So, I get this call from Brentwood Belair, the sports columnist. He's asking me if I'm up to doing a column for him, since he's got some kind of editor's deadline. He's doing another Glasgow Kilbride detective novel, so I say why not. I meet a lot of sports types in my cab coming in to LAX. I've always got material.
So here's what happened:
I'd just finished the Sports Section of the Times, and was unfolding the Daily Racing Form when a suit raps on the window and climbs in. A shoulder bag, a briefcase, and one of those legal size yellow pads.
I look back. He says, "Down town Criminal Courts Building, Broadway and Temple."
It was about one thirty, so I say, "Take about half an hour, okay?"
"Ten minutes, my friend, or I'm in contempt."
"Ten minutes?" I say. "You're going to have to hold on real tight. But, without a police escort...or a helicopter..."
"Kidding," he says. "I'm just Kiiiiding. Do the best you can. Never easy getting around downtown."
I took a deep breath. I like this guy. A regular guy with a yellow legal pad. Go figure.
I maneuver Airport traffic, past Sepulveda, and onto the 405.
He sits, staring out the window, at the concrete, so I ask him, "Been watching the Playoffs?"
"Oh yeah," he says. He blinks. "I'm just getting in from Boston. Every conversation there ends with, 'Celtic will easily make the Finals.'"
"I think they got there hands full with the 76ers."
"That they do." he says.
"Lawyer, right?" I say.
He wiggles his yellow pad. "How did you guess." He laughs.
"Let me ask you a legal question then, okay?" I say.
"Okay, but not too tough. I'm a criminal attorney. Probate, or taxation, not so good."
"I'm reading in the sport section about Twitter and some guy saying to Steve Blake's wife, you know, one of the Lakers. Guy twitters, 'I hope your family gets murdered. '" I wave the sports section in the air.
"Yeah, I read that this morning in the Herald. My first impression, guy must have lost a ton of money betting on the Lakers. He had to vent someway."
"So," I say. "Let me ask you this. If somebody says that about the President, and the First Family, it'd be treason. Guy'd be in jail, right?"
"Patriot Act covers that. But Blake's family doesn't reside in the White House. " He looks out the window again. "Yes, I read about that. People can hide behind their Twitter account. Spewing hatred anonymously."
"Blake could have won the game with a three pointer, but he missed. It was close."
"Well," he says. "Legally, I guess, notwithstanding First Amendment Free Speech issues, just saying what he did, it's probably not enough to prosecute."
"But he shouldn't get away with it," I say.
He pulls out a book from his briefcase. He flips pages. "Let's see. Comes under Section 422 of the Penal Code."
"First," he says. "A person must willfully threaten to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person."
"He didn't say he'd kill them," I say. "But it's like the same thing. Could be some lady, who knows? On the internet, could be anybody."
"Second," still reading from the book, " they must have the specific intent that the statement is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out."
He looks out the window. "Do we take the threat seriously? That's part of this."
"I don't know," I say. "Blake said he never looks at it. He just let's it be. So, I don't know, did he really take this as a real threat?"
"And", he says, still reading. "The threat must be so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened,..or in this case...a family threatened...a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat."
"That must be hard to prove. Guess you almost have to say exactly how you're going to murder them. And why Blake? He was hot the last few games. Getting him the ball, that was the right thing to do. Come on, even Kobe misses shots."
"And finally, to have a case, you must then be reasonably in sustained fear for your safety or for his or her immediate family's safety." He looks up. "This is a very difficult standard. The twitter person, even if we could find him, won't be prosecuted. It's just not strong enough."
"Guy will deny it anyway, if we ever found him," I say.
"All that said, even if this meets the definition, count on a restraining order being the fix for this situation. I'd guess with the statement as it is, a one time Tweet, as much as I'd like this to stop, you aren't going to see any kind of prosecution."
"Be a real man and say it to Blake's face. Another tough guy, with no guts."
"I have often wondered," says the Man. "What people are always Tweeting about. It's like their thoughts are so important that the world needs to know, right then."
"So we can't just find this guy, and throw him in jail."
"The shame is that Blake's wife and kids had nothing to do with it. Not to mention that his kids probably have Twitter accounts and could read the whole thing."
"What the hell is wrong with people?"
"But there is a fine line here. We have a Free Speech right. But people still lose their jobs because they tweeted about their boss. And actually, that’s all legal, since most states have Hire at Will employment, which means an employer can fire you just because…at least as long as they are willing to pay unemployment taxes."
"There's another case here," he says. "Conflicting Constitutional issues. Are public school teachers in violation when they Tweet scripture?"
"So I guess you can threaten people on Twitter, and there's really nothing we can do. Doesn't sound fair."
"Fair?" he says. He shakes his head.
I pull up to the courthouse, North Broadway. He collects his briefcase, shoulder bag and yellow legal pad. A healthy tip and he's out.
"You know," he says through the open window. " I'd like to tell Steve Blake, while the Playoffs are on, to put his Twitter, his computer and his phone, on Lebron Mode. No ring." He laughs, waves, and trudges off.
...........................................................
Help comes from:
espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7943732/steve-blake-
findlegaladvice.org/forum
danieljensenlaw.com
Google/images, readabilityformulas.com/
WikiPedia/First Amendment,
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