“A joke gone awry”

Hampton Roads, Local, Politics, Virginia 1 Minute

So they locate the person who came up with the fake flier and then decide not to press charges?

Calling it a “joke that got out of control,” a top state election official today confirmed that the person responsible for a phony election flier circulated in Hampton Roads has been identified.

Law enforcement officials, meanwhile, added that charges will not be filed in the matter.

I think that is ridiculous. What deterrent is a law that will not be enforced? Joke or not, resources of our government were expended in tracking down the source of the flier. At the minimum, the person should be prosecuted. They owe us that.

As long as there are no consequences to such behavior, it will continue.

And it clears the path for the next person to do the same and then claim “Oh, it was just a joke.”

Published

8 thoughts on ““A joke gone awry””

  1. You are absolutely right – this person needs to be prosecuted. The fraudulent flier was actually distributed, was it not?

    In light of our history, anything pertaining to voter intimidation is, by definition, not funny. The right to vote is sacred. People died for it. The shield of “it was just a joke” should be treated as unthinkable.

  2. Anyone who fell for that hoax deserves to be prosecuted for being stupid.

    Hopefully the Obama era will usher in a return to a friendlier climate here in America, along with fewer people being dragged into court and jailed for various chicken-shit offenses.

    Let’s talk about our first 100 days with President Obama. First thing, start the pull-out from Iraq. Next on my wish list is to see that embarrassment, the jail at GITMO, permanently closed. Department of Homeland Security needs to be abolished along with all of the “Patiot Act” usurpations of our Constitution made during the Bush error. Rather than implementing the “Fairness Doctrine” have the Attorney General take antitrust action against all of the media conglomerates and have the FCC change ownership rules so that only local, individual ownership of media outlets can occur, with the added condition that no individual owner could own more than one media outlet, thereby returning the airwaves to local control and ownership. This would still allow slime like Limbaugh to syndicate, but thousands of individual owners would be impossible to corral into supporting such narrow, propaganda-based programs.

  4. I suppose I’d be curious to know the party affiliations of those persons who made the decision not to prosecute. I don’t know, and don’t want to speculate, but I suppose it’s obvious where I’m going with this.

  6. Sean – I saw that story. It was pathetic when it happened.

    wickle – the secretary of the State Board of Elections was appointed by our Democratic governor. http://www.governor.virginia.gov/MediaRelations/newsReleases/viewRelease.cfm?id=480

    And JTB – every time I hear about an incident like this is makes my blood boil. And if you had been in my shoes in 2005, you would understand why. The bottom line is that a law was broken and no one will be charged. It makes no sense.

  7. Gee.

    I wonder if they didn’t prosecute anyone because it was “unwittingly” distributed by the Obama Campaign.

    Of course, we still don’t know who created the flier and whether he was an Obama supporter or a McCain supporter.

    Considering that he “showed it to friends” who immediately made sure it got into the hands of the Obama campaign, I’d say the chances are pretty darn good that this whole thing was a false flag operation designed specifically to cause the exact reaction that you had.

    Still want to see prosecutions? How about they start at the top.

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