Free Speech or Dangerous Mouth
By Benjamin Blascoe
Hal Turner, the infamous bigoted, white supremacist, foul-mouthed, intolerant, jaw-flappin’ web and radio host has been denied bail for his allegations against three appellate court judges. Taken from Law.com, on a “posting in early June (Turner Radio Network), Turner said 7th Circuit Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer “deserve to be killed” for their ruling in the handgun case that day.” Then, on June 24, 2009 Turner was brought in by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Turner for these blinkered remarks
Isn’t that a perfect case-study for irony? A man sentenced for making death threats because judges chose to ban a weapon that kills more people that the bird flu, swine flu and west-nile virus combined (actually much much much more). But Turner’s intellect isn’t on trial here, it is why he is in prison that is causing some stir. Is he really a danger to authority or is this political free speech?
At first glance, it seems like a definite ban on free speech. After all, the beauty of the internet is that there is no regulation. People can say and do whatever he or she pleases whenever he or she feels like it. But this case goes to prove that ‘big-brother’ is always watching, especially on the unregulated internet. The real interesting part of this piece is that Turner was denied bail for his remarks in yesterday’s decision.
Law.com’s Lynne Marek says “At Turner’s arraignment hearing on July 28, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Hogan argued that Turner should remain in custody based, in part, on the fact that he continued to threaten authorities even after his arrest. Hogan said that while Turner was in custody in New Jersey, he called in additional postings naming three FBI agents who interviewed him. He called in those postings despite court restrictions on his Internet use.” And consequently, he was denied bail.
We have been seeing more and more of these loud-mouthed radio and web jockeys getting in trouble for the nonsensical “shock” vernacular oozing from their mouths. I don’t think that the law is zoning in on free speech as much as I believe some people just talk without thinking.
I mean, if overturning a gun ban is worth jail with no bail – mission accomplished, except the ban still stands.
How do you feel about these ‘shock jocks’ hogging the airwaves? Are they worth it? Do they provide at least some service? Or are they just over-the-top figureheads for cultish communities?
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