Session Five
Freedom of Speech
9:00-9:30 Bridge Activity
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This is the first article I have ever read that analyzed the weakness of the internet.I enjoyed the article because the author shares my exact viewpoint that I have expressed in previous assignments. (Surfing, chat rooms, and listservs are basically a waste of time). |
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9:30-10:15 Freedom of Speech
The number of "hate" sites on the Internet has risen from one in 1991 to more than 600 today, says a representative of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre... "The problem is not new," he said. "The problem is that it is now taking place in the mainstream of culture."... He said the best way to combat the proliferation of hate groups is to have an international agreement on policing the Internet.German Propangda: 1937
Der Giftpilz
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/thumb.htm
Racial Policy
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/rassenpo.htm
Caption: Does the same soul dwell in these differing bodies?
Internet Information: 1999
Stormfront
http://www2.stormfront.org/default.htmCouncil of Conservative Citizens
http://www.cofcc.org/The Dennis Wheeler Home Page
http://www.mindspring.com/~dennisw/,American Reniassance
http://www.amren.com/The Federation for American Immigrant Reform
http://www.fairus.org/
White Aryan Resistance
http://www.resist.com/ (neonazi)National Alliance
http://www.natall.com/The Spotlight
http://www.spotlight.org/Aryan Nations
http://www.nidlink.com/~aryanvic/HammerSkin Nation
http://home.att.net/~wpsh8814/David Duke Home Page
http://www.duke.org/KKK.Com
http://www.kkk.com/
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00 So What?
The Law:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
— The First Amendment to the U.S. ConstitutionStatistics:http://www.adl.org/frames/front_20faq.html
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of freedom of speech to all Americans,
even those whose opinions are reprehensible. To place an outright ban on the speech of certain groups would be unconstitutional and contrary to a fundamental tenet of American democracy.Hate Crime Laws
http://www.nwu.edu/handbook/rules/hate.html
Illinois law provides for criminal and civil penalties against an individual or individuals who assault, trespass upon, or cause damage to the property of or injure physically or emotionally another person or persons because of such person's race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin.
But...
http://www.adl.org/frames/front_99hatecrime.html
Fighting words are words which will provoke the person to whom they are directed to violence; more than 50 years ago, in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire,6 the Supreme Court decided that such words were not protected by the First Amendment.
Therefore, in R.A.V., the state of Minnesota argued that because all so-called "fighting words" are outside first amendment protection, race-based fighting words could be criminalized.The Supreme Court disagreed and struck down the statute. The Court held that because Minnesota had not in fact criminalized all fighting words, the statute isolated certain words based on their content or viewpoint and therefore violated the First Amendment. Based on R.A.V., hate crime statutes which criminalize bias-motivated speech or symbolic speech are unlikely to survive constitutional scrutiny. Particularly, cross burning statutes or statutes criminalizing verbal intimidation are more suspect after this decision.
Today, the FBI is releasing statistics on hate crimes in 1996, gathered from law enforcement agencies across the country. This year, a record number of agencies--representing 84 percent of the nation's population--have provided information to the FBI on hate crimes. The statistics reveal more than 5,000 hate crimes based on race, more than 1,400 based on religion, and more than 1,000 based on sexual orientation. These statistics show what we long believed is true: hate crimes have long gone underreported, and we need surveys like this to understand the depth of the problem.Uniform Crime Reports
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hatecm.htmHate crimes in Texas, 1997
http://www.dallasnews.com/texas-southwest-nf/hatecrimes.htm
Web-basedLegislationDefense expects inmates to testify dragging plan started in prisonPublic Opinion
http://www.dallasnews.com/jasper/jasper28.htmDefendant says Jasper 'eager to condemn' him because of racist,
supremacist ties1/28/99
By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News
JASPER, Texas - An attorney for a capital murder defendant said he expects incarcerated
members of two racist Texas prison gangs to testify that his client began planning in prison
for a killing similar to the one he is accused of committing."They're going to say that they talked about getting out and dragging somebody," C. Haden
"Sonny" Cribbs of Beaumont said of current and former inmates who served time with his
client, John William King, at the Beto I prison unit near Palestine.At least three convicts - including an Aryan Brotherhood member and a member of the rival
Aryan Circle prison gang - are among 53 witnesses subpoenaed by prosecutors to testify
against Mr. King.The 24-year-old Jasper laborer is one of three ex-convicts accused of kidnapping James Byrd
Jr. and dragging him to death behind a pickup on a rural county road June 7.Like his co-defendants, Mr. King has said he had nothing to do with the slaying of the
49-year-old disabled black man. But authorities say they believe he instigated it after a night
of drinking beer. They say they also have evidence that he was trying to form a racist gang in
Jasper at the time the dragging death occurred.Authorities have said they also believe Mr. King began talking about committing an act of
racist violence after adopting racist beliefs and joining a small racist prison gang in Beto I.Mr. King lashed out at Jasper residents Wednesday, complaining in an irate letter to the local
newspaper that he's being condemned by a "hypercritical" community."I don't know why you are so eager to condemn me for this man's murder," he wrote in a
letter published Wednesday by The Jasper NewsBoy. "I am simply a victim of a judicial
conspiracy as well as the district attorney's personal animosity for a non-Christian ex-convict
whose [sic] adorned with skin art mildly offensive to his and Jasperites' religious beliefs."The letter arrived at the twice-weekly newspaper Monday, the opening day of jury selection
in Mr. King's capital murder trial. As of the end of court proceedings Wednesday, 13 of 122
jury panelists called for Mr. King's capital murder trial had been qualified to serve in the pool
from which a jury will be drawn to hear the case.Prison records indicate that Mr. King's tattoos include a Klan-robed woodpecker and other
Ku Klux Klan symbols, Nazi symbols and the image of a black man hanging from a tree.
The records indicate that he changed his religious preference while at Beto I from Baptist to
Odinism, a worship of Viking gods that has long associations with white supremacists and
racist prison gangs.He told The Dallas Morning News in a lengthy written statement last November that both
he and co-defendant Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, of Sulphur Springs were being blamed
because of their tattoos and white supremacist beliefs.Mr. King and Mr. Brewer shared a cell, and both belonged to a small racist prison gang
known as the Confederate Knights of America while at Beto I. Mr. King was incarcerated
there between 1995 and 1997 on a 10-year burglary conviction, and Mr. Brewer served part
of a drug sentence there.Mr. King's statement to The News said co-defendant Shawn Allen Berry, 24, a childhood
friend from Jasper, could have killed Mr. Byrd over a soured drug deal. Mr. Berry, a movie
theater manager with a prior burglary conviction, has denied involvement. He told police that
Mr. King instigated the attack in a racist rage after Mr. Berry offered the black man a ride.Prosecutors obtained court orders Wednesday to bring two Texas prison inmates who served
time with Mr. King to Jasper to testify in his capital murder trial.Inmate Michael Mahan, 36, is an Ayran Circle member now incarcerated near Abilene for
escape and aggravated assault on a police officer in Childress County, according to state
prison records. He told prison officials last year that he considers Mr. King and Mr. Brewer
to be enemies, the records indicate.Inmate Roy Lee Birnbaum, 30, is an Aryan Brotherhood member now imprisoned near
Beeville. Prison records indicate that he is a repeat offender now serving a 25-year sentence
for burglary and theft convictions out of Dallas County. He also has served time for
aggravated perjury, and prison records indicate he has a lengthy history of prison violence.Authorities in Jasper say that Mr. Birnbaum is a jail-house tattoo artist who gave Mr. King
many of his racist tattoos.A third man served 3 1/2 years on an armed robbery conviction and has also been
subpoenaed by prosecutors. The former inmate, William Matthew Hoover, now lives in
Missouri, court records indicate.Mr. Cribbs said he believes that those and other inmates who may be called by prosecutors
have offered to testify in exchange for some form of favorable treatment.Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray denied that Wednesday.
