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OpEdNews Editor Warned by Capitol Police For Article
by Rob Kall    OpEdNews.com
Entered into the database on Thursday, April 06th, 2006 @ 14:51:57 MST


 

Untitled Document

I wrote an article the other day, Black November, in which I expressed my wish that Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell were both losing sleep worrying about people after them for murdering democracy. I gave a detailed description of what they should worry about. Katherine Harris may actually be worrying about it.

I know because I got a call from a special agent of the Capitol Police checking with me on my article. She assured me that I hadn't broken any law, that this fell under free speech, that I'd been clear that I didn't want to harm her. But, she added, other people who might read my writing might be incited to action. I assured her that was not my intent. That seemed to reassure her a bit. But then she said that I was in a "grey area."

That roused a bit of a chill in my spine-- a "grey area."

So I said to her, "A grey area? What does that mean?"

She explained that if I kept doing this-- writing inflammatory stuff, then... and she wasn't very clear what... but definitely something, would happen or develop.

I asked, "Have I done anything illegal."

She said "No."

I asked her why she was calling me. She explained that she'd heard from Katherine Harris's office.

I asked her. "Is there anything I have to do?"

She said no, but her answer left me with the clear impression that it would be better if I took it down, that someone might think I wanted him or her to take action. I made it very clear to her. "I don't want anyone to DO anything. I don't want anyone hurt. I just wanted Katherine Harris to have trouble sleeping because of what she's done. I wrote about a possible scenario. (Hell, one guy tried to run over her with his car. It's not like I came up with the idea. I just wrote about it. I'll repeat again. I don't want anyone to run anyone over. I don't want anyone to hurt anyone else. I did tell the special agent that I'd like to see Harris in jail. I would like to see her arrested. I did say that given the delicious media roasting Harris has been getting lately, I'd rather see her suffering that way. I don't want her hurt.)

She replied, and I'm paraphrasing, that it's one thing to feel remorse about something political, it's another to feel threatened. I wonder. Who do you call when a political party tries to do all it can to make you afraid of terrorist attacks, no matter where you live, no matter how safe you really are? Do you call the capitol police?

Our conversation continued a few minutes more. Then the word warning slipped out.

"I've been warned?" I asked. "I thought I didn't do anything wrong."

The special agent replied, "If further things like this were written we'd have to look into it more." That's a verbatim quote.

So there you have it. After thinking it over, I'm pulling the offending verbiage. Here it is, taken from the original article.

 

actually, after reading this article to the special agent (yes I may be a wuss, but I will pick my battles and this isn’t one worth fighting for) I’ve edited the words out at the instruction of the special agent because “inciting violence is not free speech”. I disagree that it was an incitement to violence, but I wouldn’t sleep well if any violence came about because of what I wrote.

 

Now remember, this was a discussion of a nightmare, and my thoughts on how these vote rigging criminals should be worrying about retribution. But on second thought, these are rich, spoiled millionaires. I'd much rather see them rotting in a jail, even a posh one like Martha Stewart spent her time in. I never wanted to see them hurt, just anxious. I never threatened them, and let me say it one more time, would not want to see them hurt in any way-- better to see them indicted, incarcerated and subjected to whatever penalties the law prescribes.

Based on my recent call from the capitol police, I want to make it clear that OpEdNews does not allow publication of any articles that advocate illegal activity or violence of any kind. We also do not permit any racist, racial, discriminatory or hateful statements.

Talking the truth about right wingers and Republicans is not racist, racial or hateful. But the rules against incitement to illegal or violent activity applies to them too.

Since it seems that it may be that Katherine Harris reads her media coverage, I’ll spell my feelings out a little more clearly. If I could see her face to face, I'd say, "I hope you never have a good day's sleep for the rest of your life, that you worry about facing the consequences of the misdeeds you've perpetrated. I hope you spend your life worrying, looking over your shoulder, worrying that any legal letter coming to you, every phone call from an unknown caller is news that you are being indicted. I hope, that when you are walking in the dark, when you hear footsteps, your heart races and your palms sweat and you worry—it may be a team of police, coming to arrest you.” "

This article was read to the special agent. It was changed, with the original offensive working removed from this article too. The agent told me that it is capitol hill policy to notify the police of any sort of mention of violence, so it may or may not mean that Harris is actually aware of the original article.

Before publishing the original article, I asked two people to read it, wanting to make sure it was clear that I was not advocating, threatening or inciting violence. When both told me they thought it did not, I went ahead and published the original article.

Rob Kall is editor of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, and organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology.