Prof Who Said ‘Trump must hang’ Reportedly Under FBI Investigation
“prepared to take full responsibility for my statements.”
This is great. The professor deserves to be investigated over this. Anyone else would be.
The Fresno Bee reports:
Fresno State says FBI, Secret Service probing professor’s tweets about President Trump
Fresno State President Joseph Castro said Wednesday that he and his staff will continue to cooperate with federal investigators in their probe of a German-born history professor who ignited a firestorm when he said on Twitter that President Donald Trump must hang to save democracy.
In a conference call with reporters, Castro said has been in frequent contact with the FBI, Secret Service and Homeland Security since last Saturday when professor Lars Maischak made national headlines after a report surfaced that he had tweeted “to save American democracy, Trump must hang. The sooner and the higher, the better.”
On Wednesday, Maischak apologized for his actions in a written statement given to The Bee. In addition, Maischak said that he has deleted his Twitter account and is “prepared to take full responsibility for my statements.”
Castro said he appreciated Maischak’s apology, calling it “a first good step” in calming the critics who want him fired, deported or killed. The president said he is not ready to judge Maischak because the university is in the initial stages of its investigation. But Castro also pointed out that he and Fresno State value a person’s right to free speech and a professor’s right to academic freedom. “We want a free exchange of differing views,” Castro said.
That being said, Castro told reporters that the university’s main goal is to ensure the safety of students and to that they receive a quality education.
“We will continue to educate our future leaders,” Castro said. “But I want folks to know that we will do the right thing.”
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Comments
It seems as though he can be sentenced to five years in federal prison, followed by deportation. Free speech does not include incitement to commit crimes. See:
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title18/html/USCODE-2011-title18-partI-chap41-sec871.htm
Bullsh*t. You clearly have no idea of what incitement means. Incitement is speech that is both subjectively intended and objectively likely to whip up the listener’s emotions causing him to act on it immediately, without thinking about it and making his own decision.
For instance, whipping up a mob with shouts of “kill the Jews” is incitement, and thus not protected speech; calmly advocating that the Jews ought to be wiped out is not incitement, and is protected speech, even if it is intended absolutely seriously with a view to persuading voters to elect a government that promises to implement this policy.
Advocating the president’s assassination is absolutely protected speech. Advocating his judicial execution, presumably after a fair trial and due process, as this professor did, is even safer. Any official investigation that has a chilling effect on such speech is brazenly unconstitutional, and any officers who deliberately act in a way designed to have such a chilling effect are subject to §1983 suits.
Oh, and citing the US Code to make a point about free speech is the sign of an absolute moron. When discussing what speech is protected it makes no difference what the US Code says; anything in that Code that contradicts the constitution is automatically garbage.
Free Speech is not without consequences.
What I found hilarious was the statement that students were receiving a ‘quality education’.