PN> * Crossposted from: FREEDOM'S_VOICE
PN>From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
PN>Subject: Felony arrest of College Student for posting net message
PN>Date: Fri, 17 May 96 18:14:40 +0000
PN>According to an AP dispatch printed in the San Francisco Examiner
PN>of May 11, a 19-year-old college student in El Paso TX has been
PN>arrested on felony charges for posting an Internet message
PN>about California state senator Tim Leslie (R-Carnelian Bay).
PN>Leslie had been a supporter of the ballot measure that would have
PN>cancelled special protections for cougars in California.
PN>The message posted by Jose Eduardo Saavedra.
PN>Thanks to Seth Finkelstein  for finding the orginal 
essages
PN>below:
PN>To: fight-censorship+@andrew.cmu.edu
PN>Subject: Re: College student arrested after post about Calif state senator
PN>Cc: beeson@nyc.pipeline.com, farber@cis.upenn.edu, freematt@coil.com
PN>Sender: owner-fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
PN>Precedence: bulk
PN>X-URL: http://fight-censorship.dementia.org/top/
PN>X-JusticeOnCampusURL: http://joc.mit.edu/
PN>        It's real all right. Here are the original posts, I found them
PN>searching http://www.dejanews.com (does this get me into trouble with
PN>the FBI too? 1/2 :-) ). Apparently, there's a hot issue in California
PN>about making the hunting of mountain lions legal. State Senator Leslie
PN>is a strong advocate of such hunting. The poster is an animal-rights
PN>anti-hunter activist, and so proposed hunting Leslie instead.
PN>        My non-lawyer opinion is that while nasty, this is obviously
PN>nowhere near a "true threat", and I wonder if calling it a "death threat"
PN>was part of the maneuvering over the controversy, combined with a dash
PN>of anti-Internet politicing.
Sounded like a death threat to me.  His mealy-mouthed
"explanation" in the 2nd message does nothing to lessen the
threat of the first, which stands alone.
If the kid really "didn't mean it", then you can thank modern
liberal education for the fact that a 19 year old doesn't know
what words mean, and doesn't know how to phrase a "what if" type
of hypothetical statement.  If I had received, or been the
subject of, such a message, I definitely would have taken it to
the local prosecutor.
The fact that it was done over the internet means little, in my
opinion.  I'm sure there is sufficient coverage in both Texas
state law (where the message originated), and federal law to deal
with the person making the threats.
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