In the ever-shifting sands of trying to sanitize the interwebs for the same of the children, an interesting argument has arisen to eviscerate the Section 230 Safe Harbor of the Communications Decency Act: Mexican drug cartels.
Much like Hollywood celebrities, Mexican cartels have vast social media followings. The notorious Sinaloa Cartel has more than 88,000 followers on Twitter, for example, while Los Zetas, an uber-violent Mexican cartel that has broadcast murders on YouTube, has a Facebook universe with approximately 47,000 connected accounts like these.
To some extent, young, net-savvy criminals are using social media the same way as young people everywhere: to document and brag about their lives. Instagram and Twitter posts featuring cash, gold plated guns, luxury cars and even pet tigers are a powerful lure for jobless young men who see the gangster life as a path out of drudgery.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Your Cause, His Life
One of the two UConn students who was arrested for saying the “n-word” in a parking lot at night has cut a deal.
A judge on Tuesday accepted Jarred Karal’s application for accelerated rehabilitation. Karal, 21, of Plainville, was placed on six months of probation and ordered to complete 20 hours of community service and undergo diversity and bias training, the Hartford Courant reported.
Accelerated rehabilitation is generally for first-time offenders charged with nonviolent offenses. A charge of ridicule on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race will be dismissed after a successful probation period.
Seaton: #ButHisEmails, Dispatches From Mud Lick, V.3
Prefatory Note: I got several messages from “StickyWeeks,” my informant with a private Discord Channel, over the holidays involving some rather explosive messages from the Mud Lick Sheriff’s Department’s email server. I provide them to you, the SJ readership, as a public service.—CLS
December 26, 2019
FROM: Templeton, Roy ([email protected])
TO: ALL DEPARTMENTS
RE: Boxing Day Reminders
Good morning everyone. I hope all of you had a safe and wonderful Christmas. The following are some important reminders as we leave one holiday and head to another. Continue reading
Short Take: The Princess’ Pain
It’s understandable that Prince Harry is less than thrilled with his future at the Firm, given that his job was to be a spare, and even that job is no longer needed. So he, with his Duchess of Sussex, decided to take their own path of progressive manifest destiny. Whatevs.
True to the intense attention the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have attracted since their marriage in May 2018, the press was quickly filled with stories about their finances and prospects, and about how the queen, the prince’s grandmother, would handle the defection. A few articles actually showed sympathy for a couple trapped in a gilded cage that exposed them to constant scrutiny — and, in the duchess’s case, virulent racism.
On the one hand, there are a few benefits to being royals, like money, title, adoration. But the gilded cage analogy is a good one, particularly for Princess Di’s second boy, who’s struggled with where exactly he fits into the scheme of monarchical stability in a former empire in turmoil. Continue reading
Babson College’s Really Bad Reaction (Update)
In a world where idiocy is given as kind an explanation as possible, Trump’s twitted threat might be described as the sort of outrageous hyperbolic nonsense one would expect of an impulsive ignoramus.
Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have…..
….targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
Short Take: Virginia Ain’t For Lovers
Changes have been proposed to Virginia’s Human Rights Law’s definition of sexual harassment that give rise to an interesting, and growing, constitutional conundrum. From HB 1418:
“Unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex” includes harassment on the basis of sex. Conduct amounts to harassment on the basis of sex when (i) submission to unwelcomed sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of a person’s employment; (ii) submission to or rejection of such conduct by a person is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such person; or (iii) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
Is It Time For A Defender General?
The image that came to mind is Capt. Obvious, mostly because the military title for Attorney General, and how he’s called “general” as if he’s about to lead a brigade of lawyers into battle, always made me chuckle. But prawfs Dan Epps and William Ortman have proposed that if the government gets one, why not the defense?
The United States needs a Defender General—a public official charged with representing the collective interests of criminal defendants before the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court is effectively our nation’s chief regulator of criminal justice.
But in the battle to influence the Court’s rulemaking, government interests have substantial structural advantages. As compared to counsel for defendants, government lawyers—and particularly those from the U.S. Solicitor General’s office—tend to be more experienced advocates who have more credibility with the Court. Continue reading
But Enough About Me; What has Tessa Majors Done For Me
For a few minutes, people paid some attention to the murder of a Barnard freshman, Tessa Majors, in a New York City park. Well, less about her murder than the black teen arrested for it, and whether his confession was good enough as he only had a relative present and not a lawyer.
There was a faint whiff of the Central Park Five about the scenario, and that was reminiscent of a television dramatic presentation that we confused with a documentary, which is much more interesting than some pretty white girl getting murdered. Then . . . SQUIRREL.
is, inter alia, a professor at Barnard, and for a brief and shining moment, I thought she remembered Tessa Majors. As my twitter feed obsessed over international issues and activists outraged that bail reform was under attack by their best-yesterday friends, I wondered if anybody remembered Tess Majors. And there it was, an op-ed in the Times that wasn’t about the awfulness of Trump, but Tessa Majors. It was written by Barnard prof Boylan, and it said so in the headline, Continue reading
Did It Start With Charlie Hebdo?
It’s been five years since the massacre at the French comic publication. At Tablet, Jacob Seigel looks back and ponders whether that was the turning point, when speech and thought gave way to feelings and sophistry.
The tragedy produced a memorable slogan—je suis Charlie Hebdo—and brought world leaders together to march and pose for photographs, but even five years later its full import may not be understood. The Hebdo attack was a pivotal historical moment, not because of the event itself—practically a jihadi cliche in which a symbolic offense provoked an absurd overreaction directed at defenseless targets.
What was unique and consequential was the response from the cultural and ethical minders of the Western elite. In America, the aftermath of the Hebdo killings galvanized a set of opposing ideas about the nature of violence and victimhood, and the value of free expression. In the years since, Hebdo’s defenders who took up the cause of free speech have clearly been losing ground.
Tuesday Talk*: Should Killer Cops Be Entitled to Privacy?
What happened to John Albers, a 17-year-old high school student whose suicidal cry for help ended in his being shot by a cop for no discernible reason, was a tragic story. But for two weeks after the killing, the cop was known as “Officer John Doe.” It wasn’t until her attorney uncovered it for the ensuing civil suit that they confirmed who shot and killed John Albers.
The difficulties Albers faced to get basic information into how her son, John, died are not unique in a state where police records are largely kept under wraps, even when a case is closed. It took a month for Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe to decide to clear the officer, Clayton Jenison, of wrongdoing.
Before then, Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez had refused to release the officer’s name. Albers said she was never afforded any police reports or witness statements.