Pete Santilli is a new media journalist who broadcasts on YouTube and streaming internet radio. He is brash, controversial, rude, and he is completely within his rights to be so. He has a radio show titled “Telling the Truth… Whether You Like It or Not.” He goes against the grain of some, and the efforts by various groups to define certain types of speech as illegal is exactly what he is fighting against. Hate speech, bullying speech, intolerant speech, incendiary speech, anti-government speech, right-wing speech and more are all protected by our 1st amendment, yet they being challenged as being illegal. And in many cases the government is supporting that view and carving out areas where free speech will not be accepted. Of course limiting free speech to special “acceptable” areas is no free speech at all. But if these limitations are not challenged, the right of free speech could very well disappear.
Santilli exercised his right of free speech recently, and he is sitting in jail now for his efforts. He will no doubt be released as soon as a lawyer is found who will fight for Santilli’s basic right to express himself, but the damage will be done. The government will have made its point that they will limit your speech if they choose, and you will have to be willing to pay a price in order to exercise your rights. If they do this enough, people will no doubt give up because the government has unlimited resources and power to bully the public into silence, but individuals do not usually have the resources to fight back.
See what got Santilli thrown in jail on page 2:
He wasn’t jailed for free speech. He was jailed for an armed takeover of a gov’t facilty.
Now if they could just do the same with the entire staff of Faux News.
Brian, the Supreme Court has disagreed with you, repeatedly, on this point. Timothy, I have watched more video on the illegal Malheur occupation than I care to admit to. Perhaps in “the video” you refer to he was conciliatory, but there were many statements made & actions taken that were not.
F**K THE FEDS, I HAVE ALREADY SENT MY E-MAILS, HOPEFULLY YOU HAVE TOO!
What about Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton?
Protection of free speech lies not with the police, but with the courts. Police do not even have to know the law. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/15/3603686/supreme-court-if-youre-a-cop-mistakes-about-the-law-wont-stop-your-drug-bust/
Ever listened to his show? Seen any of the videos? He knew who was there already, and that they were armed. He asked others to show up…knowing what would happen if they did. A “journalist” just covering the story? Please.
America is already gone we’ve been invaded and conquered and no one even knows it
Obama’s mentor
Wasn’t Pete Santilli part of the group shitting on Indian artifacts on land that belonged to we the people? That is not exactly the best use that could be made of free speech.