There's Twitter Jail — And There’s Federal Jail.
The articles here posted will encourage you to behave in a cooperative and unrevolutionary manner on social media, most especially Twitter, by showing you how a series of seemingly legal tweets can be combined into a portmanteau of sin, enough to have you sent to Texas jail.
These five articles will afford you the chance to examine Barrett Brown's tweets so you may be judge of his actions, although not his fate. If you find what you read objectionable, please act, although don't tell anyone that I told you to go on a homicidal anti-Federal rampage.
If you don't know who Barrett is, you'll get a sense from these five articles, which should be enough to help you make up your mind what you think of him, and what he's done.
Barrett Brown's 3rd October US District Court indictment lists what we can class at his offending tweets.
The first set of tweets for which Barrett Brown was arrested and indicted are from 4th September 2012, and are numbered as 2 a-e on the court document. The messages are:
a) Don't be a pussy. Call up every fascist and tell them you're watching. youtube.com/watch?v=4gcptY8ne14
I do recommend this video, it is quite funny. As for the tweet, it makes no sense to pick on anybody for this. Barrett has here in the words of his charge sheet, commanded and induced people to call up fascists. He makes no judgement as to who these fascists may be.
b) Have you doxed a pig today? Be ready for the #revolution - have a list! informationliberation.com/?id=40815 #Anonymous
In this and other messages, Barrett Brown is said to have ‘knowingly counseled, commanded, and induced other individuals to make restricted personal information about a Special Agent (SA) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) publically available with the intent to threaten, intimidate, and incite the commission of a crime of violence against that SA’.
Well you are a lawyer and I am not, but this is what is going to be going on in court, most specifically with Barrett Brown's own pet pig, Agent Robert Smith. The link is interesting, and while not a site the government and police may approve of, it is nonetheless providing a useful platform to monitor state violence. DoXing and threatening to DoX are both crimes, whether against private individuals or state agents.
Of course, what constitutes menacing, offensive, or indecent speech is entirely up to the whims of the state. When you find out that earlier this year a 19-year-old U.K student was arrested for posting an anti-war comment to Facebook, you can begin to see how dangerous Barrett Brown's tweets can be perecived to be. There was little to no outrage over the student incident; the student was just one of many arrested for offensive speech in the U.K.
c) Don't know how to shoot? You've got five years to learn. Maybe less. youtube.com/watch?v=wkqSIZaBhUY&list=UUv1FlZ4TdveCyva7okPRmSA&index=1&feature=plcp … #Anonymous #ProjectPM #blackbloc
I cover the video of Barrett shooting elsewhere in these articles, but I am sure you can see where this is going. This case is composed of many small bricks, which are hopefully going to be built into an unscaleable wall of captivity for Barrett Brown. While no individual message is in itself menacing or wicked, in toto a depraved and vulgar picture is going to be drawn.
c) #DHS stocking up on ammo. Are you? youtube.com/watch?v=wkqSIZaBhUY&list=UUv1FlZ4TdveCyva7okPRmSA&index=1&feature=plcp … Don't wait. Retaliate.
Personally I don't know what Texas, Barrett Brown and America see in videos like this, in which they show themselves shooting. However, I do know that if I had a dime for every clip of someone shooting on YouTube, I really would be a millionaire.
The #NYPD is your enemy. The time for debate is over. truth-out.org/news/item/11326-hacked-intel-email-nypd-involved-in-damn-right-feloni … #Anonymous #NYC #OpNYT
I am including this as I am curious why Barrett would be indcited for the above, but not for this. There doesn't seem to be much in it for me. Barrett's final deadly tweet on the 4th September 2012, reads:
c) Have a plan to kill every government you meet. #ProjectPM tinychat.com/barrettbrown #Anonymous echelon2.org
So you are looking at this tweet and you're not surprised that Barrett was arrested? For me, it's not a question of whether he's gone beyond freedom of expression, so much as my surprise at the fact the authorities considered him to be a real threat.
On the nature of threats, I think this article from Sue Basko says it better than I could. Regarding #ProjectPM, she says:
"Project PM is some people on the internet looking at websites and gathering information about companies that conduct surveillance on the public. These are amateur hobbyist researchers and some of the information is inaccurate. Nevertheless, it is a group research project and totally legal."
Clearly Barrett is not a dangerous man. Unhinged, charismatic, wild yes, but he says he will be using not violence, but the court system and the media to achieve his wicked ends - which are incidentally having his computers and notebooks returned to him by the authorities. That's all he wants.
As for the above tweets, I do not know why any of them are in the indictment. There are four more days worth of tweets to look at, so you can see for yourself what is going on here. Once more, Sue Basko:
"When Barrett Brown is all cleaned up, I hope the Feds will see fit to drop the charges. If not, we'll all get to watch a stupendously shameful situation where a man is put on trial for his dark humor jokes, exaggerations, insults, righteous anger, rants, manic paranoia, and the occasional semi-coherent political observation."
