LIVE AT SIX: 04.09.13

REQUESTING STATEMENT ON HARASSMENT POLICY
Monday, April 8, 2013 1:22 PM
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Dear Sirs:
As I am certain you are now aware, it has been reported that the office of Howard County State’s Attorney has refused to prosecute persons accused of online harassment, in apparent contravention of Maryland Criminal Statutes 3-803 and/or 3-805. In fact, it has been reported that a member of your staff, Assistant State’s Attorney Jim Brewer, advised persons complaining of such harassment, “If you’re so concerned about your safety, don’t come to Maryland,” and, “Stay off the Internet if you don’t want to be harassed.”
While I understand that authorities have wide discretion in choosing which complaints to pursue as criminal matters, these reports of official indifference to online harassment are certainly disturbing, and I wish to verify their accuracy. Has your office issued any statement clarifying your policy on this matter, or do you intend to issue such a statement in the future?
I ask this question as a reporter, a career journalist with more than 25 years in the news industry, but also as a former Maryland resident who left the state last year to escape the increasingly hostile climate of harassment that is apparently tolerated by officials there. While I am not a lawyer, and thus not qualified to state whether any particular action qualifies as a crime under Maryland statutes, I know right from wrong, and the harassing behaviors complained of in these reports would seem clearly wrong.
If you have any comment, please contact me via this e-mail address, as I hesitate to include my phone number or address in communication with your office.

Sincerely,

ROBERT STACY McCAIN
Editor-in-Chief, ViralRead.com
Correspondent, The American Spectator
Blogger, TheOtherMcCain.com

————————

Today is Everyone Blog About the Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office Day. John Hoge lists the participating sites:

Monitor’s Access
R. M. Nixon (Deceased) / Dead Republican Party
Tanny O’Haley
The Other McCain
Batshit Crazy News
Grumpy Opinions
Ameryx le Gallois
The Lonely Conservative
Raging Against the Rhetoric
Joyce Junior
Allergic to Bull
Patterico’s Pontifications

Certainly, this list will grow longer before the day ends. Dustyn at Monitor’s Access reports that the number at the office of Howard County State’s Attorney’s Dario J. Broccolino is (410) 313-2108; the number for Wayne Kirwan, the public spokesman for the office, is 410-313-3002.

My object is to get some kind of official statement from Broccolino or his spokesman, as to why there seems to be no legal redress for those complaining of harassment. Readers communicating with Broccolino’s office should be civil and polite.

Category: Bill Schmalfeldt, Crime, Maryland, The Kimberlin Files

‘Defeat? I Do Not Recognize the Meaning of the Word!’ Margaret Thatcher, R.I.P.

Posted on | April 8, 2013 | 29 Comments

When my daughter Kennedy was 11, Margaret Thatcher came to Washington to give a speech — sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, as I recall — and I managed to get Kennedy inside on my media pass. While I don’t recall exactly what Baroness Thatcher said on that occasion, I was deeply grateful that my daughter got to see and hear the former British prime minister, who died today at age 87:

One of the most influential world leaders of the 20th century, Thatcher was elected to Parliament at age 34 as a member of the Conservative Party and spent the next two decades ascending the ranks to become Prime Minister in 1979. She set about reversing many socialist economic policies of the British Labour Party, famously saying, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Thatcher’s resolve was tested in April 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. The British military had been weakened by years of neglect under Labour leadership.
When she was advised that the nation should not risk defeat in a distant and strategically irrelevant conflict, Thatcher famously replied: “Defeat? I do not recognize the meaning of the word!” . . .

Read the rest at ViralRead.

UPDATE: Linked by Becca Lower and Da Tech Guy — thanks! — and ViralRead managing editor Nathan Martin got a statement from Iron Lady star Meryl Streep praising Thatcher as “a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit.”

The British Left has reacted to Thatcher’s death with the kind of crude viciousness you’d expect of the British Left.

As for this “tribute,” well . . . later.

