Exeter NH Police Chief Arrests Resident for Social Media Comment - Granite Grok

Exeter NH Police Chief Arrests Resident for Social Media Comment

freedom_of_speechIn a story that went wide yesterday, Exeter Police Chief William Shupe had Robert Frese arrested for an online comment in which he said: “Chief Shupe covered up for a dirty cop.”

I may have my differences with the NH ACLU, but we’ve consistently agreed on one thing. Free Speech. Shupe is a public official. As such he is subject to the broadest possible interpretation of the first amendment. But rather than dismiss the banter the Chief had the accused arrested for violating the state’s defamation law.

According to this morning’s Union Leader,

The charge was brought under New Hampshire’s criminal defamation law, which states: “A person is guilty of a class B misdemeanor if he purposely communicates to any person, orally or in writing, any information which he knows to be false and knows will tend to expose any other living person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule.”

The ACLU rightly notes, also from the UL, that,

“The public interest in preventing defamation is not sufficient to justify the repressive effect that criminal libel prosecutions may have on public expression. That is especially true where, as here, criminal charges are used to punish people for criticizing public officials and government agencies,” the group said.

The First Amendment may, these days, excuse all manner of expression but its primary purpose was to permit citizens to openly speak their opinions about people in positions of power without fear of arrest or imprisonment.

The other issue, here, is that for the Chief to prove his case he has to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that Frese does not, in fact, believe what he says.

Good luck with that.

One more point.

First, if the statute can, in fact, be applied as noted by the Chief of the Exter PD, the entire New Hampshire Democrat Party Machine is guilty, at one point or another, of “information which (it) knows to be false and knows will tend to expose any other living person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule.”

While Political Parties, like government’s, become weapons of power for the same reasons – they are run by human beings – that does not mean we should in any way limit their freedom to speak even when they use it to try and limit ours.

That’s how it works.

The charges against Robert Frese should be dropped and not just to save the citizens of Exeter the cost of a lawsuit.

>