Woman with police-monitoring blog arrested

Woman with police-monitoring blog arrested

A 34-YEAR-OLD woman, the mother of a 12-year-old girl, has been locked up in a Virginia jail for three weeks and could remain there for at least another month. Her crime? Blogging about the police.

Uh-oh, They're Here! (Original Washington Post Article)

Granted, the woman, isn't the poster-child of the Right to Free Speech, as her Blog at I HeArTE Jade shows. The woman is quite the nutter and white supremacist. However, what pushed Charlottesville Law Enforcement over the legal line was when she posted the name and address of one of their officers on the Blog, using information that anyone can freely obtain from municipal public records.

Republishing material gained by freely obtainable municipal public records isn't a crime! The police felt threatened and took the law into their own hands, making a bad error in judgment and violated her Constitutional Right to Nuttery, ahem, I mean Free Speech.

What really irks me is that Law Enforcement feels a strong need to keep citizens under 24/7 Surveillance, violating our rights to privacy on a daily basis, yet when the tables are turned, they arrest and imprison.

From the link:

The Washington Post reports that a Virginia woman is being held in custody by police who allege that information she posted on her blog puts members of the Jefferson area drug enforcement task force at risk.

'In a nearly year-long barrage of blog posts, she published snapshots she took in public of many or most of the task force's officers; detailed their comings and goings by following them in her car; mused about their habits and looks; hinted that she may have had a personal relationship with one of them; and, in one instance, reported that she had tipped off a local newspaper about their movements.

Predictably, this annoyed law enforcement officials, who, it's fair to guess, comprised much of her readership before her arrest. But what seems to have sent them over the edge — and skewed their judgment — is Ms. Strom's decision to post the name and address of one of the officers with a street-view photo of his house.

All this information was publicly available, including the photograph, which Ms. Strom gleaned from municipal records.'"

She should be detained. What an idiot. Leave the cops alone. I wonder what she's done in her past that makes her want to watch the police so much.

Moar :

Although the Charlottesville police chief, Timothy J. Longo Sr., had previously written to Ms. Strom warning her that her blog posts were interfering with the work of a local drug enforcement task force, she was not charged with obstruction of justice or any similar offense. Rather, she was indicted on a single count of identifying a police officer with intent to harass, a felony under state law.

Link

Originally posted by elevatedone
I wonder what she's done in her past that makes her want to watch the police so much.

Wow aren't we the one with preconcieved notions?

Maybe someone did something to her? Ever think of that?

NOOOOO!!!!....It's gotta be the citizen.

reply to post by Nutter


Fair enough. Wonder why she hates the police so much.

I'm sure they just picked her out of all the citizens and decided to make her a target at some point in her life.


This woman is an idiot and deserves to be in jail. Leave the cops alone, let them do their jobs.

Originally posted by elevatedone
reply to post by Nutter

 

Fair enough. Wonder why she hates the police so much.

As stated before...maybe a cop did something to her?

I'm sure they just picked her out of all the citizens and decided to make her a target at some point in her life.

Well, let's put it another way.

I was gay bashed last Sunday and they broke my nose. The cops didn't even create a police report (I found out after trying to obtain a copy of it). I contacted the gay and lesbian liasson unit and they told me what I can do is to file a complaint. Now, do you really think I'm going to file a complaint against a cop?

Maybe she did and they started to harrass her? You don't know but gladly jumped on the bandwagon of her being in the wrong automatically. Why? Because they are cops? Give me a break...they are human first.

This woman is an idiot and deserves to be in jail. Leave the cops alone, let them do their jobs.

I'm sorry that you feel that anyone who speaks their mind is an idiot and should be locked away. Hey, you just spoke your mind...should we lock you away and call you an idiot?

[edit on 17-8-2009 by Nutter]

reply to post by Nutter


Sorry.

No no should be picked on, singled out or attacked. Hope you feel better soon.

We don't know this lady's past, true. But to follow the police and document everything like she did was nothing more than idiotic. What did she think she was going to prove.

These guys are on a drug task force, no one else needed to know who they were or what they did. Just let them be.


You're right I did just speak my mind, however I backed up my opinion and didn't single anyone out other than the lady in the article.

I've been called worse than an idiot, it doesn't hurt me.

Hey, you just spoke your mind...should we lock you away and call you an idiot?

But, they didn't lock her up for "speaking her mind". They locked her up for breaking the law.

she was indicted on a single count of identifying a police officer with intent to harass, a felony under state law.

If we leave cops alone they turn into Nazi's..and fast. We should always monitor and report police outrages.

in this case, the state will LOSE. Unless they can show that she intended for someone to harrass the cop mentioned, she will walk. The cops are just miffed and angry and as always they abuse the statutes to show someone they can win at any cost.

I guarantee you that she will be found not guilty or the charge dismissed...it will be on appeal if some cowardly judge sides with the cops. Unless she arranged with others to perform some act againts the cops, or intended to herself, there is no charge that will stand.

