GREENSBORO, NC -- According to local blogger Jeff Martin (aka Fecundstench),
he received a call from a Greensboro Police Department detective that inspired him to remove this from
a blog post about nearly getting run over by a firetruck:
"I will fuck up a fireman, if I can every [sic] catch one of the fat bastards alone. Were they in turn out gear it would have been one thing, but to be run over while they were shopping is another."
I would like to know if a legal line was crossed. It might piss him off to hear this, but I take Jeff with a grain of salt and thus find his outrageous outrage frequently amusing. Although it does smart when he takes a swipe at me or one of my friends, I am intrigued by his desire to push the envelope of the medium. Did this particular post cross a legal line or was the GPD detective's intervention intimidation? I'd like to hear the opinions of people smarter than me.
13 comments:
Why don't you ask Martin about it before casting aspersions in the form of questions?
It's an honest question, the answer to which either implicates Martin or the GPD. I'm not sure upon which one you think I am casting aspersions. It sounds like you've decided.
Thanks for asking. I'd been on a tear all week, and mentioned contacting GPD CID before I got wound up. The encounter with the fire engine came at the wrong time and I behaved badly. The statement you excerpted and I redacted was meant as humor in that they always travel in groups. It was ill-advised and accidental.
I meant to go up to the line of legality and erred in crossing it.
Apparently, this is going to happen from time to time with me, but I regret and will try very hard not to let it happen again.
As to the legality of the statement, I have no opinion. In the end, I do as I am told. Det. Finch could not have been nicer about it.
I'm sure Detective Jeff thought it was a piss poor assanine statement from an alleged adult. Beau
Jeff, thanks for commenting. Were you told that what you had written was against a law? I read it as a Hunteresque rant against no one in particular. But I'm left wondering if it is against the law to say you'll "f*** up" an unspecified member of a group--not to imply anything or "cast aspersions" on anyone, just wondering if (and why) that crosses the bounds of free speech.
I totally understand. Det. Finch was concerned that the statement may have constituted a threat. Since I immediately redacted it, he seemed satisfied. But to answer your question, specifically threatening the fire dept. is probably a violation of the law.
Some firemen in Greensboro are so busy cheating on their wives, ditching their toddler son and losing all respect in the community that the ruminations of a satirical blogger really should be the least of their worries.
But hey, you can't even film a cop in NC without getting arrested anymore, so all hail the public servants! Bow down and worship for they are beyond reproach!
"Were they in turn out gear it would have been one thing, but to be run over while they were shopping is another."
Laugh out loud funny. ;)
Jeff has a way with words, he tends to use hyperbole with his blogs - that's his thing in case nobody noticed...
We still have free speech in America though. right?
I'd wonder more about who ratted his post out to the fireman and cops?
It all seems pretty harmless to me..of course ole fat boy Jeff could be a secret mad bomber! haha
I noticed. For a while, Anon 2:10. But then your hero got "mean".
To answer your question, yes, we still have free speech in America (and before you ask, I did not "rat" Martin out - I've stopped reading his blog).
But free speech STOPS when you threaten or libel someone else.
What Martin does is not "harmless".
http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2010/10/to-answer-your-question-roch.html
Free speech is not free. It comes with responsibility.
Some of us understand that. Some of us don't.
Roch strikes again (no warning, no notice):
http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2010/10/since-you-brought-it-up-i-know.html
Comments will be enabled on Housecalls with the next post Roch. And I expect to see that post on GSO We101 . . .
. . . since "free (if not responsible) speech" is so important to you.
Although I'm sure the detective was acting in Fecund Stench's best interests and asked him to remove it to be on the safe side, there was no illegal threat here as no specific person was named in his post.
Now if he had said "Fireman John Smith" then there might have been a problem. The statement was so general and not directed towards any one person, he might as well have said that he was going to beat up the entire state of South Carolina. The threat has to be perceived by an individual as being directed towards them.
Interesting theory.
But I wonder if the families of the thousands of public servants killed by terrorists (domestic and otherwise) in this country . . . particularly in New York on 911 . . . would buy that argument?
I'm thinking NOT.
I would hope that the GPD was looking out for the safety of local firemen . . . and acting in their best interests . . . as opposed to Jeff Martin's.
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