New Jersey prosecutors drop charges over tweeting a cop's photo [Updated]:
Update (~4pm ET): Mid-afternoon on Friday, August 7, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office dropped its cyber harassment charges against all five defendants, the Asbury Park Press reports. These charges stemmed from an incident involving a Tweet attempting to identify a New Jersey police officer. Our original story on the situation appears unchanged below.
A New Jersey man is facing felony charges for a tweet seeking to identify a police officer. Four others are facing felony charges for retweeting the tweet, the Washington Post reports.
[...] The complaint against Sziszak claims that the tweet caused the officer to "fear that harm will come to himself, family, and property."
"As a 20 year old that simply retweeted a tweet to help my friend, I am now at risk of giving up my career, serving time, and having a record," Sziszak wrote.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @07:46PM
In this case the context seems pretty straightforward. A member of a group known to have little to no regard for the lives of the general public, and in particular people with skin that's not lily-white, was seen strutting about with a mask that clearly proclaimed that the lives of his clique matter more than those his clique is known to kill unjustly under color of authority. Someone spotted him proclaiming his superiority and asked if anyone recognized him.
It wouldn't be any different from posting a picture of an authority figure in Klan gear or strutting around with a swastika arm band and asking if someone recognized him.