If she got her info from public sites, then she should be left alone.There is NO LAW against what she did, so the cops reached so far down into the muck that they drug up some obscure law that only applies to those who intend some harm or some bother for the cop.

The fact that someone MIGHT use the info she provided means NOTHING under the law. Might is not enough. It has to be actual. It is like some cop telling you that you cannot speak your mind in public because someone MIGHT get offended and act out; there has to be immanent, actual violence before anyone can be restricted as to speech.

The cops want to have it all; be anonymous, be safe, be private...yet at the same time be out in society violating rights all day long. Cops want to bust as many small time 'drug' users and other petty offenders as possible to prop up their stats and prove their worth.

But they want to make all the rules and have no risk!! they want it all! Well, too bad. I applaud this woman, as nutty as she may be, for exposing the players who are ruining her city by pretending to be real people and then busting others for non- crimes...nonviolent offenses. If cops want to take their uniforms off and play the game, let them risk exposure.

I live in a very rural area, and everyone knows where all the cops live. Their names are in the phone book for Petes sake. No one worries about anyone harrasing them; after all, they are armed and well aware that they make enemies all day long by their conduct, so let them face the same risk we all would if we were out pretending to be a friend and instead are really the enemy.

Spying and treachery are hated universally by decent people. Cops who use treachery and lies should reap the rewards. One of these is exposure and villification for the sake of those who are sick of the cops dirty tricks. I hope she gets all the names and addreses of all cops in her town and spreads them far and wide. maybe that is the only way to make cops think twice about treating their empoyers like dirt.

Originally posted by elevatedone
reply to post by Nutter

 

Fair enough. Wonder why she hates the police so much.

I'm sure they just picked her out of all the citizens and decided to make her a target at some point in her life.


This woman is an idiot and deserves to be in jail. Leave the cops alone, let them do their jobs.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Yes , Please leave them alone so they can feel all powerful and immune from the people. I bet if we had more people constantly looking over their shoulders we wouldn't have so many cases of police brutality and stupidity.

The police higher than constables are all murderers full stop. If you people do not think so, you have never lived in real world.

I have been monitored by those bastards since i left school in 1993, and they made sure everyone knows everything about my life.

Listen to this people everywhere. If the police target you they will use mind control on you, and take every memory or feeling you have.

So if your being monitored by them, they are probably using this on you.

Does not matter if you have never committed a crime, i have never commited a crime, they set out to murder my life, and will never stop.

If you think this is not true, then you have no idea what the police are doing.

If they do not like you you may get targeted for mind control,a nd they will do everything they can to get you to do something, for you to be put in prison.

So who knows what this person did, but everyone should know what the police are doing.

Originally posted by elevatedone
She should be detained. What an idiot. Leave the cops alone. I wonder what she's done in her past that makes her want to watch the police so much.

It sounds like she has quite a bad history with Law Enforcement, but not necessarily of their wrong-doing. Her ex-husband is Kevin Strom, a prominent white nationalist and white supremacist, who physically beated her and stalked a 10 year old girl by regularly cruising by her house, giving her gifts, sending her love letters, and proposing to her. He was finally arrested for possession of Child Pornography. By the sounds of it, while they were married, daily visits from local Law Enforcement was the Status Quo.

And although I do agree that she is an idiot, I don't think that it was right for her to be arrested if she was neither obstructing justice nor stalking. She was charged with Identifying a Police Officer With Intent to Harass which like similar Harassment charges, is very vague to where just about anything can be considered Harassment. This law is clearly over-broad and easily abused, even if she had it coming for other reasons. The point is, however, that despite their physical training, automatic weapons and kevlar vests to protect Law Enforcement against sticks and stones, these officers are unable to deal with being called a bad name or having public records made public and linked to Google Maps.

There was a business owner in our town that was daily harassed by the police. So, he printed Baseball Cards of all the local Police Officers with their statistics derived from Public Records on the back (# of times arrested vs. # of arrests, etc.) and gave them free to children who came into his store. The police took him and his business down for the count faster than you can say "WTF?" He, like this woman, also was charged with Identifying a Police Officer With Intent to Harass. The whole community was so outraged by this abuse of Police power that only one Police Officer out of 50+ still works for the City today.

Public Records are Public. It doesn't matter if she posted items that were a matter of Public Record on a Blog or on the back of Baseball Cards. The medium doesn't matter. Once records are made Public, they are fair game, and it is perfectly legal.

Like I said before, she's a nutter and not a poster-child for 1st Amendment Rights by any means, but she's entitled those rights, just like everyone else.

If the police wanted to lawfully put an end to her shenanigans, they should have busted her while she was following them to a raid and cited her for Obstruction of Justice. Then, the Police wouldn't have fallen on such shaky ground.

[edit on 17-8-2009 by fraterormus]

reply to post by elevatedone


Since when is being stupid a crime?

