Sunday, July 26, 2009

Roanoke Not Bound By Chicago Ruling

ALSO READ:

White's life on fringe puts him at center of storm
The Roanoke neo-Nazi's ideological leanings were foreshadowed by his early feelings of "innate superiority."
By Laurence Hammack

HERE


http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/213134

Roanoke case
By Laurence Hammack
981-3239

Related
From today's paper
White's life on fringe puts him at center of storm
When William A. White returns to Roanoke, he will face more federal charges of using the Internet to make racially inspired threats.

Last week in Chicago, a federal judge dismissed a charge that White solicited violence against a juror who had voted to convict a fellow white supremacist. White had posted the juror's name, photograph, address and telephone numbers on his Web site, overthrow.com.

Although White made no direct threats, prosecutors maintained he meant the juror harm by publishing his whereabouts, knowing that his online audience included racists prone to violence. White's intent was shown by other passages from overthrow.com in which he advocated violence, the government argued.

U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman ruled that because White did not provoke "imminent lawless action," his writings were protected free speech.

However, a district court opinion from Chicago will have no binding impact on additional charges that await White in Roanoke, according to Wat Hopkins, a communications law professor at Virginia Tech.

In Roanoke, White faces a different charge of making threats by interstate communication. And unlike in the Chicago case, he is charged with contacting his targets directly and using what might be construed as more threatening language.

White is accused of using e-mail, the Internet and the telephone to threaten various people: a bank employee in Kansas City, Mo.; a human rights lawyer in Canada; a newspaper columnist in Maryland; a university administrator in Delaware; a small-town mayor in New Jersey and a group of apartment complex tenants in Virginia Beach.

In one case, White became angry over a column that Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts wrote about black-on-white crime.

"I look forward to the rapidly approaching day when whites once again rise up and slaughter and enslave your race to the last man, woman and child. Itz coming," White wrote in an e-mail to Pitts.

White refused to remove Pitt's address and telephone numbers from his Web site, according to the indictment. "Frankly, if some loony took the info and killed him, I wouldn't shed a tear," he wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper's editor. "That also goes for your whole newsroom."

Brian Levin, a California lawyer who heads the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, agreed with Hopkins that Adelman's ruling will not affect the Roanoke case.

"However, that doesn't mean the Virginia case is wholly immune from First Amendment attack," Levin said. "While the law is reasonably clear, the facts of each case simply allow wiggle room that allows each side to make a plausible argument."

White remained in a Chicago jail Friday, waiting for a bond hearing to be scheduled.

7 comments:

  1. You didn't spell Roanoke correctly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nikki.. please link to NIMBusters.org in your Blog Roll

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Government That's Big Enough
    To Give You Everything You Want
    Is Big Enough
    To Take Away Everything You Own

    Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder

    Obama OOPS

    CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NY-LATimes
    Why Pay For Government Controlled Media?

    Obamacare - The Compassion of the IRS
    The Efficiency Of The Post Office

    Where Is BHO's Birth Certificate?

    GOP - Weak Kneed Compromisers
    Pubbie's Trying To Outspend Demoncrats

    Obamanomics Stealing From The Future
    Buying Votes Today

    ReplyDelete
  4. Obama got elected now there is no end
    The Democrats wanna tax and spend
    Tax and spend us us into bankruptcy
    with a tax cheat runnin’ the Treasury.

    You spend two trillion bucks and what do you get
    No recovery and deeper in debt
    St Peter better call ‘fore it’s too late,
    I owe my soul to the welfare state.

    Obama is a leftist as he can’t deny,
    Govern from the center is a great big lie.
    Karl Marx Manifesto is his playbook
    and you and me will soon be on the hook.

    You spend two trillion bucks in unsecured cash,
    soon the dollar will be pure trash.
    Our bond holders we have to appease,
    we owe our soul to the Red Chinese.

    Obama and his people are makin’ a mess.
    Bernake’s fired up the printin’ press.
    Printin’ money that doesn’t exist -
    no wonder America is gettin’ p#%ssed.

    You spend two trillion bucks, they ain’t done yet.
    Obama and Pelosi are pilin’ up debt.
    I work hard for my money, this I don’t deserve,
    I owe my soul to the Federal Reserve

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whine, whine whine whine.

    Something must be going good in the world because so many sorry cry baby GOP cocksuckers are crying.

    Where was your crying when Reagan and Bush was running up record deficits, eh bitches? At least Obama is spending the money on Americans and not killing people.

    ReplyDelete
  6. """At least Obama is spending the money on Americans and not killing people."""

    LOL, what a dipshit you are. Back to talk about the deficit when Obama has not only run up the highest deficit in American history but actually managed to double the national debt along with it. He has in just his 1st month, caused more financial problems for this country than all of the presidents combined!

    And can you tell me how Obama has helped YOU? I can tell you many things he has done for ME and I actually HAVE money. The people who put him in office HAVE money and those are the exact same people he is repaying. Not you!

    ReplyDelete

All comments must remain civil. No threats, racist epithets, or personal attacks will be tolerated. Rational debate, discourse, and even disagreement are all acceptable as long as they remain on point and within the realm of civility.