ELSEWHERE:

NBC News: Margaret Thatcher, ‘Iron Lady’ who led conservative resurgence in Britain, dies at 87
New York Times: ‘Iron Lady’ of British Politics Dead at 87
CNN: Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female PM, dead at 87
London Telegraph: Margaret Thatcher dies: latest reaction

Category: Great Britain, History

LIVE AT SIX: 04.08.13

Posted on | April 8, 2013 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

TOP NEWS
“Mr. Kerry, How Do You Ask A Woman To Be The Last To Die In Afghanistan?”

Anne Smedinghoff, 25

Diplomat killed along with five others in an explosion Saturday

Rick Warren “Overwhelmed” By Support After Son’s Suicide
Matthew Warren committed suicide after a long battle with mental illness

Ex-Porn Star Jenna Jameson Arrested
Charged with battery, given court date and released

POLITICS
Chuck “U.” Schumer Sees Deal On Immigration This Week

“It’s gonna be THIS big!”

GOP insists no deal without secure border

Senate Filibuster Gains Support To Delay Gun Control Vote

Three Priests Sacked From Philly Ministries Following Allegations

Community Organizer Walczak Becomes Seventh Candidate To Replace Boston’s Menino

Mormon Patriarch Eldred Smith Dies, 106

Romney’s IRA Is Obama’s Target For Revenue

Joe Biden Not Sequestering Any Of His Pay Yet

How ObamaCare Will Distort The Health Market

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Oil Up Slightly After U.S. Jobs News Causes Drop: NYMEX $92.84, Brent $104.44
Passenger Complaints Surge As Airlines Stuff More People Into Fewer Planes
IMF’s Lagarde Backs Bank Of Japan’s New Easing
Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Says Grand Duchy Willing To Ease Banking Secrecy
Icahn Refuses To Drop Dell Proxy Fight Option
Minneapolis City Officials Help Brew Up Craft Beer Growth
Labor Participation Rate Hits 34-Year Low
Fisker Hit With Lawsuit Over Layoffs
Sony Reveals Pricing For Its More Budget-Friendly 4K TVs
GPS Bracelet Uses Social Media To Protect Civil Rights Activists
“Torment” Kills It On Kickstarter AS Top-Funded Game Ever
Creative Setting, Gameplay Elements Provide “Infinite” Shocks, Delights
Electronic Arts The Worst Company In America? Again?
“Black Rock Shooter: The Game” Heads To PSN April 23rd
Namco Bandai Confirms “Project X Zone” Release Date For North America

SPORTS
Louisville, UConn To Meet For Women’s Championship

Louisville’s Monique Reed shoots over Cal’s Gennifer Brandon in the semifinal game Sunday

Huskies Beat Irish 83-65
Slaughter Lifts Louisville Over Cal 64-57

Sabres Get Shootout Win As Devils Continue Slide

Royals Hang On For 9-8 Win Against Phillies

Clippers Clinch Pacific Against Lakers

Blue Jackets Blanked By Wild

Tribe Pounds Rays 13-0

Pistons Play Spoiler To Bulls, 99-85

Ovechkin, Capitals Stay Hot, Top Bolts

Rangers Power Past Angels

Strasburg’s Poor Control Dooms Nats In Rubber Game Against Reds

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Jamie Pressly, Estella Warren Questioned By Police After Fight At Hollywood Hotspot

Pressly and Warren

More like tense discussion than catfight, really. Until they found the drugs.

