A Philadelphia blogger, Joshua Scott Albert, created a number of Facebook pages advocating the murder of the DA, Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh and at least one Philadelphia police officer. According to the Daily News, he'll soon be a blogger facing criminal charges.
I'm not so sure that's a good idea. He could argue it was satire. Free speech and all that.
Here in the Lehigh Valley, blogger and political wannabe Tricia Mezzacappa has made actual death threats against West Easton Borough Council President Kelly Gross. She's been charged by Easton police with disorderly conduct and harassment.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
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Sunday, September 02, 2012
20 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
Threatening to kill or injure a government official (or anyone else) is not protected by the First Amendment. It is a serious crime.
ReplyDeleteIn February, DA John Morganelli said two threatening online comments directed at Judge Michael Koury crossed the free speech line. Morganelli said the commenter could be charged with making Terroristic Threats, although the DA and the judge decided against prosecution.
In another local case, police charged an online commenter with making Terroristic Threats against Easton blogger Noel Jones. After a preliminary hearing in April, that case was bound over for trial and the defendant was ordered to relinquish all his weapons.
As for Tricia Mezzacappa, she has a First Amendment right to criticize government officials to her heart's content. She doesn't have a right to threaten them with violence, causing them fear and emotional distress. She threatened to punch one official in the face and threatened to drown another official, according to the witnesses.
I hope DA Morganelli is looking into the facts of the Mezzacappa case because Disorderly Conduct and Harassment are not adequate charges and won't deter her. Why hasn't she been charged with making Terroristic Threats based on the Koury and Jones precedents? That would be equal justice.
And once again, O'Hare uses a real concerning ssue to attack an ex-girlfriend that dumped him. The woman got into an argument with sa government bigwig, she still has rghts.
ReplyDeleteFace it O'Hare, she dumped you. Move on and grow up.
I don't know why but I just went over to the Wicked Witch's blog. She posted a picture of her with Pat Browne.
ReplyDeleteShe is really ugly and old looking. She has MAN HANDS!!!
Bernie, please tell us that you didn't try to hit that! She is fugly!!!
I did not. Her claim that I did so is an attempt to deflect attention away from her death threats and other bizarre behavior.
ReplyDeleteThat picture of her is pretty bad.
3:23 AM, you are correct that Mezzacappa still has rights. She will be able to confront her accusers. The case against her will have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But threatening to assault one official and threatening to kill another goes beyond "an argument." And 3:23 AM, you show your ignorance when you refer to a simple office clerk at the West Easton Borough Hall as a "government bigwig."
ReplyDeleteMezzacappa has revealed that her late father was a government official. I don't know if he was a "bigwig" but she said he worked for the IRS. She should close her eyes and imagine how she would feel if some jerk came to her father's office and treated him the way she treated that office clerk. Then she should imagine how she would feel if that same jerk threatened to punch her father in the face or threatened to drown him.
Speak of coincidence, on most blogs, not to be named so as not to give any credibility; any time in the past that the boy wonder from Brooklyn made a disparaging remark about you, it has been recently "removed by the author."
ReplyDeleteIs the water getting too hot for some?
Please do not disgrace my fathers memory with a comparison to the 8/22 event at West Easton Borough.
ReplyDeleteMy father, an attorney, had more class in his pinky finger than the entire West Easton Borough Council has entirely.
He did his job, and well...and never provoked people for sport. He may have well authored the well know ideology..."do unto others" "you reap what you sow"
"its not my job" was not a term he embraced, and lived by, as does the classless and incompetent Jill Garcia, Borough Clerk. Competent and intelligent people rarely stick around for $280.00/week.
They deserve each other.
Hey Witch? How much do you make a week? Not that much I bet ...
ReplyDeleteEspecially it is going to suck when Bernie takes over half of what you make in an award settlement.
By the way, you are looking old. And you have man hands.
I'd rather have man hands than no dick.
ReplyDeleteYou'll collect ZERO, and look like an ass from the rotunda to the door and back.
So will your attorney.
Grow a set.
Ms. Mezzacappa, Unlike you, the Fake Rev, and a host of others, I do not post anonymously, and take responsibility for what I write.
ReplyDeleteYour constant remarks and postings about my penis demonstrate a rather unhealthy obsession and a level of maturity that is somewhere on the middle school level. It's another reason why people like you should not be allowed to carry firearms. You exercise poor judgment and have no impulse control.
