On Oct 5, 2009, at 11:05 PM, David Cake wrote:
At 1:59 PM -0700 5/10/09, Henry McGilton (Boulevardier) wrote:
On Oct 5, 2009, at 12:46 PM, Kevin Callahan wrote:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/05-6
Those two concepts converged during the G-20 summit, when state
police
arrested two New York men for using Twitter to inform protesters in
Pittsburgh about the movements of local officers.
It wasn't just using Twitter.
Amazing how the First Amendment has degenerated into a catch-all
escape hatch
to justify behaviour that in other countries would get people sent
to 're-education'
labour camps, or just plain shot . . .
Degenerated? I thought that was basically the point of the
First Amendment in the first place, that it guaranteed you rights
that would be made illegal by oppressive governments elsewhere.
FWIW, I think this is a perfectly reasonable use of free
speech, in a country that also has a right to free assembly. Well,
has one in theory, anyway....
Now, I wonder what the response might be if the police start using
twitter to counter
the twitterers . . .
Rather than using private radio channels to inform each
other about the movements of protesters, as they have been for
decades? What would be the point of that?
If you read the whole article it's not about Twitter really but they
were sitting in a hotel room using scanners to report on police
movements. They had a whole setup with computers for mapping and then
sending out information through a variety of means, including twitter
and via cell phone. Looks like this is more a case of making an
example and they are throwing everything at them. These are not some
innocent guys on the street just twittering though. The common dreams
article downplays some stuff. That said unless they were helping
people commit crimes I don't think this is something they should get
in trouble for.
They may have violated scanner laws in the state if they can prove
that what these guys did helped in committing a crime. The charges -
"They are accused of hindering apprehension, criminal use of
communication facility and possessing instruments of crime."
Original article:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09278/1003126-53.stm#ixzz0T9sV43XP
--Larry
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