Majority Opinion- The constitution states that each individual person has the freedom of speech, but there needs to be limits to everything. The respondents in this case seek to find the restrictions to what people can say online, in songs, essays, stories, and in the real world. Threats are a growing issue and continue to grow even more as technology advances. We can not be trustful of everyone and we need to make sure that everyone is as safe as they can be. My analysis from the case brings me to the conclusion that if anyone says anything that has more than a little bit of reasonable suspicious they should legally be allowed to be arrested and question. The three points that I will discuss demonstrate that anything that can be deemed suspicious of any reasonable person will be considered suspicious unless no intent or motive can be found. We will start that everything needs two sides.
Light without darkness is blinding, darkness without light nothing can be seen. It is argued that everyone should have freedom of speech. Being able to say or do whatever you want or can. The Freedom of Speech is lawful and a part of the constitution. Everyone should be able to say whatever they want, but the problem stands you can’t have a law with no restriction and you can’t have a restriction with no law. Freedom of speech needs its standpoints. You should be able to say whatever you need wherever, either be on social media or videos. The stuff that is said needs to be looked at though, we need to watch to make sure no threats. Freedom of speech is the freedom to say what you want about whatever, but this does not include the freedom to say that you are going to harm someone. It needs to be the case where people who say or ask questionable things are legally allowed to be taken in to be questioned. Even if rappers such as Eminem spoke about killing their wife it doesn’t mean they weren’t questioned about. When Eminem made the album named, “Kill you” the Secret Service came to his house and questioned him about his album and any intentions he may have had with the songs. Popularity doesn’t save you and isn’t everything. Being questioned is not a violation of human rights. Being alert about what people say and do is a huge key to higher safety for civilians. Even if Elonis had disclaimers that what he was saying is ‘Artistic Expression’ it was still viewed as a threat by his Wife and FBI agents. It was proven that it wasn’t a threat, that doesn’t excuse that the post was threatening. If people view something as a threat, it should be a safety precaution to consider it a threat and look further into it. A recent article that came out this year talks about a teen by the name of Nikolas Cruz who posted a video online possibly on multiple social media sites. In that video he said, “My name is Nik, and I’m going to be the next school shooter of 2018.” This was a threat that was a plan that was thought through. Shortly after the video was posted he went to his own high school and killed 17 students. People took this video as a joke before the shooting, many thought he was joking. Some was suspicious about it in the moment, but did not think about it much afterwards. People who say things similar to Elonis statement should be legally allowed to be questioned and searched. This will also go for anyone who says anything suspicious online and offline. You need to be careful with what you say online and vice versa for anything offline. It isn’t about what is a threat or what isn’t. It is about taking a stand before anything bad happens. Even if a threat was claimed to be a joke, we won’t know what their true intentions were. It is impossible to detect if someone is lying, and to go based off someone’s word is a lot more difficult if no evidence can be found. To make precautions is a huge thing to do. It helps prevent any threats from going through by either arresting the suspects if evidence is found of going through with the threats or by convincing people to not do it by threatening them with just the fact that they are being look at and observed. This can and will decrease threats going through by a huge amount. No one can be sure on how much it can or will go down. In conclusion, a threat is a threat if there is reasonable suspicion. No one should feel like they are in danger while on the internet. It is not acceptable to make people you know and you don’t know feel in danger just by saying a few words. Artistic Expression should not protect you alone, but if it cannot be proven that there is intents, then it doesn’t have to be classified as a threat. It should be the case that if anyone, anywhere, says anything that is remotely suspicious or questionable. They are legally allowed to be questioned by authorities until they decided that the saying meant no harm.
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Cole LeahyI try to help people as much as possible, if you need anything just ask. Archives
January 2019
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