web-based E-mail at
http://www.startribune.com/stribmail
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