Do any of you hypersensitive liberals want to defend this?

[il Padrino Ute]

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1966/text

So, if any sissy gets offended by something posted online somewhere, it is possible that that the poster could go to prison for 2 years.

Hello thought police. Absolutely ridiculous.

[All-American]

I don't think you have that much to worry about.

If you could go to prison for posting something online that somebody thought was offensive, yeah, that would be disconcerting. But look at the text of the bill:

Originally Posted by HR 1966

Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Each of the bold words is a burden which the prosecution would have to meet to convict somebody of the offense.

1. Intent. Did they mean to do it?
2. Coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress. Does communication attempt to do any of the above?
3. Is it severe?
4. Is it repeated?
5. Is it hostile?

You have to satisfy all five of those criteria before this law can apply.

Besides, the findings of the bill very strongly suggest that the bill is written in order to protect children. If the case were an issue of a thirty five year-old sending nasty emails to another thirty five year-old, you could argue that he ought not be prosecuted because the incident is really outside the scope of the intent of the bill. On the other hand, if a thirty five year-old was sending nasty emails to a thirteen year-old, you would absolutely want the judicial muscle to protect the kid.

The one question I have with this bill, honestly, is what kind of punishment would be levied upon a teenager guilty of the crime. Since most bullying is done by peers anyway, I would imagine most of the perpetrators would be juveniles themselves. In THAT case, up to 2 years in prison seems really excessive. I'm not familiar enough with juvenile law to know if the maximum sentence is only available for those charged as adults, or what.