Slashdot Log In
Police Director Sues AOL For Critical Blogger's Name
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Jul 24, 2008 02:46 AM
from the tell-us-everything dept.
from the tell-us-everything dept.
Pippin writes "Memphis Police Director, Larry Godwin, is suing AOL for the names of the authors of the Enforcer 2.0 blog. The blog is rumored to be authored by a Memphis police officer, and is critical of the department, Godwin, and some procedures. Godwin is actually using taxpayer dollars for this and, interestingly, the complaint is sealed".
Related Stories
Submission: Memphis PD sues AOL for critical blogger's names by Anonymous Coward
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Funny)
with a Godwin Law violation...
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Funny)
I believe this story has Godwined itself.
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I hereby present you Godwin's Law 2.0:
As the internet grows and Godwin's Law becomes more and more famous, internet discussions will increasingly refer to Godwin's Law instead of actually mentioning Nazism.
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Insightful)
In an infinitely long thread, you are absolutely certain to have at least one mention of every single concept, object, philosophy and idea ever known to humanity, because of the way probability works.
Only if the thread is irrational (just like you can find any combination of numbers in pi or e). In a nice, rational thread, you'll eventually get repetitions and the thread will loop back to itself.
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:4, Interesting)
This doesn't follow at all.
Liouville's constant is not only irrational, it's transcendental. But it only contains the digits 0 and 1.
Tim.
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Funny)
"When I see professional clowns, mimes, or people who makes balloon animals, I think of their relatives and how disappointed they must be." - Jimmy Fallon
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Funny)
I think you mean 'meme'. Unless there's a whole other level of slashdot interaction that I am not aware of, where people mime each meme.
In any case, I propose a Meta-Meme-Mime Meme: I feel a great disturbance in the air, as if every slashdotter in the world suddenly mimed the meme 'whoosh'.
Parent
What's the sound... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Funny)
No, with Bush it's a little different. I believe it's something like "The longer Bush remains in office the probability of his dying in a bunker in Germany approaches 1".
Parent
Re:Do, Do let me be first.. (Score:5, Funny)
so then whats the law for soviet russia
In Soviet Russia, the law breaks YOU!
Parent
Send Larry the legal bill (Score:5, Insightful)
If the bloggers are leaking information that harms investigations then Larry is doing the right thing; if they are merely critical of Larry then they should be encouraged at their efforts to improve the police service.
You've missed something important (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, what you say is true, but you forget that this America! We are KINGS of misappropriating funds to defend politicians and law enforcement, and our legal system is all for supporting such practices (since it helps protect them as well). Screw what is right, what about the status quo!
Yes, this statement is perhaps pandering, but it's also painfully true (dammit).
Parent
Re:You've missed something important (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:You've missed something important (Score:5, Insightful)
Modern dictatorships usually exists to enrich the dictator but democracies claims that they exist to protect the general population and hence your comparison is not very fitting.
Parent
Re:You've missed something important (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah "protect" like in the phrase "protection racket".
Besides which, democracy is not designed to "protect" the general population - it is designed to allow governance that is representative of the majority's wishes. No "protection" or safety inherent in that. The police aren't there for your safety, they are there to catch criminals. The military aren't there for your safety, they are there to protect the government from outside aggressors.
This repeated tagging of government activities as "for your safety" is a load of bollox, and leads to interception of your communications, categorisation of certain groups of people as undesirable, and a virtually unlimited line of credit from your pocket.
Parent
Re:You've missed something important (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:You've missed something important (Score:5, Informative)
Yes dictatorships and their like tends to be much better at misappropriating funds for personal interest but US is a democracy
Actually, no it isn't. The US is a republic, not a Democracy. It isn't even a democratic republic; if it were, before any bill became law it would have to be voted on my the citizens.
We have "almost" democratically elected legislators. I say "almost" because we are more of a plutocracy than a democracy; usually the candidate with the most money to spend on his campaign wins. This allows the corporates, who own the media, to marginalize all but two of the political parties and "contribute" to those two, making whoever wins beholden to them.
I truly wish we were a democratic republic, where nobody could contribute to more than one candidate in any given race, where nobody could contribute to a candidate he wasn't eligible to vote for, where all laws expired after ten years and had to be relegislated, and where no bill became law unless voted on by the citizens.
I'd like to be rich, too, but that's about as likely to happen.
