Sources: Amy Goodman's Column, Democracy Now!, Ars Technica
A social worker from New York City was arrested last week while in Pittsburgh for the G-20 protests, then subjected to an FBI raid this week at home -- all for using Twitter. Elliot Madison faces charges of hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime. He was posting to a Twitter feed (or tweeting, as it is called) publicly available information about police activities around the G-20 protests, including information about where police had issued orders to disperse.
While alerting people to public information may not seem to be an arrestable offense, be forewarned: Many people have been arrested for the same "crime" -- in Iran, that is.
...
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: For our first segment, we turn to a case of a New York activist who’s believed to be among the first to face criminal charges for communicating electronically with protesters about police actions. Elliot Madison was arrested last month during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh when police raided his hotel room. Police say Madison and a co-defendant used computers and a radio scanner to track police movements and then passed on that information to protesters using cell phones and the social networking site Twitter. Madison is being charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime.
Exactly one week later, Madison’s New York home was raided by FBI agents, who conducted a sixteen-hour search. The agents seized items including computers, clothing, books and the records of Madison’s clients in his job as a social worker. Madison has since won a temporary order barring agents from examining his seized property.
...
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."
http://anarchismtoday.org/News/article/sid=158.html">Read more, or
http://anarchismtoday.org/DF_Multimedia/page=watch/id=57.html">watch the interview, at
http://anarchismtoday.org/">AnarchismToday.org
Blue of
http://bluesnews.com/">Blue's News, (who is hardly a radical, to my knowledge) summed it up well: "Take that, freedom of speech!"
-Andy Rink (personman)
AnarchismToday.org
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(959 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