Kordell Stewart Claims Porsha Williams Parties, Neglects Stepson In Divorce Docs

Ray J Wants Kanye To Know “I Hit It First”

Review: Kathy Griffin Doesn’t Have Jokes Or A Show

Tom Arnold Welcomes Son Jax Copeland

Jay-Z And Beyonce Blasted For “Ignorant, Insulting” Cuban Vacation

Selena Gomez – SWATted

FOREIGNERS
RBC Denies It Replaced Laid-Off Canadians With New Arrivals From India
Egyptian Police Firing Tear Gas Join Mob Attacking Coptic Cathedral
Venezuelan Opposition Candidate Capriles Holds Massive Rally In Caracas, Vows To Win Presidency
Both Sides Claim Victory In Montenegro Vote
Syrian Government Shells Civilians In Aleppo
Madonna Slams Malawi Education Ministry, President Banda’s Sister
Chile Seeking Answers In Death Of Poet Neruda

BLOGS & STUFF
Via Meadia: Elites Close Ranks Around Ivy League Intermarriage
Weasel Zippers: MoDo Pretty Sure Hillary’s Running In 2016 Because Of Her New Haircut
Althouse: The Sex And The Presidency Analogy
Moe Lane: Lemme Fix This Hot Air Headlines Headline
Scared Monkeys: John McCain Doesn’t Understand Threats To Block Gun Bill Debate
NewsBusters: “Face The Nation” Completely Ignores Friday’s Lousy Jobs Report
Gateway Pundit: Weiner Has Eye On NYC Mayoral Race
Israel Matzav: “Brave” Anonymous Hackers Hack Website For Kids With Cancer
Legal Insurrection: Is #OpIsrael Invited To CUNY’s Homonationalism And Pinkwashing Conference?
Jawa Report: #OpIsrael – Anon Will Hack Israeli Websites On Holocaust Remembrance Day – Israel Hacks Back
Mark Steyn: Metaphor Alert
Atlas Shrugs: Reuters Reports “Five Die In Christian-Muslim Clashes In Egypt”
Jihad Watch: #MyJihad In Nigeria – Jihadis Misunderstand Islam, Murder Eleven People
Lonely Conservative: TSA Calls The Stuff They Take From You “Voluntary Abandoned Property”
Protein Wisdom: If You Believe In God, The Army Teaches That You Are An Extremist

Category: Live at Five

Bill Schmalfeldt, Violentacrez, Barrett Brown and the Scourge of ‘Troll Rights’

Posted on | April 7, 2013 | 27 Comments

“Arrogant sociopathic punks think they can go around threatening people and if you dare say a word back to them, you’re the bad guy.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Sept. 4, 2012

Donald Douglas at American Power reminds me of the deranged cyberstalker’s irrational grievance: “Troll rights.”

Ah, yes, the “troll rights” movement — scourge of the interwebz! americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-de… – @ampowerblog

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 8, 2013

A basic problem of online life: People Who Don’t Understand How the Internet Works, No Matter How Often You Try to Explain It to Them.

Back in the day you could — and, in many places on the Internet, you still can — say anything you want to say in the comments. People who habitually frequent such places become accustomed to unleashing their id at will, and believe that this is a basic First Amendment freedom, which it is — as long as the proprietors of the site don’t care what people say in the comments. But one way or another, that online space is owned by someone, and the proprietor makes the rules.

Try going over to Democrat Underground or Daily Kos, spewing out GOP talking points, and see how long it takes them to ban you.

Trolls don’t understand this. They believe that having access to the Internet confers on them the inalienable right to say anything they want anywhere they want to say it, and any site operator who refuses to acknowledge that right is a fascist totalitarian.

To which I customarily reply: Get your own damned blog.

Here in my space, I will say what I want to say and — while disagreement and criticism from commenters is tolerated — there are clear limits to what can be tolerated without destroying the value of the site as a community of readers. Some of our regular commenters regularly disagree with me, and disagree with each other, and that’s OK. But what is not permitted is intentionally disruptive behavior, or personal attacks impugning the character of the hosts or the integrity of the site, which is inevitably the kind of “argument” trolls want to make.

This rule is a matter of hospitality and courtesy. You don’t accept an invitation to a party then show up and start harassing your fellow guests, complaining about the food and saying rude things about the hosts. Well, maybe you do that, but decent people don’t.

If you hate me, there are lots of places on the Internet where you are free to express that hatred. The comments of this blog are not such a place.