She monitored the police, and as a result she got arrested. That is not an indicator of a free nation.

If this woman did the same to a member of the public, followed them around, took photos and published details on the internet would people be as sympathetic? If she put a google street-map image plus name and address, wouldn't it be considered serious harassment? Disturbing behavior? Threatening? If the target also has a '13 year old daughter' would that behavior be considered a threat to her safety?

Folk on ATS lately are all about laying into the police and making huge generalizations. It's not on if the woman above is seen as a victim in all this. She's an antagonist. Great parental role-model also. A paranoid stalker with clearly obsessive tendencies and a hate complex for the police. I wonder how her daughter's likely to grow up? Well-balanced? Blame the police...cos she sure will.

Originally posted by elevatedone
We don't know this lady's past, true. But to follow the police and document everything like she did was nothing more than idiotic. What did she think she was going to prove.

This, I will definately agree with.

If you are going to monitor the cops, then you'd better have evidence against them to take to a judge before saying a single word about it.

These guys are on a drug task force, no one else needed to know who they were or what they did. Just let them be.

I see your point in this also.

But, I also see her point in that drug enforcement officers work beyond the law. Have you ever seen the movie "Rush"? It's about narcotics officers becoming addicts themselves and planting evidence etc.

Rush is based on the infamous Tyler, Tx drug scandal of the late 1970's, when two police undercover officers (Wozencraft and her partner, later her husband) were brought in from the Plano, Tx Police Department and were assigned to break up a huge smuggling ring that was suspected to be run by a Tyler club owner by the name of Bora. Most of what happens in the movie happened in real life, from the addiction getting out of control to the use of planted evidence.

en.wikipedia.org...(1991_film)

All I'm saying is....let's not jump to conclusions when we don't know the whole story.

Originally posted by elevatedone
reply to post by Nutter

 

Fair enough. Wonder why she hates the police so much.

I'm sure they just picked her out of all the citizens and decided to make her a target at some point in her life.


This woman is an idiot and deserves to be in jail. Leave the cops alone, let them do their jobs.

And there you have the start of a police state.

"Just let them do their jobs".

Without criticism, without assessment, without responsibility and without oversight.
The people pay for law enforcement, they are your employees. If you were running a company you wouldn't monitor the competence of your staff? You wouldn't monitor how they treat your customers and colleagues?

So now it is illegal to criticise the law enforcement of your nation, whatever next? How many alarm bells have to ring before people start to wake up and realise that law enforcement is fast moving away from "protect and serve" and quickly moving into "limit and control"?

Whether you agree with her opinions or not, she has the fundamental right to express those opinions without harassment or censorship by a law enforcement authority. When she actually breaks the law, then you take action.
You cannot, ever, presume guilt of something before a crime is even committed!
Can anyone say "thoughtcrime"?

Now, how many years will it be until they're arresting intellectuals who criticise the government? How long before they begin burning books? How long before they begin "disappearing" all who oppose the regime?

Absolute insanity.

reply to post by BRQuick


And I'm sure the cops could come up with some kind of "offense" if and when they come after you.

Originally posted by elevatedone
reply to post by Nutter

 

Fair enough. Wonder why she hates the police so much.

I'm sure they just picked her out of all the citizens and decided to make her a target at some point in her life.


This woman is an idiot and deserves to be in jail. Leave the cops alone, let them do their jobs.

She's a white supremacist so she is clearly bonkers. Whatever her possible motivation, making people (civillians or otherwise) a target in such a way is unacceptable.

In the UK she'd probably end up sectioned.

White Supremacist?! Didn't know those morons still existed.

[edit on 17-8-2009 by phoenix103]

Originally posted by Kandinsky
She's an antagonist.

I'm sure glad my founding fathers were antagonists.

Great parental role-model also. A paranoid stalker with clearly obsessive tendencies and a hate complex for the police. I wonder how her daughter's likely to grow up? Well-balanced? Blame the police...cos she sure will.

What if the police are to blame?

Just asking.

Just from the perspective that she endangers(ed) the police officers lives, alone, by her her actions would warrant her censure. The Police Chief 'asked' her to stop, not ordered, asked. Then the lady continued in her behavior and then stepped way over the line by publishing the home address of one officer.

Which is, if the police officer in question is doing Narco work, mob, racketeering investigations and so on; she is setting them up to be killed. Not to mention placing their family members at risk as well.

So the police took off the 'kid gloves' and arrested her on a -valid- felony charge.

Personally I think they went easy on her, likely due to the fact she is insane and or has a mental condition. The real loser in this case is the woman's daughter; who likely will be removed from the woman's custody. Which I am sure will only make the mother's aggressions against the police go to new extremes.

While I think a fair minded, practical and most of all sane review of police actions is good. It has to be done by someone who is not going to jeopardize public safety, and it has to be regulated, and monitored, such that the rights of the police are not violated either.

Which clearly this woman was not concerned with.

M.

[edit on 17-8-2009 by Moshpet]