Essay On Anthony Elonis

While, reading the case, Elonis v. United States, I was astonished to see that someone would post something so explicit, offensive, and inhumane. Basically, the case of Elonis v. United States is about a man named Anthony Elonis who is an upcoming rapper and used his stage name, Tone Dougie. His Facebook page consisted of him posting disturbing rap lyrics. Even though Elonis was going through a divorce with his former wife, which did not stop him from writing and posting crude lyrics. Eventually, it got to the point where his wife felt that she was being targeted by his lyrics. According to an article on, New York Times, Elonis wrote that he wanted to see a Halloween costume that included his wife’s “head” on a stick. Obviously, she felt threatened and reported the assaults to the police. Anthony Elonis was convicted for posting threats that targeted his wife, his coworkers, police officers, a kindergarten class, and even an FBI agent. Although Elonis argued that his posting are not considered to be a “true threat” and that he is protected under the First Amendment. I believe he wanted to cause fear towards his wife, Tara and therefore, is his lyrics are a true threat. Basically, a true threat is defined as something a person would consider to be “purposely” harmful and cause pain. Elonis mentioned that his post were not offended nor were the threatening anybody. He stated that he did not have the intent of trying to harm anyone, he was just trying

" We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets. Every great event, such as a triumphant return from battle, or other cause of public rejoicing, is celebrated in public dances, which are accompanied with songs and music suited to the occasion. The assembly is separated into four divisions, which dance either apart or in succession, and each with a character peculiar to itself. The first division contains the married men who in their dances frequently exhibit feats of arms, and the representation of a battle. To these succeed the married women who dance in the second division. The young men occupy the third; and the maidens the fourth. Each represents some interesting scene of real life, such

Having demonstrated how the use of technology can influence young generations, Stryker goes on to say that punishing those who make bad and or racist remarks only breeks further hatred. Stryker uses a hypothetical example to support his claim and explain why. He continues to go further and give real world examples of how a New York City EMT was fired because of his racist tweets on his online profile (Stryker 588). This strengthened Stryker’s position on how publicly shaming an individual only causes more harm and problems.

Throughout history, there are moments that become pivotal points for major outcomes. The capturing and hanging of John Andre was one of these pivotal moments. A British Major who spied on the Americans and tried to close off the New England from the rest of the colonies, Andre was a man willing to do anything for his country.

“Glock to the head of / send $2 to a paypal account / if this account doesn’t reach $50,000 in the next 7 days then a murderous rampage similar to the Virginia Tech shooting will occur at another highly populated university” and “let them booty cheeks hop, so pop it mommy pop it” are lyrics you might hear in a trending hip-hop song (“The Threatening nature of … Rap music?” 00:01:00 — 00:03:00). However, these rap lyrics along with terms of a rap contract, class notes, and letters were part of a notebook that police had found in a car when they searched it. Even though the lyrics are not appropriate and unpleasant to some people, this was simply an artistic form of expression. Aspiring rapper Olutosin Oduwole, an African Americans young college student, was taken to jury and was proven guilty for acts of terrorism, despite the fact that Oduwole told Jim Suhr from AP that “It was pieces of a rap song that was discarded — just something written, forgotten about, crumpled up and thrown away" (Jim Suhr, “III. SupCo takes pass, ends student threat case, AP) . This brings us to the question: is it fair to prosecute someone because of degrading rap lyrics?

For example, in the case of Elonis v. United States, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to address this increasingly relevant issue in deciding whether an individual’s Facebook posts qualified as true threats. Elonis was charged in accordance to Section 875(c) of U.S. Law. Section 875(c) governs the class of statements that do not enjoy First Amendment protections because they constitute true threats. As aforementioned previously, while the Supreme Court has upheld the protections of free speech, this trial marks an instance where true threats were declared as a category of speech unprotected by the First Amendment. When analyzing statutory provisions that reference true threats, however, the Court has applied varying intent standards to the crimes, without referencing the First Amendment implications of these statements. (Best 1132) Even so, the significance of Elonis v. United States is unequivocal-the Court ruled that the First Amendment does not protect legitimate or “true” threats, and that any speech that targets or endangers the wellbeing of another is not free speech and can be