"There is not any witness that has received any kind of promise, favorable treatment or
anything else to testify in this case," he said, declining to comment further.
Hate groups have the right to put up information on the web, just as I have the right to visit their site and decide for myself what I think. No outside group has the superiority to tell me what to think by deciding what information I will and will not have access to.1.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya AngelouGeorgia teen claims school suspended him over Web page
A Georgia eighth-grader says he plans to fight an 18-week suspension handed down last week after school administrators discovered his Web site. The Web site, "Natasha's Heckling Page," which Matt Paul Foreman and a friend created on a home
computer, lists 11 ways to disrupt class and identifies an administrator "we try to avoid the most."The Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1997
http://www.ala.org/bbooks/challeng.htmlMaya Angelou's autobiographical novel has increasingly been the
focus of challenges in school libraries. Objections center on the
description of a rape she suffered as a child.2.It's Perfectly Normal, Robie Harris
This sex-education book has been challenged in school and public
libraries across the country.3.Goosebumps Series, R.L. Stine
These books have been challenged in schools and libraries across the
country. While some parents call for the removal of the books, many
more parents have rallied to defend the books.4.The Alice Series,Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
These books have been challenged for being “sexually explicit” and
using “offensive language.”5.Of Mice and Men,John Steinbeck
This short work by a Nobel prize-winning author is most often
challenged for using “offensive language” and being “unsuited to age
group.”6.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
This classic has been the subject of debate since its publication in
1885. Upon publication, the book was banned and condemned across
the country. It was called “rough, coarse and inelegant,” unsuitable
for “intelligent, respectable people.” The irony is that the book that
today is challenged as racist was originally attacked for being too
anti-racist! There were complaints that the character of Jim was too
heroic for a slave.7.The Giver, Lois Lowry
This critically acclaimed novel has been challenged for being
“violent,” “sexually explicit,” and using “offensive language,” and
for its treatment of infanticide and euthanasia.8.A Day No Pigs Would Die, Robert Newton Peck
This coming-of-age story of a 13-year-old Shaker farm boy, who
must deal with the death of his father and his pet, has been challenged
for being “sexually explicit” and using “offensive language.”9.Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane
This autobiographical work relates a black youth's coming of age in
South Africa. It has been challenged for “homosexuality, offensive
language, and being unsuited to age group.”10.Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
This Newbery Award-winning book has been challenged and removed
from classrooms and school libraries due to “profanity, disrespect of
adults, and an elaborate fantasy world that might lead to confusion.”
11:00-11:30 In Class EssayInternet Filtering MeasureEducation
http://www.freedomforum.org/speech/1999/2/16arizona.aspArizona legislator Mark Anderson introduced the bill on Jan. 18 to, in his words, "protect the innocence of children." there is inappropriate material out there on the Net. This bill is designed to be a reasonable means of protecting children from such material. Under the proposal, public schools could either "equip the computer" with blocking software or "purchase Internet connectivity from an Internet service provider that provides filter services to limit access to sexual materials."
Provider Pulls Plug On Anti-Abortion Web Site
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/wr/story.html?s=v/nm/19990208/wr/abortion_9.htmlBy June Preston
ATLANTA (Reuters) - An anti-abortion web site that displays fetal body parts was yanked from the Internet Friday after its creator said he would add live video of women entering abortion clinics in England, Japan and the United States.
A spokesman for web site creator Neal Horsley, 54, of Carrollton, Georgia, about 60 miles (96 km) west of Atlanta, told Reuters that Internet service provider Mindspring had ''pulled the plug without prior notice.''
Mindspring could not be reached for comment. But a check of the Internet for the web site dubbed ``The Nuremberg Files: Visualize Abortionists on Trial,'' found it was no longer accessible.
``They didn't give us reasons. They never told us why,'' the spokesman said. ``We are looking for a new ISP now, and it (the web site) should be back up in several days.''
