Appeals Court: Yes, Suing The Family Of People You Killed In A Car Crash For Defamation Is A #SLAPP Suit - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/13/appeals-court-yes-suing-the-family-of-people-you-killed-in-a-car-crash-for-defamation-is-a-slapp-suit/ "Vanga later sued members of the Juarez family for… speaking out angrily about the accident that left their loved ones dead." such callousness
@glynmoody Sigh, SLAPP suits are bad.
What I'm missing in this article is how the law dealt with King Vanga for his vehicular homicide. How was he punished? Was he found at fault for the accident? …
With all the beautiful formulations about protected talk, what the Juarez did was "snitch" on Vanga, obviously in an attempt of vigilante punishment, by making his uni punish him.
What I'm missing from the US system is the idea that after "you paid your price to society, the issue is done".
@glynmoody Yeah, I know, "freedom of speech" is the fetishised Holy Cow in the USA, but the state does have a monopoly of dealing with crime, for a reason. The US legal system is rather on the harsh end of the scale anyway.
But hey, in the USA, I guess the snitch who tells on Anne Frank (or her equivalent, when Trump's SS equivalent goons come to town) will be protected by the constitution, right?
"No, Joe cannot be punished for being a snitch, he just exercised is free speech rights."
@yacc143 tell, techdirt's focus is freedom of speech, not criminology....
@glynmoody Well, one could argue, the USA's focus is freedom of speech.
OTOH, we have learned here (sadly the journalists have left out the legal details), it's actually illegal to confront somebody in public with a properly spent conviction in Austria. (A former politician mentioned that during an interview, cough, and nobody corrected him, and actually, the media actually stopped mentioning his former glory.)
But then we do give notorious criminals new identities so they can have a life.