This made me perceive myself as if I were subordinate or not enough, later on I found out that was not it; but for a while that was my battle. Daniel Munczek Edelman in his short academic journal also writes about the fear his mother had of him being different and not being able to speak the language (English), “My immigrant mother freaked out when I couldn't speak English at the beginning of nursery school.” (Edelman 59.40). His mother knew how hard it would be for him not knowing the language, how the difference of his culture would and could affect him. This article was written in two-thousand thirteen, it is a recent article proving that the differences in cultures are still relevant. His anecdote is essential because he gives background to what goes on in the differences of culture and examples of how culture has perceptions and how it can shape oneself. “My boss, half African-American and half white herself, jokingly called me "half-caste," insisting that I would one day admit that I wasn't totally white.” (Edelman 59.40) This justifies my point that the way we look does have an influence on the way others view “us”. Daniel Munczek Edelman’s boss did joke about his ethnicity because of the way he looked, he didn’t totally look like his other ethnicities and didn’t really involve himself

Over the years there has been a minimised application of mens rea within internet offences which has resulted in an increase in the number of convictions. Strict liability is frequently used for offences under the Public Order act 1986, where it is sufficient to prove a fault where the respondent posted the electronic message. Atkins v DPP [1989] Crim. L.R. 581 found that under s. 4 of the Public Order Act a person had to receive a message from the sender or someone acting on their behalf, and being retold the message did not fall under the ambit of the act. There have been problems with the Act when applying the relevant law to the offence of flame trolling as it remains ambiguous whether the referral to a person outside a dwelling that must receive the message includes somebody using alternative technology such as a mobile phone. In 1994 the POA was updated and Section 4A was introduced by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which now forbids ‘intentional’ harassment, alarm or distress. The provision was used in 2012 to prosecute a youth who had posted racist remarks on Twitter. After being prosecuted under the provision, the youth, Liam Stacey, served half of his 56-day prison term.

This is the primary flaw in Elonis’ argument of standing behind the First Amendment and shouting freedom of speech. Anthony Elonis shared his words via social media to threaten and intimidate others.

Jonathan Edwards was born October 5th, 1703 in East Windsor Connecticut, he was the son of Timothy Edwards who was also a preacher. Jonathan Edwards was a preacher, philosopher, and a Protestant Theologian. Jonathan Edwards was known as the most important and one of the original philosophical theologians of all times. In my Prospectus paper, I will be discussing the sermons and the works of Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was a special kind of man, his words when spoke during his sermons and preaching struck complete fear straight into the hearts of his listeners. Jonathan Edwards when compared to other preachers of

Anthony Elonis should not be protected under the first amendment. He has the right to express himself, but he did not have the right to express himself as he did online. Writer Amy Howe stated regarding Anthony’s rights under the first amendment that Elonis’ “right[s] [are] not unlimited; the classical example is that you can’t shout “Fire!” in a crowded theatre when there is actually no fire, because the resulting chaos could lead to injuries or even death” (Howe 1). Meaning that one can express themselves,however, it should not be an expression that could potentially cause harm or even death. One may say that in this situation that example does not apply to Elonis as he was not in any theater or crowded area. In contrast, Elonis was in a

Every day, millions of people use social media to either converse with their peers or to post pictures. There has been much discussion on whether or not individuals should be prosecuted for rude statements made on social media. Individuals should not be prosecuted for derogative statements made on social media. Although some may say that prosecuting cyberbullies for statements made on social media is beneficial, it would have many negative consequences. Prosecuting individuals for statements made on the internet would discourage personal responsibility, be a violation of the first amendment, and squander tax payers' money.

Also found through a popular website named facebook is a states written by an Ohio fighter who said “One dog is more important than a million n*****`s.” Which cause an outcry to the town’s mayor to fire him. What people write on social media can be compared to the Lucifer effect, in which typing behind a screen gives you more power to allow you to say and do whatever you want. The Lucifer effect is when someone who is in a place of power crosses the boundary between what’s good and decides to make bad decisions with the power they have. An examples of that is when President Trumps uses his twitter to make ignition comments about different race groups like when he said “ when Mexico sends its people, they`re not sending you. They`re sending people that have lots of problems, and they`re bringing crime. They`re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

In this paper, I argue that social media may be an outlet for freedom of expression but it has been widely misused since there is little control over social media. The aim is to convince the reader that social media is a ground for insults, threats and bullying, given the freedom of expression and lack of governance that

In Fielding’s Joseph Andrews you see a variety of characters. They range from the shallow, vain and proud characters like Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop to the innocent, sincere, and virtuous like Joseph and Fanny. The presence of Lady Booby, and all of the people like her that are portrayed in the same selfish and dishonest way, bring out the importance of the clergy. Most of the clergy that we meet in the story don’t fit our vision of “holy people”. They didn’t fit Fielding’s vision either. Parson Adams is the only character that represents what Fielding considers to be the proper role for the clergy. He believes that the proper role for the clergy is that they should give moral guidance and they should be virtuous and