11/18/2009 The Rutherford Institute - Commentary

Is Tweeting Now a Felony Under Federal

Law?
By John W. Whitehead
11/13/2009

Say you want a revolution.

We better get on right away.
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street.
--John Lennon, "Power to the People"

The ominous rise of the surveillance state continues unabated. With

each passing day, hope fades that the Obama administration will
diverge from George W. Bush's erection of a police state.

The government's treatment of Elliot Madison is a case in point.

Madison, a 41-year-old self-styled anarchist and social worker, was
arrested on September 24, 2009, and charged with violating a federal
anti-rioting law. Madison allegedly listened to a police scanner
(which, according to the New York Times, is legal) and blogged about
it on Twitter to help fellow protesters avoid law enforcement at the G- Constitutional attorney and
20 summit taking place in Pittsburgh that same month. (Ironically, author John W. Whitehead is
just months earlier, the U.S. government called Twitter a boon to founder and president of The
democracy after Iranian protesters used it to organize anti- Rutherford Institute. His latest
government rallies.) book The Change Manifesto
(Sourcebooks) is now
One week later, agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force available.
raided Madison's Brooklyn home, seizing computers, books and
Click here to contact
papers, along with other assorted items, including his marriage John Whitehead
license, Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs and a needlepoint depiction
of Lenin. The list of what was taken stretches for pages.

All of this over a few Tweets? After all, Madison's tactics are fairly
common these days. Monitoring police communications and
movements during protests is one of the few means average citizens
have in attempting to level the playing field against the pervasive
surveillance tools of law enforcement agencies.

The police possess all manner of invasive and coercive technological

devices at their disposal, which they used on protesters at the G-20
summit in Pittsburgh. As the New York Times reported, during the
protest, "heavily armed police officers reacted to the anti-globalization
protesters with tear gas, sonic weapons, rubber bullets and mass
arrests." Sound cannons--which are suspected of causing damage to
eardrums and perhaps even fatal aneurysms--were also used to
disperse protesters.

rutherford.org/…/commentary.asp?rec… 1/3
11/18/2009 The Rutherford Institute - Commentary
Unfortunately, as Ryan Singel writes for Wired, "The federal anti-
Is Tweeting Now a Felony
rioting statute is serious business, and is seemingly easy to violate. Under Federal Law?
For instance, it is a felony 'to organize, promote, encourage,
participate in, or carry on a riot; or [...] to aid or abet any person in Mr. President, You Need to
inciting or participating in [...] a riot.' By that token, simply telling a Represent All Americans—
person fleeing cops with batons which way to run makes you a felon. Not Just the Democrats
One wonders how the Southern Christian Leadership Council and
Martin Luther King, Jr. would have fared under that law, when he was Why Your Representatives
Should Make You Mad as
in a Birmingham jail, writing letters urging people to support the
Hell
direct-action program of sit-ins and marches. Those protesters were
later attacked by police using dogs and fire hoses on the orders of Can You Really Get the
Birmingham Sheriff Bull Connor." 'News' from Watching TV?

Similarly, John Lennon could have been charged under this law for his Is Glenn Beck the Future of
"Power to the People" lyrics, which urged people to take to the Television 'News'?
streets and start a revolution. Truth be told, I could just as easily be
Why Aren't Schools Teaching
charged under this vague law for the many commentaries I've written Our Children Their Rights
over the years urging Americans to take to the streets as well to and Freedoms?
stand and fight for their rights.
The Nurre Case: The
The point is that it no longer matters what your particular gripe is, Demise of Western Art and
whether you're an anarchist, a tree hugger, a Tea Party protester, or Culture?
something else altogether. The government is sending a clear
Children of the Twilight Zone:
message that Elliot Madison is not the exception but the rule: this is
10 Best Episodes
what happens to people who disagree with the government and act on
it. They are targeted, tracked, placed under surveillance and, if they Loving Big Brother: The
happen to violate any arcane laws, made examples of. Future Is Now

The U.S. government is an expert when it comes to spying on its Bureaucracy and Power
citizens. Information is being covertly collected about every aspect of Plays: The Problems with
our lives and is being secretly sifted and analyzed in vast data Obama's Policy Czars
storage facilities, far from the gaze of public scrutiny. The highly
secretive National Security Agency (NSA), for instance, possesses
unprecedented powers to spy on our communications. Since 9/11,
the telecommunications industry has worked with the NSA to allow
the agency to screen data for key names and words, giving it the
John W. Whitehead’s weekly
power to monitor email, texts and calls for "suspicious activity." Its commentaries are available for
data centers elsewhere examine credit card activity, parking tickets, publication to newspapers and
bookstore visits and other activity to establish patterns and monitor web publications at no charge.
citizens' behavior. Click here to obtain reprint
permission.
As the intelligence services cast their nets ever-wider in an attempt to
shore-up their watch lists and look for suspicious activity, it's Click here to download a
destroying our constitutional rights to privacy. And police tactics are print quality image of
eradicating our First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble, John W. Whitehead.
protest and speak our minds.

Moreover, what was once considered a peaceful protester is now,

because of government paranoia, considered an extremist. A report Post Office Box 7482
produced by the Department of Homeland Security in April 2009 cast Charlottesville, VA
22906-7482
a wide net in its classification of "extremists" to include those on the
Phone: 434-978-3888
right-- such as those who "reject federal authority in favor of state or
Fax: 434-978-1789
local authority" and oppose issues like abortion or immigration--and
left-leaning "extremists" such as animal and environmental rights General Inquiries
groups and anarchists. Furthermore, the report uses the labels
"terrorist" and "extremist" interchangeably. In other words, when Legal Assistance
citizens such as Elliot Madison voice what the government considers

rutherford.org/…/commentary.asp?rec… 2/3
11/18/2009 The Rutherford Institute - Commentary
to be extremist viewpoints, that is tantamount to being a terrorist. Technical Comments

Unfortunately, it's not just the federal government that Americans

need to worry about. State police agencies are also getting in on the
action. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the Maryland State
Police had been conducting extensive surveillance on activists who
were considered "terrorists." Among these, People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals were reportedly considered a security threat
due to concerns that they might disrupt the circus; consumers
fighting a 72% electricity rate were looked at with suspicion; the DC
Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq War, "was designated a
white supremacist group, without explanation"; and among the
possible wrongs committed by Amnesty International, a well-known
human rights group, was the so-called crime of "civil rights."

Clearly, freedom of thought and conscience are at serious risk today

from federal and state agencies intent on suppressing actions they
deem to be a threat to the status quo. It all adds up to an Orwellian
government that would like nothing better than to dictate what we can
think, read and believe. The thought police are not that far away.

©2009 The Rutherford Institute

Under the regulations of the United States Internal Revenue Service, The Rutherford Institute is incorporated as a 501(c)(3)
tax exempt nonprofit organization. Donations to support The Rutherford Institute’s legal and educational work help to
safeguard the constitutional rights and religious freedoms of all Americans. Donations are tax-deductible. In compliance with
general industry standards of a nonprofit organization, the Institute is audited annually by an independent accounting firm.

Founded in 1982 by constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead, The Rutherford Institute is a civil liberties
organization that provides free legal services to people whose constitutional and human rights have been threatened or
violated.

rutherford.org/…/commentary.asp?rec… 3/3