Arrested For Twittering
Put this in the you have to be kidding me files:
When deciding how to organize activities of questionable legal nature, it’s not always wise to choose a popular and widely available communications medium that even the police know about. When 41-year-old anarchist Elliot Madison got himself arrested in late September, he learned that lesson the hard way. Madison had been found using a police scanner and Twitter to help numerous protesters avoid police during the Group of 20 summit and has now been charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime.
Madison was found in a hotel room by Pennsylvania State Police on September 24, armed with police scanners and computers so that he could disperse critical information to protesters. According to the FBI, Madison was “directing others, specifically protesters of the G-20 summit, in order to avoid apprehension after a lawful order to disperse.”
Though the FBI says so, it’s not entirely clear from the complaint that Madison’s tweets were actually illegal. Madison’s lawyer told the New York Times on Saturday that he and a friend were merely “part of a communications network among people protesting the G-20.” As implied through the Times piece, Madison’s tweets merely directed protestors as to where the police were at any given time and to stay alert. “There’s absolutely nothing that he’s done that should subject him to any criminal liability.”
Mr. Madison was tweeting about the location of the police. I don’t understand this – the protestors had not committed a crime. If they avoided the places the police didn’t want them to go, weren’t the protestors not committing a crime? Just contrast the treatment of conservatives carrying guns to public townhalls with the treatment of the G20 protestors.
This was on NPR this evening. It was being compared to turning your lights on and off to warn drivers of a cop ahead. I don’t know why telling people where the police are — via tweeting or your lights — is a crime. This person was pretty clearly not in the middle of the mayhem.
The question that came up in my mind was what if he had called someone on the phone? It seems like the police are singling out social media. I understand if someone posted that they had just committed a crime. However, reporting where police are should not be a crime.
However, reporting where police are should not be a crime.
I can envision an on-board video system for your car that will record your travels in 360 degrees, and will optically recognize whatever you program it to recognize (for example, police cars), then will automatically upload the ID and coordinates to a mesh system that collates all the incoming data from all the cars equipped like yours, to produce a real-time mapping of the locations of all police units complete with car numbers.
Not to mention, you would have an excellent record of any accidents, or your roadside encounters with police.
Or maybe something that recognizes the digital police radio comm, even if it can’t decrypt it, it could use it to plot position…hmmm…..