Direct from J-Walk Blog:
If you write comments at blogs, listen up: Trolls Take Note: Teacher Arrested For Leaving Offensive Anonymous Comment On Blog.
Suburban Milwaukee high school chemistry teacher James Buss was arrested last week after leaving an anonymous comment on the Boots And Sabers political blog as part of a discussion on teacher's salaries. Under the name of "Observer" James Buss wrote the following:
Looking at those teacher salary numbers in West Bend made me sick. $60,000 for a part time job were you work' maybe 5 hours per day and sit in the teachers lounge and smoke the rest of the time. Thanks God we won on the referendum. But whining here doesn't stop the problem. We've got to get in back of the kids who have had enough of lazy, no good teachers and are fighting back. Kids like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold members of the Young Republicans club at Columbine. They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time! Too bad the liberals rip them; they were heroes and should be remembered that way
Police acquired the IP address of Buss from the blogs administrator then arrested him at his home at Cudahy, south of Milwaukee. Buss spent an hour in the Washington County jail before he was released on $350 bail.
So, y’all mind yer manners.
Update:
MADISON, Wis. - A Wisconsin teacher who posted an anonymous comment online sarcastically praising the Columbine High School gunmen won’t face criminal charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens said the comment left by James Buss was offensive and disgusting, but was protected speech under the state and U.S. constitutions.
15 comments:
What exactly was he arrested for? Poor taste? He made no threat, he left no suggestion that he was going to do anything himself, he merely stated his approval for people who nobody in their right mind would approve of. If that's against the law, shouldn't we start arresting anyone who voted for Bush?
What in the hell has happened to free speech in this country?
So much for 'anonymous' comments. Although in this case the blog/ message board owned it's own servers and had access to IP logs.
I don't think it would be that simple to get Blogger to hand over an IP for an ambiguous comment like this guys.
...so a teacher thinks that teachers should be executed by their students?
Guy got arrested for being an idiot, aparently...or maybe for being a hypocrite. Either one, I basically support.
Can no one understand the gravity of what this person is saying? HERO's?? Why don't you ask the families of the Victim's loved ones if they think they were HERO's?? Maybe with a little bit of luck, he will be the next president of your country. Because.... they have done no wrong.
Or just tooo smart not to get caught.
Maybe money, works.
Besides that, I want to tell you that I Love your Blog. I'm only a new comer to this but I've gone thru your whole blog in 3 days, and I laughed and then thought.. Wonderful. You mix it up and try to keep on the light side. Thank You. Bella
Nice bike and you should really come to British Columbia, Canada to see the most amazing scenery, in the world. And believe it or not... We are really nice people and educated and we work.
free speech, yes, possible slander maybe by naming the kids, and did anyone actually shoot a teacher, or was the comment that the two students got them back one shot at a time, meaning by crude obnoxious behavior???
but 60k for temping... I should have been a temp..lol
Anon @ 8:09,
Have you been asleep for about 8 years?
"What exactly was he arrested for? Poor taste? He made no threat, he left no suggestion that he was going to do anything himself, he merely stated his approval for people who nobody in their right mind would approve of." from first comment.
I agree. I hope this guy gets a good lawyer. And then someone to knock some sense into him.... (geez - that sounded like a threat... should I be worried?)
This guy doesn't need a good lawyer. A first year law student knows exactly where to find the Constitution. Is it just me or is this country increasingly forgetting about this little thing called the Bill of Rights? This man said some pretty disgusting things. But the right to say disgusting things is protected under the first amendment, i.e. the freedom of speech. The only way he could be arrested is if he was making threats about actually killing someone, which he didn't. Slander wouldn't warrant an arrest either, because it is a lawsuit in a civil court, not a criminal charge.
The only possible thing I could see him getting arrested for is by saying "They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time!" as not only a show of (stupid) support, but a plan to do the same.
I'm not saying it makes sense or that I agree with it, but I can see how it can be twisted into a justification of the arrest. But like others here have said, he needs to get a good lawyer, and possibly drag the ACLU into this, and say that they are repressing his rights to free speech.
Thankfully the DA refused to charge him, the ACLU barely got it's foot out the door before sense returned to the land. Be sure to check out the comments on the original blog, specifically the posting where you can interact with the guy who turned him in at http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/blogging_ethics/
malink/blogging_ethics/ no clue why that happened. newfangled computators....
woe to the republic
Derek, being an idiot is not against the law. the 1st amendment of the constitution says :
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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