Decrepit Old Fool left me a comment on this post. DOF is on my blogroll, and although he and I don’t see 100% agreement, he’s a good guy and a good friend.
Anyway, he links to this article over at Reuters.
A radical environmental activist has been indicted by a federal grand jury for demonstrating how to build a firebomb in a speech just 15 hours after a fire that his group claimed responsibility for destroyed a large apartment complex being built nearby.
Okay, now this is one of those “mixed feelings” things. I don’t hold a particularly strong affinity for radical environmentalists, but I do hold a strong position on the First Amendment, and this next part is scary.
Rodney Adam Coronado, a 39-year-old member of the Earth Liberation Front, was indicted on a charge of giving instructions on how to build a destructive device, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. The indictment was unsealed on Wednesday.
…The law makes it illegal to tell others how to build destructive devices with the intent of having them commit crimes.
There’s that “thought crime” thing again. In my post below, several of us noted that we hold particular knowledge of how to use commonly available household chemicals in exciting and vigorous ways. Now, do you suppose that some ambitious young assistant DA might want to make a name for himself by taking OUR conversation and going to court? Sure, it’d be a battle that was easy for him to lose, but who among us is in a position to spend the time, effort and money to fight such a charge? One or two such cases would serve to really stifle conversations such as the one we had.
Equally frightening is this:
Three people who attended Coronado’s speech were jailed for refusing to testify before the grand jury about the content of the speech. All have been released.
By implication, not only was it unlawful for our tree-hugging bozo to MAKE the speech, but it was unlawful for people to LISTEN to it.
Laws upon laws upon laws. We are rapidly approaching the point where EVERY one of us will be guilty of transgressing one law or another. Then it’s just a matter of whom they want to prosecute…
