[Vision2020] Vision2020 Not A Law Enforcement Organization

[Ted Moffett]

Chas et. al.

You wrote:

If you send me a message marked ""OFFLINE" or "OFFLIST," I will
normally courteously comply with your wishes.  However, if you
threaten me with physical violence within that message, you have
automatically vacated your right to privacy.
Bad behavior doesn't deserve any protection whatsoever.  Of course, it
would still be civil and polite if it were granted, but it cannot
legitimately be claimed, outside of appealing to the benevolence of
the recipient.
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In regards to posting private e-mail exhibiting "bad behavior" on
Vision2020, even private "Off List" e-mail containing what appears to be a
threat of physical violence, I disagree emphatically with your assessment,
for two reasons: one, the so called "threat" may be nothing more than
blowing off steam, which many of us do from time to time in a private
context expecting the private communication to remain private; and two, more
importantly: posting the "threat" to the list may hamper law enforcement
efforts to stop the carrying out of a substantive threat.

Allow me to expand on these points, if you will:

Every day of the week people who treat each other with respect for privacy
do offer "bad behavior" some measure of "protection." The ethical principles
involved in respecting someones privacy, and not attempting to embarrass or
damage someone by exposing "bad behavior" to public scrutiny, are loosely
understood by most people, I think.

The point of private discussion, sometimes, is that emotions and thoughts
that are not appropriate for public display can be expressed privately, and
the parties involved understand that statements made in this context
("blowing off steam") are not meant to be made public, and that making them
public is a serious breach of trust.  This, of course, is not necessarily a
legal interpretation that is enforced by law, but the rules of Vision2020
conduct, such as they are, are not enforced by any law usually anyway.

If a Vision2020 list member sends me a private "Off List" e-mail with
graphic pornographic profanity, this "bad behavior," in my opinion, does
warrant "protection," insofar as it is assumed this private e-mail will not
be forwarded to the list, and that the person who sent the private e-mail
was just blowing off steam, in a private context.  I am sure that most list
members do not want private e-mail of this sort to be posted to the list.

I respect others needs to "blow off steam" and not have the outburst made
public, and this is a matter of personal respect and honor between two
people.  In fact, violating the trust involved in private communications can
result in an unfortunate escalation of bad feelings, leading to more serious
consequences.  I have attempted to religiously honor this approach on
Vision2020, despite any impulses to post private "Off List" e-mail to the
list when the private e-mail exhibited "bad behavior."

I do not regard this as a trivial issue for maintaining a healthy list serve
environment.

Consider the silly juvenile spats that have repeatedly been posted to
Vision2020 between Donovan Arnold and Tom Hansen.  These tit for tat
personalized back and forth outbursts are "bad behavior" which should be
kept private, don't you agree, despite the fact that threats were made (no,
I won't post the evidence to the list)?

If a Vision2020 list member privately sends me a e-mail with a "threat," my
first response, assuming I take the threat with any degree of
seriousness, might be to respond privately to the person who made the
threat, to determine whether this was just "blowing off steam," or whether
there was something more substantive intended, or as discretely as possible,
to communicate privately with others who are well acquainted with the person
who made the threat, to determine the seriousness of the threat.

If I determine the threat was substantive, taking the issue to Vision2020 is
very unwise, in my opinion, and not just because of issues of honoring the
privacy of private communication, or concerns about the health of
Vision2020:

Vision2020 is not a law enforcement organization, nor is it a venue for
seeking substantive protection from threats.  My next step when determining
I seriously feel threatened via a private e-mail would be to contact law
enforcement privately and/or contact others privately who may be able to
help, as discretely as possible.

Placing a privately made e-mail threat on Vision2020 might hamper the
efforts of law enforcement to investigate the threat (or, in legal terms,
the "assault") and prevent an actual physical attack, insofar as it might
inspire the person who made the "assault" to engage in more stealthy
behavior to evade law enforcement, to enable them to actually carry out the
threat.  Law enforcement would much rather, I assume, in most cases, keep
the fact that a threat of physical violence was made privately in a e-mail,
out of public forums, to maintain as much of an element of secrecy in their
attempts to investigate or stop a substantive threat, assuming law
enforcement regarded the threat seriously.

To place this principle in another law enforcement context, if a Vision2020
list member received a private e-mail from another list serve member, or
from anyone, that they had a meth lab in full production, would law
enforcement want this private e-mail posted to Vision2020, potentially
hampering their investigations or law enforcement actions?

Ted Moffett
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