Cartoonist Targeted With Criminal Probe For Mocking Police

reply to post by muzzleflash


How right you are! Their reaction to the cartoons certainly proves that they are a bunch of immature babies. They are shooting themselves in the foot by making such a huge deal out of this situation. I guess they don't care how many criminals are getting a head start because they're tripping over themselves and spending man hours trying to discover who the artist is! What a ridiculous waste of time, energy, and tax payer dollars!

reply to post by Afterthought


You're right, they're shooting themselves in the foot. Now they will be attracting more attention to the corruption in the department. If you can't take criticism when you're a public servant, than you should be looking for a job in the private sector. It does sound like there's a bunch of immature people in power.

This is ridiculous. The judge, police and prosecutor should all be fired.

Here is my cartoon I made

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/74f5ccf7bbfa.jpg[/atsimg]

It looks to me like they aren't charging him with cyberstalking...

They're attempting to charge him, through the use of cyberstalking.

reply to post by mnmcandiez


Love it!!!
Thanks for joining in on the fun, peaceful protest! May a wonderful weekend come your way.

Come on, folks! We need more!

reply to post by Glass


I'm not sure I get what you're saying.
Can you explain the difference?
According to the articles I've read as well as the police chief's response, they do want to charge him with cyberstalking. If I have misunderstood this, I'm interested to hear a different take.

reply to post by Afterthought


My intent was to show the irony of the situation; that they're cyberstalking him to charge him with cyberstalking.

The way I was going to write it was "They aren't charging him with cyberstalking, they're charging him, with cyberstalking." but decided against it because of ambiguity.

reply to post by Glass


I gotcha now!
Thanks for elaborating and I do agree with your view.
Nothing like lowering yourself to the level of the "criminal" to get your info.

I just found another article and this one is discussing how the ACLU wants to get involved.
slog.thestranger.com...

"The ACLU of Washington is very concerned that Renton officials are using the cyberstalking law in this situation," writes Doug Honig, communications director for the ACLU.

"The cyberstalking law is designed to protect individuals from serious harassment by other individuals, not to protect government from parodies by employees. People have a right to speak anonymously on the Internet, and employer-employee issues involving YouTube satires should not be pursued as criminal matters. We would very much like to hear from the individual who posted the parodies so that we can know more about the facts of this matter."

(PSST—The ACLU of WA can be reached at: 206-624-2184)

Nice to see that the ACLU wants to help.

Then, there's this article from today:
www.bellinghamherald.com...
Fro mthe article:

Seattle University law professor and legal ethics experts John Strait tells The Seattle Times he thinks Renton could face First Amendment issues if it pursues the case. He says the cyberstalking statute doesn't apply.

I'll keep my eyes open for any new developments. I'm especially interested in see the 9 cartoons when they're released.

kinda reminds me of what my city was thinking of doing to someone as he was comparing the city staff to the three stooges.

I posted mine in civil unrest and social issues as I was too late to post it here www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by OldCorp
This is an egregious violation of Mr. Fiddlestick's rights (I can't believe I just wrote that

) under the First Amendment. In the days of the Founders, political cartoons were the most popular form of free speech because the population was largely illiterate; with cartoons, just about anyone can understand the statement being made.

Even today, shows like the Simpsons and South Park deliver political massages. Whoever is behind this persecution of Mr. Fiddlestick's and the violation of his First Amendment rights needs to lose their job.

I couldn't agree more.

We cannot allow this to continue or else any and all forms of free speech and resistance will soon be outlawed as well.

UPDATE!!!

www.kirotv.com...
*Also, scroll down to view all nine cartoons.

The article, aside from linking to a few of the cartoons, goes on to discuss the charges against the mystery cartoonist:

We asked attorney Venkat Balasubramani to review several parody videos and the court documents. He's an expert in cyber-law and constitutional issues.

“The cyberstalking angle doesn't pass the laugh test," Balasubramani told KIRO-TV. "It's a serious stretch and I'd be surprised if somebody looked at it and realistically thought these acts actually fit the statute and we could make somebody criminally liable."

When we asked about the more likely scenario, Balasubramani said, "I think they were trying to get at the speaker and they looked around for a statute that shoehorned their conduct into and sent that to Google and said ‘turn over the information.”

Historically, Google and You-Tube are far more likely to cough up an anonymous animator's real name when there's a criminal case, as opposed to just an internal affairs investigation into some personnel issues.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators went to the City Attorney's office to ask the chief prosecutor, Shawn Arthur, his motivations to criminalize cartoon creators. Halsne was told to leave a handwritten note. We did not hear back from Arthur. A similar thing happened at the Renton police department. A spokesperson told Halsne that Chief Kevin Milosevich was unavailable.

Team 7 Investigators, however, did track down Penny Bartley. She’s a former Renton Police Public Information Officer and current jail administrator, which court records say is the female bureaucrat in some of the cartoons.

The mystery animator makes fun of her ankles and questions her resume, yet Bartley wouldn’t talk about the parodies, except to say the city prosecutor never contacted her regarding the filing of a criminal warrant.

Halsne: "The video is insulting to you. Can't you at least step out and talk about how that makes you feel?"
Bartley: "I'm not going to talk about that."
Halsne: "So you're not offended?"
Bartley: "I'm not going to comment on this Chris, I've said that."

Here are all of the cartoons in their uncut glory. Enjoy!