A Michigan assistant attorney general, a man who is charged with enforcing the laws of the State of Michigan, is waging a vicious, cyber-war against a gay college student.
Ok, let’s take a moment and feel sorry for this assistant AG who has unresolved issues about his own sexual orientation and a big dose of self-loathing. Now, that moment is over.
Time to rant about him and his employer the Attorney General of the State of Michigan, defends his assistant AG even though he calls him a bully.
The AG hides behind the “free speech” argument. Let’s assume it is applicable here. There are limits to one’s right to free speech. The classic example is “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater” [unless there is, in fact, a fire]. The government can prosecute you if what you are saying is calculated to incite violence and does, in fact, incite violence.
Here are the rules of thumb for free speech:
Free speech is limited to reasonable time, reasonable place and reasonable manner. (That’s why there are limits to where you can hold rallies and when your neighbor can do heavy construction on his property.)
Free speech doesn’t protect you from the consequences of that speech.
Do you really think that if this Michigan assistant AG were harassing say, a co-worker, a female student or another civil servant, that the AG would feel the same way and hide behind “free speech”? Really?
No, the AG doesn’t want to take the side of a gay college kid.
Because that would be unpopular and require that he take a stand against his conservative constituency.
So, the head legal officer of the State of Michigan in the United States of America in the year 2010 will call a subordinate a bully, but won’t stand up to him??
Don’t you think that bullying has caused too many young people to be emotionally scarred or so despondent as to be suicidal? If the recent suicide of a Rutgers student doesn’t make law enforcement, law enforcement, stand up to bullying, what will become of our society?
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Michigan attorney general defends employee’s right to blog
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/US/09/30/michigan.justice.blog/story.shirvell.cnn.jpg
September 30, 2010|By the CNN Wire Staff *
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox defended an assistant’s constitutional right to wage an Internet campaign against an openly gay college student, even though he considers that employee a “bully.” “Here in America, we have this thing called the First Amendment, which allows people to express what they think and engage in political and social speech,” Cox told Anderson Cooper on CNN’s “AC 360” on Wednesday night. “He’s clearly a bully … but is that protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution? Yes.”
