NOTE: Since publishing my BC commentary Sheriff Joe Verses the Constitution yesterday evening, there have been some stunning developments in Maricopa County.
NEW TIMES OWNERS ARRESTED, RELEASED
Late in the evening on Thursday, October 18, the owners of The Phoenix New Times, who are also owners of the prestigious Village Voice and five other papers, were arrested (at their homes) by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Earlier in the day they revealed that they were the targets of a secret Grand Jury probe. Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin also revealed the nature of the probe, which was a wide-spread assault on First Amendment rights.
In 2004 The Phoenix New Times inadvertently disclosed the home address of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in an article investigating his real estate holdings. Such revelations are a felony in Arizona. While it is perfectly legal to disclose the home address of a law enforcement agent in print it is illegal to do so on the internet. The publishers of The Phoenix New Times have been battling that law, Arpaio, and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew P. Thomas, a close alley of Arpaio since that revelation. Several years ago Thomas turned the issue over to Pinal County to investigate. Pinal officials said there was no case. Since then, Thomas has been trying to prosecute The Phoenix New Times, going to far as to hire Dennis Wilenchik, Arpaio’s private attorney as a special prosecutor to investigate the independent newspaper. On Thursday The Phoenix New Times was served with a summons to appear before a grand jury in a stunning assault on the First Amendment.
FIRST AMENDMENT ASSAULT
On Friday, the New York Times reported that according to James Weinstein, a professor of constitutional law at the Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law at Arizona State University, the subpoena was a pure case of “harassment of the press.” Also contacted was Clint Bolick, “…litigation director at the Goldwater Institute, a conservative policy study group, said The Phoenix New Times was correct that the subpoena was an abuse of power and right to risk prosecution by exposing it. “This is the most sweeping deprivation of privacy and First Amendment rights I’ve ever seen in a subpoena, on the basis of what appears to be a relatively slight legal infraction, the publication of the sheriff’s address,” Mr. Bolick said….”
Jack Shafer of Slate put it best. “…Because I have visited The Phoenix New Times Web site, the grand jury wants to know the IP address of my computer. It wants to know what type of browser and operating system I use. It wants to know what Web pages I visited before going to Phoenix New Times and the Web pages I visited after going there. It wants to know the date and time of my visits. The grand jury also wants the information contained in the cookie that Phoenix New Times places on my hard disk when I visit the site—this cookie contains a host of data about my Web browsing. Because it's usually a simple matter to deduce the name of a home Web user by his IP address, anybody who gathers all of this data will be able to assemble a many-faceted—and intrusive—portrait of me….”
Article comments
1 - moonraven
This is a little too parochial for me.
But since I am in New Mexico this week, may I suggest you write a piece about the modern-day implications of The Lincoln County Wars?
And maybe a blast of nostalgia on the order of an Elergy to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid?
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door....
Oh my.
2 - JustOneMan
"inadvertently disclosed the home address of Sheriff Joe Arpaio"
Truth is they did it on purpose! Please...
JOM
3 - Dr Dreadful
JOM,
All things considered, I'd say there's a good chance you actually ARE Sheriff Arpaio...
4 - JustOneMan
Dread..you will pay for that remark.. I will now publish Dreads home address...
Highway Marker 26
(Under Bridge Overpass)
3rd Refridgerator Box on The Left
State Highway 206
New Jersey
Oppss..that was an accident...
Sorry Dread...
5 - Dr Dreadful
+++Newsflash+++
A squadron of confused Maricopa County deputies descended today on a freeway overpass near Trenton, New Jersey after an anonymous tipoff.
They later abandoned an unnecessarily lengthy search of discarded cardboard boxes and their spokesman, Deputy Sheriff Solamente Unombre, told reporters that they had been given misleading information.
"Our informant is being fitted for pink underwear as I speak," he said, randomly assaulting a sound technician from Channel 37 with the butt of his Glock. "Whoops, sorry about that, sir. Keep meaning to get that holster fixed."
The deputies were later seen heading for Medicine Hat, Alberta, after receiving information that a nineteen-year-old woman there had been seen purchasing hemp hand moisturiser from The Body Shop.
6 - frank a
now is the time to take back our country
from the massive corruption and pollution
that the bush administration has perpetrated
on the middle class american.Bush hates the
american people and is trying his utmost,with all
his power to screw the people.we should surround
the white house with pitchforks (heavy with manure) and torches(flashlights)pull him out
and force him in the manure where he belongs