At 04:31 PM 12/2/97 -0600, TruthMonger wrote:
David Honig wrote:
relevant to anon remailers & society thread...
SANTA ANA, Calif., Dec. 2 (UPI) _ Saying the case has national importance, federal prosecutors will retry a 20-year-old man accused of sending threatening electronic mail to Asian students at UC Irvine.
Stotler denied bail for Machado, noting that he fled to Mexico when he was first charged.
Are we supposed to feel 'safer' in public, knowing that we may be surrounded by people to whom it may be worthwhile to kill a few cops and innocent bystanders in order to avoid punishment for sending nasty email, or having an unpaid parking ticket?
Turn the facetiousness down a notch, Monger-san. This moron sent death threats to individuals. Its stupid that Fed "hate mail" laws inflate the case, when its already a death-threat case, and its stupid that it gets press because its the internet, but hey, this is the 90's. It is pretty reasonable IMHO to hold people responsible for direct threats when AND ONLY WHEN they can be traced to them (duh). As for the loser in question, 'fleeing' to Mexico is an short drive from Irvine, its not like he actually had to pull some desperado stunts that would have endangered others. I'm frankly surprised Machado (or his presumably more intelligent attorneys) didn't try to deny sending the messages ("I left my terminal to go potty"). (This may have to do with the technical circumstances of his capture, of which I'm unaware.) But if the messages were traceable, I've not yet read a (usually brilliant) <T>Monger rave wherein you argue that personal responsibility for threats is a null concept. ------------------------------------------------------------ David Honig Orbit Technology honig@otc.net Intaanetto Jigyoubu Information is a dense, colorless, odorless material readily transmitted across empty space and arbitrary boundaries by shaking charged particles.