I agree up to a certain point, but there has to be some legal boundary between freedom of thought/speech and literally planning a crime. I'm protected under the First Amendment to say "someday I'll rob a bank" but not necessarily "I'll rob this bank on Friday and here's how I plan to do it".
I think you should be allowed to write that exact line in your journal. If you rob the bank that can be used as evidence against you, but in no way is it acceptable for private reflections alone to be used to arrest you. Or else every author who's written a novel with 'bad' characters would be arrestable.
Well in your example you've begun conspiring with a second party so that's not at all the same thing. You are at least free to plan all the crimes you'd like to arbitrary levels of detail in private. It's when you start acting things out (soliciting coconspirators, blackmailing targets, etc) that you cross the legal line.
The current situation is a weird one. Anthropic reported single party interactions (per the ToS and common sense), there's a statue about sending threats (as there clearly ought to be), then somehow the definition of the word "send" was tortured by the local police. If a crime has been committed here it's almost certainly an infraction by the local authority against the spirit of the law.
I totally agree. People seem to be stuck on the notion that we must not punish thought crimes, and have elevated this above all other considerations, when really it's just one among several.
However, those other respondents to your post seem to be accurately describing the current legal situation. I asked Gemini, and apparently "conspiring" to commit an offense requires an agreement with another person in both my country and the US, where an "overt act" is also required (that may not be incriminating by itself). I find this alarming. The fact that someone's private diary entry describing in detail a plot to kill me does not amount by itself to anything is... incredible to me.
Obviously, I'm not talking about the verbatim quotes I provided. There has to be some level of evidence that proves intent to commit a crime and the second quote is meant to represent that whole class of statements, but it depends on context. Any given quote won't constitute evidence in every case, but it will in the cases where it proves intent beyond a reasonable doubt.
I'm not sure why you think my argument holds no water when there are clear legal precedents that speech is not protected in some cases where there is "imminent lawless action".
I agree up to a certain point, but there has to be some legal boundary between freedom of thought/speech and literally planning a crime. I'm protected under the First Amendment to say "someday I'll rob a bank" but not necessarily "I'll rob this bank on Friday and here's how I plan to do it".
I think you should be allowed to write that exact line in your journal. If you rob the bank that can be used as evidence against you, but in no way is it acceptable for private reflections alone to be used to arrest you. Or else every author who's written a novel with 'bad' characters would be arrestable.
I'm coming to saulpw's house tomorrow at noon with a gun, and I'm gonna make them pay.
If a policeman notices the sentence above on my phone screen during a routine traffic stop, the response you want him to take is... nothing?
14 replies →
Well in your example you've begun conspiring with a second party so that's not at all the same thing. You are at least free to plan all the crimes you'd like to arbitrary levels of detail in private. It's when you start acting things out (soliciting coconspirators, blackmailing targets, etc) that you cross the legal line.
The current situation is a weird one. Anthropic reported single party interactions (per the ToS and common sense), there's a statue about sending threats (as there clearly ought to be), then somehow the definition of the word "send" was tortured by the local police. If a crime has been committed here it's almost certainly an infraction by the local authority against the spirit of the law.
I totally agree. People seem to be stuck on the notion that we must not punish thought crimes, and have elevated this above all other considerations, when really it's just one among several.
However, those other respondents to your post seem to be accurately describing the current legal situation. I asked Gemini, and apparently "conspiring" to commit an offense requires an agreement with another person in both my country and the US, where an "overt act" is also required (that may not be incriminating by itself). I find this alarming. The fact that someone's private diary entry describing in detail a plot to kill me does not amount by itself to anything is... incredible to me.
You just said the words right here in this public vbenue, not even in private.
This argument holds no water at all.
Obviously, I'm not talking about the verbatim quotes I provided. There has to be some level of evidence that proves intent to commit a crime and the second quote is meant to represent that whole class of statements, but it depends on context. Any given quote won't constitute evidence in every case, but it will in the cases where it proves intent beyond a reasonable doubt.
I'm not sure why you think my argument holds no water when there are clear legal precedents that speech is not protected in some cases where there is "imminent lawless action".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio
1 reply →
action in the real world, i.e., not just words.