Foot Print,
ReplyDeleteThe question was not whether your late father had class or whether he did his job well.
The question was how YOU WOULD FEEL if he were verbally abused and physically threatened by someone who didn't agree with the policies of the IRS. Unless he was the Secretary of the Treasury or the IRS Commissioner, there probably were plenty of issues over which he had no authority. In other words, it wasn't his job.
As far as his "do unto others" ideology, sadly that's something he wasn't able to pass on to you.
Finally, "competent and intelligent people" rarely get charged with disorderly conduct and harassment. And word on the street is this isn't your first time.
And it is a bad picture.
ReplyDeleteBernie, how many annonymous posts have you meade on your own blog. Either that or Farmer Angle is working overtime. Word has it that Stoffa has his inner circle follow these blogs and rush to your defense.
ReplyDeleteOur county taxes at work.
I believe I've answered that question - none. I do not post anonymously. I consider such a deceptive practice an insult to my readers. They deserve my honesty. So I will not do what Mezzacappa, the Fake Rev and a host of other people do. I lost my license to practice law in 1986 as a result of dishonest behavior brought on by
ReplyDeletedrinking. Since that time, I have tried very hard to be as honest as I can be.
As for Angle, the constant refrain I hear from anonymous idiots is that he is posting anonymously or as Clem. Ron does not use a computer. He does not like computers. His wife does use a computer from time to time, but has absolutely no interest in this bullshit.
This constant attempt to claim Angle is doing this or that is getting old.
The subject here is asshole bloggers who threaten people.
Like Mezzacappa does.
And I hardly need any defense from anyone from anonymous trolls like you, who are too cowardly to sign your name.
ReplyDeleteThe Gross cartel and its smear machine, O'Hate will stop at nothing to arrange for bad press.
ReplyDeleteI already explained every detail of this incident. I have been harassed, tormented, lied to and deprived of my consitiutional rights by each and every Council member, straight down to the clerk herself.
The buck stops here, I'm sick of it, and I'll have my day in court, if I ever get the bogus charges, which havent even been received.
There is a due process for those that disagree with IRS policies and procedures....ie, pay or get you ass handed to you in a brown paper bag. West Easton is not the IRS, and this has nothing to do with my father.
If he wrongfully witheld information, he would have been fired. That is what should happen in West Easton, but the bigger problem is the person who makes every single decision, from behind a closed door, and refuses to interact with the public, because she detests anyone who questions her "self appointed sherriff" status. It is against the Borough code for an elected official to run the office.
thats what Kelly Gross does. And I'm sick of it. Jill passes the buck, and will have to answer some questions for her conduct that day.
I did nothing wrong and will be vindicated.
You threatened to kill an elected official. You threatened to punch its solicitor. You used the word "fuck" between 10-20 times. You refused to leave. You tore down information from a community bulletin board, depriving the public. That sure seems like something wrong to me.
ReplyDeleteYou vilify an office clerk bc she is reporting honestly what you said, just as you vilify everyone whose views differ from yours.
You've done that to Kelly Gross, her father, the staff at est Easton, its Council, John Stoffa, Ron Angle, various Easton police officers, Mayor Panto and others.
After a while, you begin to look like the villain.
When you threaten the life of an elected official, you belong in jail. That's a serious matter, and you will be held accountable.
Bernie just shamed you Trish, you should have never messed with the bike riding blogger!
ReplyDeleteBernie blog beat on a girl he use to date. He da man!
ReplyDeleteI love it...."cartel." Cracks me up whenever Tricia uses it.
ReplyDeleteIf by "cartel" you mean "father a lifelong councilman and mayor and a daughter that followed in his footsteps to run for and be elected to council" then I guess that's a cartel.
The Gross family are good people. They volunteer their time and effort to help a little borough with very little remuneration and great big headaches, mostly caused by Tricia.
Messacappa, on the other hand, is a combination of a bully and the boy who cried wolf. There is nothing worse than a bully, except for a bully that cries and screams and threatens and lies like a cheap rug whenever she is confronted on her behavior.
And Tricia...nobody cares that much about you to keep lying and making things up about what you do. People just want to be left alone. The world is a difficult enough of a place without having threats and curses and all that.