Welcome To The Custodial State

Guest Post by The Zman

It’s easy to dismiss the warnings about what’s coming, lots of people do, arguing that only the wildly pessimistic think we’re headed for serious trouble. Stories like this suggest you can’t be too pessimistic about what’s coming.

John Rivello, the Twitter user who allegedly sent a tweet that caused a journalist to have a seizure, was charged by the Dallas District Attorney Monday with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The felony assault charge comes with a hate crime enhancement.

The Maryland man was arrested by the FBI Friday for allegedly sending an animated image, also known as a GIF, to Newsweek writer Kurt Eichenwald in December which said, “you deserve a seizure.”

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Eichenwald’s wife subsequently tweeted that the GIF had indeed caused Eichenwald to have a seizure. The federal criminal complaint says that a direct message from Rivello’s alleged account, “Ari Goldstein” or “@jew_goldstein,” to another account said he hopes that the GIF “sends” Eichenwald “into a seizure.”

The FBI located Rivello through an Apple iCloud account associated with a phone number he used to sign up for Twitter. The iCloud account included a photo of Rivello posing with his driver’s license, the complaint says.

This appears to be first situation where someone has been arrested due to an internet posting causing the direct bodily harm of another user. Rivello is being being charged federally under a law which prohibits using an electronic communication with the intent of hurting or killing another individual.

The assertion that an image caused this lunatic to have a seizure is so ridiculous, that it is impossible to assume the authorities believe it. Even if such a thing were remotely possible, it means we will need to build a lot of new prisons. If posting certain images is not a criminal act solely because someone claims harm, this ends with everyone accusing everyone of a criminal act. The fact is, the FBI is just harassing this guy because they want to send a message. That message is you better get permission before you speak.

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11 Comments
Iska Waran
Iska Waran
March 21, 2017 9:31 am

“Eichenwald’s wife tweeted that he had a seizure.” No, Eichenwald himself tweeted “this is his wife, you’ve caused him to have a seizure”.

travis
travis
March 21, 2017 9:48 am

If my grandmother saw internet porn she would have a heart attack and die

Annie
Annie
March 21, 2017 10:33 am

You really are an ass. Visual stimulation of the wrong type can cause seizures in some people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy

General
General
March 21, 2017 11:02 am

Yes, but a small gif wont do it.

Annie
Annie
  General
March 21, 2017 11:44 am

I’ll give you “unlikely”. The likelihood of causing a seizure depends on the sensitivity of the person, the picture, size, and length of time of the gif, etc. But zzzboy said the possibility of causing a seizure is ridiculous and impossible to believe, which is asinine.

Annie
Annie
  Annie
March 21, 2017 5:26 pm

Oh yeah, all you xgirl ass kissers are so BAD. LOL!

So you all are just ignoring the intent. Whether or not the gif caused a seizure there was obviously INTENT to cause a seizure by sending the gif. There’s enough for prosecution right there.

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia
March 21, 2017 11:24 am

I think Rachel Maddow should be arrested. Every time I see her my stomach gets cramps and my johnson goes limp for a week.

Ed
Ed
March 21, 2017 12:59 pm

Seems that a competent defense attorney would be able to get the charges dismissed. I hope he has one.

ragman
ragman
March 21, 2017 3:27 pm

(((Eichenwald))) is probably looking at a multi-million dollar lawsuit. I wonder what this weak-dick, broken-dick asshole would do if he saw a swastika or Confederate flag.

Anonymous
Anonymous
March 21, 2017 6:44 pm

FWIW, several decades ago a Japanese cartoon triggered mass seizures among the children watching it. It was a 5 second clip of it that was responsible.

Later that evening the Japanese television news played the offending segment to show it to people as news and triggered a second wave of mass seizures.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/17/video.seizures.update/

(Warning: the article has a link to a video segment of the cartoon, I don’t know what it is but I’d suggest avoiding it in case it’s the seizure triggering one.)

Westcoaster
Westcoaster
March 21, 2017 9:11 pm

Thing is “intent”. If he had just blindly sent it, that would be a different matter, but he had to be an asshole and say “You deserve to have a seizure”. THAT’S what the prosecutor will hammer him on.