Intrepid reporter Chris Young has been trying to get to the bottom of last night’s police seizure of computer equipment at Dreaming Ant in Bloomfield. Here’s what he’s learned so far:
Pittsburgh police detective James Glick confirms that officers seized a computer and wireless router from Dreaming Ant last night at around 5:30 p.m. They did so after they tracing back a fake FOP release to the Dreaming Ant IP address.
Contrary to an assertion made to City Paper earlier today, Glick says that police took nothing from Crazy Mocha, the coffee shop that shares space on Liberty Avenue with Dreaming Ant. And he stressed that Dreaming Ant owner Dean Brandt “has been cooperative. We don’t believe he’s a suspect.”
The department’s Computer Crimes Unit is analyzing the computer and router data, and Glick says that once the work is done, the equipment will be returned to the video store as soon as possible.
Glick says multiple charges will likely be filed, including trademark counterfeiting and identity theft. (The release, as we first noted last week, includes a distorted version of the FOP logo. And it also names two FOP officials, though it doesn’t ascribe any quotes or other information directly to them.) Other charges are being looked into, Glick says, though he could not provide specifics.
But First Amendment concerns seem almost certain to arise in the matter. For one thing, generally speaking, trademark counterfeiting and identity theft involve the attempt to cheat people out of money. It is hard to see how that could have been the intention of the fake FOP release.
Mike Healey, a local attorney who often works on civil-rights matters, is not involved in the case (at least not yet). But when City Paper spoke to him earlier today, he professed surprise at the investigation. He couldn’t see how the FOP stunt was any different from what The Onion does on a daily basis: The satirical online publication often puts words into the mouths of public figures. And yet, Healy notes, “They have never been charged with a crime.”
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.
This is disgusting. Anyone who gets raided needs to sue the city and the FOP.
At the risk of doubling-down on appearing dimwitted, there was no reasonably obvious giveaway that the advisory was “satire”. It contained no clear joke for one thing. The contact information led to e-mail and voicemail auto-generated responses again claiming to be the F.O.P., and “due to high call volume, we’ll get back to you.” Not something the Onion ever engaged in to my knowledge.
It will be interesting to see if there’s really nothing to be prosecuted. Would I then be able to start issuing fake news releases from the mayor’s office, from the governor’s office? How about if I start linking to bogus news stories from the City Paper, by purchasing a very similar url and imitating your new exciting template? This has gotta be illegal somehow.
Bram: Look, it sucks for you that you got burned on this, but reasonable people have already forgiven you, if they ever even cared. The real issue here is as follows:
(1) Three cops beat an unarmed, law-abiding underage citizen to within an inch of his life for no reason whatsoever.
(2) The FOP, like the omerta-compliant gangster clique that it is, has consistently defended these thugs.
(3) Someone made fun of the FOP for doing this. As public figures, the FOP leadership are legally incapable of being libeled or slandered, and are appropriate figures for satire under any reasonable definition of the word in any free society.
(4) There are members of the police force who have been spending their time, paid by the public, to conduct raids on private citizens in the hopes of tracking down the cops’ pseudonymous, trickster detractors. They then want to apply any bogus legal charge to these people that they can, regardless of whether it sticks, all with a view to harassing and intimidating critics of their lawless violence against a black teenager.
It is outrageous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiX7GTelTPM
There are also contextual factors when it comes to parody/satire. I.e., that there were a couple of subtle cues that this was satire — ones that could easily have been missed by a layperson unfamiliar with press releases and the FOP logo (and Latin, for that matter) — might distinguish this case sufficiently from something like the Onion, which is saturated on every page with open acknowledgments that it’s satire — not to mention that its articles even divorced of context are patently absurd in a way most laypeople would recognize as such, another material consideration in satire / fair use type cases. Furthermore, given the timing and the nature of the underlying Jordan Miles case, it’s easy to see how a reader who was reasonably credulous about the FOP’s integrity might think it made sense, even if he were somewhat surprised by it.
Also, while I don’t disagree at all with Felix about the assault or the fundamental im- or (as discussed below) amorality of FOP’s position as to the officers, my sense is that plenty of people who take issue with FOP’s behavior here simultaneously have no problem with labor unions defending absolutely terrible teachers and public employees to the hilt — and fighting to make sure that ones who cross the line into violence, criminality, or other impropriety are paid pending full investigation as provided in the CBA. That really is a double standard, like it or not.
I’m as upset about all of this as anyone, but unions are what they are and do what they do, regardless of whether they represent the folks on your side or the folks on the other side, and regardless of whether individuals in decisionmaking roles actually think the people they’re defending deserve it on professional or moral grounds.
Accountability for these incidents ultimately rests with the officers who abuse their power and the department, or the people within it, who create and/or sustain a culture where such abuses of power are encouraged or permitted; condoned; and its perpetrators protected by the department and its internal oversight structure more or less without qualification. If no officers are out of control, FOP won’t have anyone so ugly to defend. Best to focus the blame where it most belongs.
@ Felix Dzerzhinsky
Re #4: If only these police put as much effort into their investigation of the 3 officers who beat up an unarmed, honor student. Wait, there is no investigation.
The city has paid those 3 abusive porkers almost $800,000 to sit on their butts and eat donuts since they beat up that kid.
The FOP president called the act outrageous and said they’re going to charge the responsible person(s) with multiple felonies to set an example. Let’s look at other examples the PoPo Frat set recently: Gang beat a minor without cause, and get a paid year of vacation!
@ Felix – I certainly feel a certain way about what happened to Miles and what’s happening (or not happening) in the investigations, but these are two entirely separate issues. It is precisely *because* of the volatile seriousness of the situation that masquerading as police officers and spreading lies is akin to throwing rocks on an interstate from an overpass. This isn’t about me feeling ashamed, Felix, it’s about feeling sick over what sort of chain-reaction might have happened if things went a little differently.
If they wanted to satirize those officers or the whole police department, there are 1,000,001 ways they could have done that which don’t involve setting up e-mail and voice mail auto-replies to extend an illusion of authenticity. Whether there was a legally defensible reason for raiding the Dreaming Ant in they way they did, I’ll be interested to follow — but I’m not reflexively against it, there WAS wrongdoing to be pursued.
I was working at Crazy Mocha when this happened. About 7 cops came in. They did take Dreaming Ant’s computer and router, but the router also belonged to Crazy Mocha. We didn’t have Wi-fi till about 4pm today when a new router was installed. This is all a bunch of crap. Also, one of my customers politely asked one of the cops standing around whether the raid had anything to do with the press release hoax, to which they responded, “you are now our #1 suspect and you need to give us your information before you leave here.” As if listening to the news (which is where he heard about it) is a crime. I just hope Dreaming Ant gets their computer back ASAP so Dean can get his business up and running again.
i haven’t forgiven you, bram
fuck you for being a smug, gutless pig apologist
This isn’t about me feeling ashamed, Felix, it’s about feeling sick over what sort of chain-reaction might have happened if things went a little differently.
yeah, the pigs could have beaten the shit out of an innocent person and gotten away with it
The cops are clearly in a vindictive mood, and it would be a good idea for people to just stop talking to them. Even if you’re innocent of the “crime” of satirizing them, or don’t know anyone who is “guilty,” it doesn’t matter; if they question you about this, you could end up caught up in their investigation somehow. Just tell them you have nothing to say.
http://ccrjustice.org/files/CCR_If_An_Agent_Knocks.pdf