The classic example of the troll mentality was Michael Brutsch, a.k.a. Violentacrez, the notorious “jailbait” troll on Reddit.

In the free-for-all environment which the proprietors of Reddit seemingly encouraged, Violentacrez’s domineering id-monster act flourished. There were no limits he would not transgress, no sensibilities he failed to offend, and anyone who tried to get in his way was denounced as a crybaby, a “pussy.”

Well, it was anonymous, you see?

Except for a few trusted friends, nobody knew who Violentacrez actually was, and so there were no consequences for his deliberately vile behavior until, one day, consequences happened.

One of his “few trusted friends” finally had enough of his outrageous bullshit and narked him out to Adrian Chen of Gawker:

Last Wednesday afternoon I called Michael Brutsch. He was at the office of the Texas financial services company where he works as a programmer and he was having a bad day. I had just told him, on Gchat, that I had uncovered his identity as the notorious internet troll Violentacrez (pronounced Violent-Acres).
“It’s amazing how much you can sweat in a 60 degree office,” he said with a nervous laugh.
Judging from his internet footprint, Brutsch, 49, has a lot to sweat over. If you are capable of being offended, Brutsch has almost certainly done something that would offend you, then did his best to rub your face in it. His speciality is distributing images of scantily-clad underage girls, but as Violentacrez he also issued an unending fountain of racism, porn, gore, misogyny, incest, and exotic abominations yet unnamed, all on the sprawling online community Reddit. At the time I called Brutsch, his latest project was moderating a new section of Reddit where users posted covert photos they had taken of women in public, usually close-ups of their asses or breasts, for a voyeuristic sexual thrill. It was called “Creepshots.” Now Brutsch was the one feeling exposed and it didn’t suit him very well. . ..
“My wife is disabled. I got a home and a mortgage, and if this hits the fan, I believe this will affect negatively on my employment,” he said.

Alas, too late. Within a week, Michael Brutsch was fired from his job.

There are many words to describe Brutsch’s online behavior, but the important word is antisocial — a hostility to rules, a defiance of authority, an unwillingness to cooperate with others. Rules exist for a reason, and if you have a problem understanding why “distributing images of scantily-clad underage girls” is against the rules . . .

Dude, do I even need to finish that sentence? Read more

Category: Barrett Brown, Bill Schmalfeldt, How This Here Internet Thingy Works

Rule 5 Sunday: Super Double Coverage Illness Makeup Edition

Posted on | April 7, 2013 | 16 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Last week’s compendium was derailed by the flu or some other vile illness; going to unleash both weeks’ contributions at once by way of reparation.
Exercise discretion in opening the links, for not all of them are safe for work.

Really, really late (as in omitted from the last Rule 5 collection two weeks ago): EBL presents Rule 5 Ballet.

Last week, Laughing Conservative had Lisa Dergen, Redneck Insurrection had Rule 5 Friday, as did Animal Magnetism, who then changed things up with Asian Invasion Saturday. Randy’s Roundtable offered Lisa Poole, while Ninety Miles From Tyranny had a threefer featuring Girls With Guns, Hot Pick Of The Late Night, and Late Night Ladies. Also, Morning Mistress! Reaganite Republican showed Miss Uruguay 2012, First Street Journal wonders if all Finland’s female troops are blonde, and Fishersville Mike reminds us that Big Bang Theory (and Kaley Cuoco) will be back for a seventh season.

A View From The Beach had Vikings!, Jobs Program, Ashley Judd, “Do You Know The Way To Bankruptcy?”, No. Next Question. Is Body Paint Legal? Gentlemen Don’t Really Prefer Blondes, and Amaryllis.

Soylent Green’s Monday Motivationer was Malena, followed by Tuesday Titillation Paulina, Bravo Canuckistan!, Humpday Hawt Jelena, A Week In Siberia, Miss Carbon Come 2013 Winner Is…, Chain Bra Linky Love For The Truth About Guns, Corset Friday Fever, Overnighty Classic Shannon Long, and Your AM Amber.