Horsley, 54, who was not immediately available for comment, had told Reuters Thursday that he planned to set up video cameras outside abortion centers to film women entering clinics in five U.S. cities and in England and Japan.
``We'll film people going in and out of the clinics,'' he said. ``We'll film the faces of people who are entering and the faces of mothers driving their daughters to clinics to have abortions.''
He said with the help of anti-abortion activists, whom he called ``sidewalk counselors,'' he hoped to eventually download live videos from every time zone in the world so that viewers could log on 24 hours a day to see people entering the clinics.
A spokesman for Planned Parenthood in New York said it would take Horsley to court if he began to air such videos, which he said he expected to do in the near future, possibly as early as next weekend.
``The Nuremberg Files'' site lists hundreds of names of abortion practitioners in bold type. When a practitioner is killed in anti-abortion violence, a line is drawn through his or her name. When one is wounded, the name appears in gray.
The web site, which showed body parts of aborted fetuses and animation depicting dripping blood, was a central object in a lawsuit in Portland, Oregon, that resulted in a $107.9 million verdict Tuesday for doctors and other plaintiffs who feared harm after their faces appeared on ``wanted'' posters.
The case was filed in 1995, but Horsley said he was not found liable because he did not begin working on the web site until 1997.
As one of American's leading organizations fighting anti-Semitism, racism and anti-government extremism, the Anti-Defamation League is keenly aware of the danger posed by bigotry and hatred in communities across the country. As a staunch supporter of the First Amendment, ADL also understands that the Constitution protects the free speech rights of all Americans -- even those whose opinions we deplore.ADL believes that the best response to the words of bigots and extremists is more speech: speech that reflects the ideals of American democracy and tolerance. The League also believes that the government has an important role to play in balancing free speech with other values such as the maintenance of a civil, safe and orderly society.
NAACP
http://www.naacp.org/NAACP CHAIRMAN RIDICULES PUBLIC SILENCE REGARDING
CONGRESSIONAL MEMBER’S INVOLVEMENT IN HATE GROUPJanuary 22, 1998
Baltimore, MD - NAACP Chairman Julian Bond issued the following statement:"For the first time ? to my knowledge ? prominent white Americans have spoken out against
the racist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) and the involvement in it of Representative
Bob Barr (R. ?Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R. ?Ms.).The Chairs of the Republican and Democratic Parties ? to their credit ? issued separate
statements condemning the CCC and membership in it.Tragically, they stand-alone.
Instead, speaking out against bigotry has been left exclusively to African Americans ? the
NAACP, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr., and a few columnist.Why the great silence?
Where is the outrage?
Where are all the calls of condemnation?
Routinely, whenever some black figure, however obscure, utters a bigoted statement, black
leaders are deluged with demands that they speak out, a payment required for their continued
admission to civil society.They always do so, upholding a centuries - old tradition of allegiance to the virtues of tolerance
we hope all Americans embrace.Reciprocity and fairness demand an equally vigorous response from our fellow citizens to this
latest grotesque affront.To date, the silence is deafening ? and frightening."
Anti Defamation LeagueThe Museum of Tolerance
http://www.adl.org/The Council of Conservative Citizens: Promoting a Racist AgendaA racist political group, the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), has been
http://www.adl.org/frames/front_ccc.html
making waves in the national media ever since it became known that
mainstream politicians such as Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) and Representative
Bob Barr (R-GA) were keynote speakers at CCC conferences. According to
the CEO of the CCC, Gordon Lee Baum, Sen. Lott has ad-dressed the group a
number of times, and Rep. Barr made an appearance in front of the group in
1998. These appearances by mainstream politicians such as Sen. Lott and Rep.
Barr, and by numerous elected officials at the state and local levels, such as
Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice, give the CCC a false imprimatur of
legitimacy.
http://www.wiesenthal.com/Nizkor Project
http://www.nizkor.org//