Wednesday, September 12, 2012
School Board is apparently filing criminal charges against me
I found out that the school board is filing charges against me. I had approved an anonymous comment about the Joint Maintenance Agreement yesterday. The copy of the JMA that Steve Feller has is not a fully executed document. Unfortunately, I only skimmed the comments yesterday and didn't catch that the commenter suggested that those four commissioners who approved the JMA and the SB should be executed. Tonight (technically it was yesterday) after the Commission meeting, I was outside the municipal building talking with Kelly Fraasch. She mentioned that my blog was brought up today. She told me about the post which I totally missed. Dave Brumfield was outside also and Kelly asked him which thread had the comment. The three of us looked through my published comments and found the comment. I was shocked and immediately deleted it in front of them. It was a crazy day and I didn't read every comment carefully before approving them. When I got home from the meeting, there was a very important voice mail where I was told that Mt. Lebanon School District is filing criminal charges against me. The police are investigating. Also, the police were inquiring as to whether the commissioners would want to join in on the complaint. Fortunately, I deleted the comment in front of two of the commissioners.
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23 comments:
Is this how it is supposed to work?
I have no doubt that you made a mistake. If someone from the District wanted to be neighborly they could have called you just like the Commissioners took a second to talk to you outside and ask, "what gives?".
Instead, their first phone call is to the police.
I'd ask the person who posted the comment to step forward, call the police and explain things just to avoid a prolonged investigation.
I remember that comment and found it to be a little harsh.
But, then I thought about the context in which it was used. According to the dictionary a synonym for execute is purge.
While the board may think they received a threat and it may have been a poor choice of words, I highly doubt anyone in MTL was instigating an assassination.
Dictionary.com shows synonyms for execute:
Synonyms: off, purge, pit away
Dictionary.com defines purge:
verb (used with object)
1. to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify.
2. to rid, clear, or free (usually followed by ofor from): to purge a political party of disloyal members.
Obviously the blogger was being a little to cutesy and using word play, especially considering the second meaning of purge.
Ignorance is no excuse. Finally something is being done, there is way too much slander on this blog
The anonymous comment suggesting that "those four commissioners who approved the JMA and the SB should be executed" is definitely out of line, and demonstrates the problem with anonymous posts - especially when the Blog owner is tired. It was a mistake to approve it - especially in this day and age. Ms. Gillen, to her credit, did the right thing by taking immediate action to delete it. (Oddly, I don't recall seeing the offending post.)
We cannot excuse threats against public officials, no matter how much we disagree with them; but we must also be vigilant to ensure that local governments do not use this episode as an excuse to impinge on Ms. Gillen's - or any resident's - first amendment rights. To that end this matter, and the subsequent action the District may take, should be of grave concern to all residents of Mt. Lebanon.
There is no excuse for permitting threats against our elected officials. It is just silly to try to excuse the threat by looking at less threatening synonyms. There is only one clear meaning to saying someone should be executed and it is indeed very threatening. I do hope this crime is punished.
They are trying to shut you down, Elaine .
I hope that Elaine is not punished in any significant manner. This blog is an asset to the community, and I'd like it to stay.
While IANAL (i am not a lawyer), I do believe that her case will be made more difficult by both the allowance of anonymous posts and the message stating "Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author."
Denying anonymity will help prevent her from taking the fall for posters making such comments.
This exemplifies the need for anonymity. There are consequences to freedom of speech in Mount Lebanon.
"I have no doubt that you made a mistake. If someone from the District wanted to be neighborly they could have called you just like the Commissioners took a second to talk to you outside and ask, "what gives?"."
This blog has NEVER been neighborly to to commission or the school board members. Calling Dr. Steinhauer "Timmy" or Ms. Posti "a little girl" is disrespectful and obnoxious. This blog has often called for charges to be pressed against school board members. Neighborly - I think not!
First off all, the school district can file a complaint, not criminal charges. We haven't yet abdicated all governance to them..
Second, give me a break. Certainly, I can't be the only one who sees the irony of a board that uses intimidation and fear to achieve their goals now suddenly concerned about--intimidtaion. They need to put on their big-boy pants and move on. The person who wrote the comment will be identified and handled appropriately. Enough said. So Elaine's approval button went too fast. That doesn't make her a criminal. So to the school board--get off your high horse and worry about how you're going to explain the never-ending mistakes in your disastrous boondoggle "renovation". Keep in mind that misuse of public funds IS a crime.
But this incident does underscore the importance of people signing their names. Will traffic and comments decline? Probably. The upside, though, is the commentary will be stronger, better researched, issue-based and contribute to a significantly more relevant discussion. It will also serve to keep the anonymous comment snipers at bay. I don't write things here that I wouldn't say to someone in person, and neither should anyone else. All that said, there is no excuse for rhetoric implying such extremes as death. It's that kind of low-level mentality that just cost a US ambassador and two US Marines their lives in Libya.
I'm sure there will be some investigating related to this. So to those folks involved, my number is 412 304 6114. Feel free to call.
12:56 PM And you think and possibly truly believe that certain school board members have been "neighborly" with and towards Elaine ? If so, you are obviously one of them, or one of the appointed staff !
The board is not an innocent victim.
They should step back and do a little soul searching and revisit much of the thongs they've published about certain people in the press.
They should examine some of the laws they've broken.
Yes, it is an unfortunately play on words buy to perforce it as a death threat ... Really.
There are a number of things hurled inappropriately from both sides.