EBL brought back Amanda Marcum for an encore after Florida Gulf Coast U fell; Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe was Lauren Cohan, his vintage babe was Blaze Starr, and Heidi Klum covered the Sex In Advertising beat. Also, Ashley Judd, Ladies carrying concealed, and a celebration of his fifth blogversary with Marilyn and a cake. Dustbury offers Roz Greenwood and Ashley Judd, and at The Camp of the Saints, it’s Jodie Gasson and The Rule 5 News.

The DaleyGator’s DaleyBabes included Gretchen Rossi, Courtnie Quinlan, Arianny Celeste, Wednesday Beauty, Christine Milian, Carla Gugino, Jessica Cribbon, Kenya Moore, Hot Nurses, Lauren Anderson, Mallika Sherawat, Japanese Sunday, Emma Ceolin, Shattered Dreams, and Jessica Biel.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!!

Category: Rule 5

The Little Girl Was Kidnapped and Raped — Thank You, Governor Jerry Brown!

Posted on | April 7, 2013 | 26 Comments

Chandler’s Ghost reminds me of a story I’d really rather forget: The kidnapping and sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Northridge, California, by two career criminals who never should have been out on the street. There are layers and layers of horror in this story.

First of all, the girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her own home in the middle of the night by two complete strangers in what police say was a “hot prowl” burglary that escalated. One of the suspects, Daniel Martinez, is in custody and, evidently, thought he was just going to be driving the getaway car for a burglary. Instead, the other suspect, Tobias Dustin Summers, kidnapped the girl. Martinez wanted no part of that crime, so he split the scene. Summers then took the girl to a nearby abandoned house, where he sexually assaulted her — and took nude photos of her — before the girl was finally dropped off at a shopping center several miles away. Someone spotted her walking barefoot through the parking lot, battered and bruised.

Compounding the harm — as if that weren’t bad enough — consider this: The girl’s mother discovered her missing shortly after she was kidnapped. This chubby redheaded girl’s name and photo were published and broadcast everywhere during the 12 hours when she was missing:

After she went missing, the girl was initially identified by The Times, citing authorities. However, it is the policy of The Times not to identify victims in cases of alleged sexual crimes.

Oops. Now her identity is known to everybody in the community — teachers, classmates, neighbors. At least she is alive, but to understand how badly was she victimized, it is necessary to say only this: Summers has been charged with 36 counts of sexual assault.

Thirty-six counts.

And neither Summers nor his accomplice should have been out on the street. Headline from the Los Angeles Times:

Suspects in kidnapping, sexual
assault of girl have long records

Less than a year before this girl was kidnapped, Martinez was convicted of “threats of death or great bodily injury,” which you might think would have kept him locked up a while, considering his previous convictions for burglary, petty theft, grand theft, resisting a police officer and unlawfully entering a property. But no, here he is out on the street within a year, wheelman for his jailbird buddy, Summers:

According [to] court records, Summers has convictions for receiving stolen property, grand theft, possession of an explosive and presenting false identity to police. In 2009, he was convicted of battery. Originally, he was also charged with annoying a child, but it was dismissed.

“Annoying a child”? I’m not exactly sure what that charge describes, but here’s the rancid icing on the rotten cake:

LAPD officials said [Summers] was released from custody in July 2012 under realignment.

“Realignment”? Better brace yourself for this one, folks:

The Cornerstone of California’s Solution
to Reduce Overcrowding, Costs, and Recidivism
In 2011, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed Assembly Bill (AB) 109 and AB 117, historic legislation that has helped enable California to close the revolving door of low-level inmates cycling in and out of state prisons. It is the cornerstone of California’s solution for reducing the number of inmates in the state’s 33 prison to 137.5 percent of design capacity by June 27, 2013, as ordered by the Three-Judge Court and affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
All provisions of AB 109 and AB 117 are prospective and implementation of the 2011 Realignment Legislation began October 1, 2011. No inmates currently in state prison have been or will be transferred to county jails or released early

Ah . . . not so much, eh? What was sold to the public as a beneficial “solution” was, in fact, a quiet surrender to the fact that California is slouching toward bankruptcy and had to cut costs, even if that meant endangering 10-year-old redheaded girls because the state couldn’t afford to keep creeps like Tobias Dustin Summers locked up.

As if that weren’t enough to make you want to scream, there’s just one more tiny detail: Summers got busted on a probation violation in January, but was turned loose within a week. And this was really a matter of policy, as our California friend Chandler’s Ghost points out:

It would be unremarkable if the prisons simply couldn’t afford to hold prisoners, though it would be bad enough. However, in 2011 Governor Jerry Brown signed a sweetheart deal with the corrections officers’ union that gave them unlimited vacation payout upon retirement and extra monthly cash if they got physicals once a year, among other benefits.
What we see here, then, is a government agency unable to perform its basic duties because of the deals that it made with taxpayer-supported labor. Criminals are allowed back into the society that is supposed to be protected by the prison system.

In other words, dangerous career criminals get released from prison early, so that the prison guards can get extra retirement benefits.

I’m sure one little redheaded 10-year-old girl is happy about that.

Tobias Dustin Summers is a fugitive and is now believed to be in Mexico, after he was seen crossing the border at Tecate a few days ago.

Category: California, Crime

Harassment Is Not Journalism

Posted on | April 7, 2013 | 17 Comments

Bill Schmalfeldt of Elk Ridge, Maryland, a.k.a. “Liberal Grouch”

“If you’re so concerned about your safety, don’t come to Maryland.”
— Jim Brewer, Howard County (Md.) Assistant State’s Attorney

Bill Schmalfeldt has directed 20+ unsolicited hostile Tweets at me in past 2 hours; he’s now objecting to being called “cyberstalker.”

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 7, 2013

CYBERSTALKER (noun) — Person who obsessively follows someone online, for purposes of harassment. See: Bill Schmalfeldt.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 7, 2013

People who don’t use Twitter may not understand what it’s like when someone starts sending to your “handle” unsolicited messages full of accusations and obscenities. This is what Bill Schmalfeldt does to people he targets for harassment: He monitors their Twitter account and sends harassing messages to them, as well as to people he sees associating on Twitter with his targets. It is the persistence of Schmalfeldt’s obsessions with his targets that qualifies what he does as cyberstalking.

I have previously described how Schmalfeldt began cyberstalking Aaron Walker in June, when he sent these messages to Walker:

2670. Sun Jun 03 19:55:53 +0000 2012, liberalgrouch, 209372854213558273,
@catsrimportant can someone point me to something written about this Aaron Walker case that was NOT written by some right wing shithead?

2669. Sun Jun 03 20:30:58 +0000 2012, liberalgrouch, 209381683034722305,
@AaronWorthing Are you really comparing yourself with MLK?

2668. Sun Jun 03 20:42:09 +0000 2012, liberalgrouch, 209384499425976320,
@AaronWorthing I know next to nothing about this case. What did Kimberlin say you allegedly said/tweeted/google that proved threating?

2667. Sun Jun 03 20:42:39 +0000 2012, liberalgrouch, 209384626899255296,
@AaronWorthing Forgive me for asking, but I have some strong views about the First Amendment and I’m researching this story for my blog.

2666. Sun Jun 03 20:42:54 +0000 2012, liberalgrouch, 209384689511841792,
@AaronWorthing I promise. No one will come to get you. 😉

2665. Sun Jun 03 21:10:29 +0000 2012, liberalgrouch, 209391629881192448,
@AaronWorthing Well, certainly a new Twitter chum can recommend to another new Twitter chum a website he might find interesting, say wot?

