by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

August 5, 2011

Police in in Renton, Washington seek to arrest and prosecute an anonymous satirist who created several animated cartoons mocking the scandal-plagued police department.

The videos ?target specific members of the City of Renton and Renton Police Department with the intent to embarrass and emotionally torment the victims,? claimed police investigator Ryan Rutledge in a July 11 affidavit filed in King County Superior Court. Rutledge contends that the videos are covered by the Washington State ?cyberstalking? statute.

Remarkable as the case in Renton may be, this is not the first time a city government and its armed enforcement apparatus have sought to identify and prosecute an anonymous critic.

In 2008, municipal officials in the town of Whitewater, Wisconsin, particularly Police Chief James Coan, targeted the pseudonymous John Adams, publisher of www.freewhitewater.com , which lambasted the town?s ?narrow-minded" political class.

Police departments are persistently looking for ways to circumnavigate that troublesome First Amendment. In many jurisdictions they seek to use wiretapping statutes to prosecute citizens who record their public actions. Now police are attempting to redefine criticism of its performance as a form of ?cyberstalking.?

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

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