What really needs to be examined is why we have arrived at this place.
The secrecy should stop. The manipulation of the "press" and the name calling like Deadbeats, Dr. Timmy.
A more open board would not illicit the anger that has erupted.
There should be a lesson for us all!
Will the parties learn anything, probably not.
12:56
Well there you have it, that's the issue here. Let's just eschew all values and go after our neighbors through the police. Good idea.
So when you or your kid get too loud, instead of knocking on the door and saying, "Cut it out", I will send an officer to your door.
As stupid as it was, I doubt anyone in their right mind would take the comment as a threat, especially given the reference to "executing" a document in the prior sentence.
Two commissioners seemed to take this approach last night after being alerted to the comment. I assume that if they truly felt threatened that they would be nowhere near Elaine.
Your statement actually proves my point that some leaders in the community take a LEADERSHIP role in the community while others will actually sit back and lawyer up when things don't go there way as the Board seems to consistently do.
The comment was stupid, inflammatory, and should never happen again. But a serious threat, I think not.
I'll reiterate what I said earlier, the person who left the comment will sooner or later be found if the police are going to investigate. Save the police and Elaine the trouble and step forward, not necessarily on the blog but to the police.
Thanks to all who identified themselves. Isn't it interesting how the ones who are supportive of the school board on this thread have not signed their names?
For the rest of this thread, I am not publishing any other anonymous comments. How do we know that the comments referenced above are not coming from the school board directors themselves?
If you have concerns, you can always email me at EGIllen476@aol.com.
Elaine
First a question: what criminal charge can be levied against Elaine? Second, an observation: without anonymous commenting, attention would be focused on the commenter and not Elaine. Mr. Cannon (with whom I agree only rarely at most) makes a powerful case for standing up for one's own point of view (as he did by running for office).--Neil Berch
Elaine:
I doubt that anyone on the Board would be stupid enough to generate that "execute" post as a way of entrapping you. That said, I would not be surprised to learn that one of their supporters was not as bright.
By way of illustration, the infamous "Bill Zellers" message of the last general election has some interesting chicanery associated with it. A neighbor forwarded it to me because she received it from a PTA person and thought I'd be interested in it. I found it poorly written but quite amusing. Some days later I decided to take a look at the headers on the message to see the route it took to me. Imagine my surprise when I found that it had been purposefully routed through the Department of Defense DFAS (Defense Financial Accounting System)E-mail system out of Columbus, Ohio. Talk about unintended consequences! The person who slipped this E-mail into the Internet had no idea it would wind up on the desk of a government contractor who deals with DFAS! I called my contact at DFAS and requested a trace (it's illegal to use a government E-mail system for private or political purposes). I sent the message to them, and they conducted an investigation. Fortunately for the District, DFAS considered this a one time abuse and chalked it up to "spam" - it wasn't high on their priority list.
But they know where it came from.
Richard,
Who would have been so motivated to distribute the “Bill Zellers” e-mail that they would have taken such a risk utilizing the DFAS system for such a purpose? Hmm….I wonder who would have access to DFAS?
Having read the policy on the Department of Defense network use by contractors, that kind of intentional misuse of their system IS considered to be criminal activity.
-Charlotte Stephenson
Dear Elaine:
I’m always reluctant to enter the blogosphere, for several reasons. First, I don’t want to risk misinterpretation of any statements. Secondly, I don’t want to raise any expectations that I’ll respond to every police-related item discussed on a blog; I don’t believe that would be the most productive use of my time, and I’d often be prohibited from commenting by the nature of my position. Lastly, I work very hard to preserve the Police Department’s impartiality and to protect our officers from any actual or perceived political interference, and I fear that entering the fray on the blogs might impair that work.
From time to time, however, I overcome my reluctance when I think it’s in the public interest to correct the record, as when a blog entry is either simply inaccurate, or misrepresents the actions or activities of the Mt. Lebanon Police Department. Your blog post of September 12 at 2:20 a.m. contains some misinformation that I think I should correct. I’ll address each item individually.
# 1 – “. . . the school board is filing charges against me.” The School Board cannot file criminal charges against you. A person or persons alleging to have been victimized by another may attempt to file a private criminal complaint without police involvement, but the complaint would have to be approved by the District Attorney’s Office. The Mt. Lebanon Police can file criminal charges against you, but only if our independent investigation of a matter supports such charges. In the instant case, involving an anonymous bloggers’ comment regarding “execution,” we will not be filing any criminal charges against you or anyone else, as the anonymous blogger’s statement, by itself, does not constitute a crime.
# 2 – “. . . the police were inquiring as to whether the commissioners would want to join in on the complaint.” The police department was contacted by several citizens who expressed alarm at the blogger’s comment, and wanted to report the threatening nature of the comment to the police. We then looked into their complaints. That is part of our job. I assure you that we did not, as your 2:20 blog entry seems to suggest, solicit any of the commissioners to “join in on the complaint.”
I appreciate your removal of the offensive comment from your blog and I hope you will take my comments above in the spirit they are intended.
Chief Coleman McDonough
Mt. Lebanon Police Department
Thank you Chief McDonough for coming forward as you did. You were very kind in doing so.
Bill Lewis
Got a call from the ACLU today. They are very much interested in this. Glad to know they have my back.
Elaine
If you are down with ACLU, Elaine, next thing you know we'll be seeing your EFF badge!
As you can see, I just added my EFF badge on the sidebar. Thanks for reminding me!
Elaine
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