Parent
No. (Score:5, Insightful)
The correct action is to give Larry Godwin as much rope as he wants. Record everything. Document everything. Ensure this pooled information is made accessible to the blogger somehow - someone'll know who it is. People who are upset make mistakes. Pushing them deeper into their paranoia and neurotic state of mind will cause them to make bigger and bigger mistakes. It's not entrapment, as nobody is making Mr Godwin do anything illegal, they're not even suggesting it. It would be his choice, with the alternative being to back off. He has total free will. Once he has done something openly illegal, provided immunity doesn't cover him, arrest him for it.Even if immunity did cover him, this is election year and politicians aren't going to want to leave a loose cannon in a public position. He'll be removed from office.
The result will not be a court decision (which never helps anyone) but will give whistleblowers additional measures they can take.
Parent
Re:No. (Score:5, Insightful)
The correct action is to give Larry Godwin as much rope as he wants
Not with tax money. The city council has a fiduciary duty to the people of Memphis to keep this asshole from wasting their money litigating over his hurt feelings.
-jcr
Parent
Re:Larry Godwin is an African-American. (Score:5, Insightful)
The first problem with your post is that you haven't even seen the blog in question. I am assuming this is the case since you use words like "if" when you describe the grammar and spelling. So you are just guessing at this point which is kind of strange. Also, you are stereotyping that white people can spell and black people can't. I guess I don't really have that stereotype in my head, but let's assume that that is accurate and the stereotype exists for some statistically significant reasoning. I could counter that stereotype by saying that most of the cops I know don't really care about their spelling or grammar regardless of their race so I fail to see how that would be so telling to you.
What's even more interesting to me is that you then post a story that has less to do with race and more to do with poverty. Did the public housing have a majority black population? Probably. But the section8 people all had poverty in common, not race. A black doctor living in a neighborhood is probably not going to cause the crime rate to go up in that area.
So, from all this I think you are probably racist. That's a harsh word to throw out there but that is the only reason I would think that you would associate race with your quoted article and also jump to conclusion about the Slashdot article without even seeing the blog.
As far as the liberal jab goes...what you wrote didn't bother me at all. Liberals see poverty as a large problem and are actually trying to address it. The section8 projects sounds like it didn't solve the problem (I don't know this for sure since we don't know if the overall crime rate went down or if crime went from being more concentrated to being more distributed). The crime rate may have gone up in new areas, but maybe those kids had a chance at a better education and it actually improved things overall. At least people are attempting to solve the problem. Republicans just want to help the rich because this supposedly passes the wealth on down to everyone else since they crate jobs etc etc trickle down economics garbage. Unfortunately that just tends to concentrate wealth and cause more poverty. And as the wealth becomes more concentrated at the top, there is less money for the middle and lower class to purchase with, thus harming an American's buying power and his/her ability to shop thus harming the economy. This stuff can be argued back and forth, but that is another side of that argument. I think having some rational social programs is humane and beneficial to the economy. To try to help and fail is better than to not try at all (as long as we are trying to learn and improve). Republicans (neo-cons) are a complete failure since they don't even hold to their conservative mantra. They just borrow and spend which is worse than any liberal Dem would do. I wouldn't mind Republicans if they actually cut spending and reduced taxation as it would help my bottom line. But they don't do that and just put us in huge deficits. So I have to be for the Dems. The redistribution of wealth (as inefficient as it is) is better than throwing the money in to stupid wars and a rising deficit. Hopefully the Republicans can find their conservative roots again...it doesn't seem like the Libertarians will be able to be a factor in this election where it seems like the true conservatism still lives. (wow, that went way out there but at least it has plenty of topics to discuss!)
Parent
Re:Send Larry the legal bill (Score:4, Interesting)
if they are merely critical of Larry then they should be encouraged at their efforts to improve the police service.
But that's not the American way, sue sue sue is how its done these days
Parent
what? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know whether to be amusingly or annoyingly about the quality of the editing round here.
Links (Score:5, Informative)
I notice that they haven't even linked the blog [blogspot.com] directly.
Does anyone care about the stories, or it it just "another libertarian story that they'll love"?
Granted, it wasn't hard to click through from the article, but it's not as if blogspot as going to get slashdotted, and free speech needs examples, not just meta-waffling.
Parent
Re:what? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/interestingly [merriam-webster.com]
Interestingly.
ADVERB
Either there's a word missing in the sentence, or it should be rewritten:
And, interestingly, Godwin is actually using taxpayer dollars for this. The complaint is sealed."
- or -
Godwin is actually using taxpayer dollars for this, and, interestingly, the complaint is sealed."
Parent
Re:what? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:what? (Score:5, Funny)
Grammar is for Grandmas -- it's so 20th century.....
I thought Grammar was for Grampar !
Parent
A link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A link (Score:5, Informative)
They make some pretty serious allegations in this blog. Including possible murder cover-ups and tolerance of rampant sexual harassment directed at females in the police force.
I'm not sure I really believe everything I'm reading here, but if much of it is true, then I can see why the MPD would want to shut them up.
Parent
Re:A link (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's not true, then it's probably libel, then the blogger should be stopped.
Parent
What's all the fuss about? (Score:4, Funny)
Posted by Dirk Diggler MPD
;)
Parent
Anyone else over the internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Anyone else over the internet? (Score:4, Funny)
It's time to create something else that provides free speech? They already did, it's called Europe.
Parent
Re:Anyone else over the internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Free speech in Europe? Try promoting Nazism in Germany. Try denying that the Holocaust happened in Austria. Try insulting Ataturk in Turkey (okay, let's not argue whether or not Turkey is in Europe).
Free speech is more free in the U.S.
Parent
Re:Anyone else over the internet? (Score:5, Funny)
Now, Grasshopper, THAT's a true demonstration of how Godwin's law works. :)
Parent
Re:Anyone else over the internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
The outrage of the public over the Dixie Chicks is the perfect example of free speech, not an example of censorship. The DC were free to sing their song, and the public was free to react and let them know that it wasn't well received.
Please tell me where the government stepped in to curtail anyone's free speech rights in that situation?
(Hint: censorship is carried out by governments, not the public)
Parent
Re:Anyone else over the internet? (Score:5, Funny)
Then, obviously, you get the expected three replies to each of those posts and the thread exponentially drifts more and more off-topic until the initial point is lost amongst a haze of Natalie Portman's and gritz.
But "Natalie Portman's [sic] and gritz [sicker]" is the whole reason why I visit Slashdot.
Parent
Re:Anyone else over the internet? (Score:5, Interesting)
The interesting part is that unlike a news paper the company hosting the site doesn't have a great financial interest in free speech.
Actually, they do.
Bloggers don't want their opinions and views to be silenced by "the man". If AOL gets a reputation as a company all too willing to help hush-hush bloggers (The people who bring traffic and revenue to their site), they'll experience a backlash.
Parent
Great idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great idea. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
You know who else (Score:4, Funny)
You know who else sued AOL for a critical blogger's name?
Anon blogs may be best way to curtail abuse (Score:5, Interesting)
Though most policemen are good people, I've heard stories of various 'Rambos' and other scummy types in police departments that would give the Zimbabwe PD a good run for the money. Most of these abuses are not reported by other cops because of guaranteed retribution. We need the anonymous blogs to get this crap in the open and dealt with. This case needs to be unsealed (public office after-all) and dealt with fairly.
Re:Anon blogs may be best way to curtail abuse (Score:5, Insightful)
Though most policemen are good people... Most of these abuses are not reported by other cops because of guaranteed retribution
In my book, that makes those "other cops" bad policemen.
We need the anonymous blogs...
Or more Policemen that respect their badges and what they stand for?
Parent
Re:Anon blogs may be best way to curtail abuse (Score:4, Insightful)
Why bother with Wikileaks, when there's innumerable blogs?
Personally, I'm glad that its not all funneled through the same site, that's when censorship is easy, Wikileaks is great, but its not perfect, and maybe the submitter didn't trust it, or more likely, doesn't even know it exists, or possibly didn't want to make a big stink about it, and was hoping a lesser known site/blog would only get the appropriate amount of attention, without making it into some big scandal, but he/they could still refer to it.
Disclaimer: I Haven't RTFA.
Parent
Police need protection from the police (Score:5, Interesting)
So now the police need protection from the police. The privacy issues which they seek to deny civilians in the pursuit of justice they will adamantly defend for themselves. Of course there is a difference between Managers and Employees, but the symbolism is striking.
Re:1st... (Score:4, Funny)
The point of being an Anonymous Coward is so the gangs of thugs don't know who you are...
Oh, and to troll.
Parent
Re:just flame a little more carefully (Score:5, Interesting)
Everything I ever say is either my opinion (what else should it be?) or it is the opinion of someone else,
And it is your responsibility to make the distinction when you speak:
"He committed this illegal act." (Implies "in the opinion of the people making up the legal system", which is the opinion that counts.)
"I believe he committed this illegal act." (In your opinion, which probably doesn't count.)
"The NYT reports that he commited this illegal act." (The NYT opinion, let them worry about it.)
That's what it's all about: tell your audience whose opinion it is. That's your responsibility.
Most statements imply whose opinion it actually is if you don't qualify them, and it's often not the speaker's.
Parent