The nature of Schmalfeldt’s obsession became obvious when he began to escalate his campaign of harassment, expanding his target list to include myself and other of Walker’s friends. The situation gradually got bad enough that, on the Sunday before Election Day — while I was in Ohio covering the final push of the presidential campaign — I felt the need to call attention to what Schmalfeldt was doing: “Monsters on the Internet: Sociopathic Sadism and Bill Schmalfeldt’s Madness.” Three weeks later, during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Schmalfeldt sent me more than 200 harassing Twitter messages in the span of 48 hours, including a message in which he threatened to contact my wife.

Schmalfeldt’s motives for this weird behavior have been a subject of speculation. There are those who say that Schmalfeldt is being paid by convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin, or by persons associated with Kimberlin, and that what Schmalfeldt is doing is part of a deliberate effort to intimidate or discredit those who write about Kimberlin’s criminal past as Indiana’s notorious “Speedway Bomber.”

I remain agnostic about these theories because (a) there is no firm evidence of any such payment, and (b) crazy people don’t need rational motives to do crazy things. So whether Schmalfeldt’s harassment is hired thuggery or amateur insanity is ultimately irrelevant to this fact: It is evil.

Evil, however, is not necessarily criminal. And describing the evil that Bill Schmalfeldt does cannot stop him from doing what he does.

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, stalkers gotta stalk.

John Hoge and others have attempted to have Maryland authorities prosecute Schmalfeldt for his harassment, with no success so far. This illustrates a problem with law enforcement that has become increasingly apparent since I began covering the Brett Kimberlin story last May, namely the tendency to dismiss such harassment as “just a bunch of crazy people arguing on the Internet.” Which would be true, except:

Many of the people targeted as enemies by Kimberlin (and Kimberlin’s avowed associate, Neal Rauhauser) are being harassed for no other reason than the fact that they wrote about Kimberlin’s criminal past, or defended those who did;
The harassment is, to an extent, demonstrably an attempt to silence political opponents of Kimberlin, whose 501(c) organizations have been funded with more than $2 million in contributions under the pretext of pursuing various progressive “social justice” issues, including election-fraud claims and crusades against high-profile individuals and organizations including Karl Rove, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce;
To intimidate Kimberlin’s opponents, people have had their employment situations jeopardized and their reputations attacked with unsubstantiated accusations of criminal wrongdoing; and
Because many of the targets of this harassment are citizen-journalists who use Twitter as a vital tool for gathering news, communicating with sources, and promoting their work to readers, the constant barrage of unsolicited hostile Twitter messages from persons like Schmalfeldt hinders their ability to do their jobs.

Ask anyone who has been subjected to this pattern of harassment — Mandy Nagy, Aaron Walker, Patrick Frey, Lee Stranahan, Ali Akbar, et al. — what it’s like to be besieged by a swarm of Twitter trolls, knowing full well their malicious motives, and then to see friends turn their heads because they don’t want to get involved, or because the trolls have managed, through the repetition of accusations, to cast a shadow of unfair suspicion around their target.

You can call that whatever you want — I call it cyberstalking and harassment — but don’t you dare call it “journalism.”

In an effort to encourage officials to take this online evil seriously, John Hoge has declared Monday — tomorrow, April 8 — “Everyone Blog About the Howard County State’s Attorney Day.”

Do it.

Category: Bill Schmalfeldt, Crime, Journalism, Maryland, Terrorism, The Kimberlin Files

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The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

LIVE AT SIX: 04.09.13

E-Mail From a Former Maryland Resident to Howard County (Md.) State’s Attorney

‘Defeat? I Do Not Recognize the Meaning of the Word!’ Margaret Thatcher, R.I.P.

LIVE AT SIX: 04.08.13

Bill Schmalfeldt, Violentacrez, Barrett Brown and the Scourge of ‘Troll Rights’

Rule 5 Sunday: Super Double Coverage Illness Makeup Edition

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!!

The Little Girl Was Kidnapped and Raped — Thank You, Governor Jerry Brown!

Harassment Is Not Journalism

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

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