B & I thread locked, but I had this to say . . .

[Sam A. Robrin]

This is why we need to carefully consider everything we say in light of how people may perceive it.

People who've shown repeatedly over the past thirty-six years that they will take anything that's said and twist it around until it can be criticized?  People who demonstrate, if not with their words, then with their actions and advocacies, that they fear personal responsibility, loss of the leadership that gives their lives direction, or sacrifice of the possibility of control over others that validates their own poor choices?  NO, damnit!  It's time to stop worrying about how some petty pissant peon is going to misinterpret every word and gesture, and start saying, loud and proud, "We love our freedom, now get out of the way and let us have it!" 
       (It's also time to clarify exactly what the inevitable "or else . . ." that necessarily follows that declaration entails.)

[Kat Kanning]

Why was the thread locked?

[error]

Why was the thread locked?

I don't know. I didn't do it. It said the thread was locked by an administrator.

[Lloyd Danforth]

They asked that it be removed or locked.

[Bill St. Clair]

This is why we need to carefully consider everything we say in light of how people may perceive it.

People who've shown repeatedly over the past thirty-six years that they will take anything that's said and twist it around until it can be criticized?  People who demonstrate, if not with their words, then with their actions and advocacies, that they fear personal responsibility, loss of the leadership that gives their lives direction, or sacrifice of the possibility of control over others that validates their own poor choices?  NO, damnit!  It's time to stop worrying about how some petty pissant peon is going to misinterpret every word and gesture, and start saying, loud and proud, "We love our freedom, now get out of the way and let us have it!" 

Bravo! In 1982, when I was 26 years old, I realized that I had been basing my actions on how I expected other people to perceive them. I figured out that I was almost always wrong about what they actually perceived, and that in living my life for my expectations of other people's opinions about it, I was totally missing living MY life. I stopped doing it, and have never felt a need to look back.

       (It's also time to clarify exactly what the inevitable "or else . . ." that necessarily follows that declaration entails.)

You're not allowed to talk about that here. Unless the "or else" is, "or else we'll stand on street corners and hold up signs."

[Tom Sawyer]

You're not allowed to talk about that here. Unless the "or else" is, "or else we'll stand on street corners and hold up signs."

So Bill you want to characterize the only things that have gone on with the underground is to hold signs?

Producing newspapers, radio and TV shows, documentary films, standing up to the power in their courts, creating a rallying point for folks to come together... just to name a little of what we are doing.

I haven't seen you do any of this. You can write about some line in the sand that will let you use your deadly force over on your blog. The same line in the sand that has been moving backwards for decades.

[Sam A. Robrin]

Why was the thread locked?

It must have been something I said . . . !

[Friday]

They asked that it be removed or locked.

Perhaps they need a refresher course in what Porc-411 is all about?  You leave a message, and it gets posted on this website... 

I wonder if the Union Leader is going to remove the article about them as well.

[Russell Kanning]

They asked that it be removed or locked.

Perhaps they need a refresher course in what Porc-411 is all about?  You leave a message, and it gets posted on this website... 

I wonder if the Union Leader is going to remove the article about them as well.

you took the words right out of my mouth

[David]

You're not allowed to talk about that here. Unless the "or else" is, "or else we'll stand on street corners and hold up signs."

So Bill you want to characterize the only things that have gone on with the underground is to hold signs?

Producing newspapers, radio and TV shows, documentary films, standing up to the power in their courts, creating a rallying point for folks to come together... just to name a little of what we are doing.

I haven't seen you do any of this. You can write about some line in the sand that will let you use your deadly force over on your blog. The same line in the sand that has been moving backwards for decades.

Well said. 

[TresJay]

Why was the thread locked?

I think most here would agree that there is nothing to gain by talking to the cops. I think most here would agree that cops read this forum.  Some here might then think that posting here is the same as talking to the cops.

It seems reasonable to me that at the time of arrest, they might want everyone that could help them to know they had been arrested.  Now that they are out, there isn't anything to be gained by public discussion.  I don't know their intentions, but I would guess that legal counsel would advise them to not discuss anything publicly, and to definitely not say anything else to the police. 

They personally haven't posted anything here.  Until they have a chance to get back to everyone that knows something about the event and ask them to not discuss it, they asked an admin to lock the thread. 

There may be some precedent on this forum for troublesome threads to be deleted entirely.  Maybe those situations were different somehow.

In any event, it was a request.  Of course you may grant or deny the request however you choose.  Maybe by now they've had a chance to see what was posted and no longer care if it's locked or not.  I don't know.   I think they will understand your decision either way.

[John Edward Mercier]

They asked that it be removed or locked.

Perhaps they need a refresher course in what Porc-411 is all about?  You leave a message, and it gets posted on this website... 

I wonder if the Union Leader is going to remove the article about them as well.

Most likely not.
For at least two reasons... it increases traffic to the site, and some hard questions on 2A are being discussed (though sometimes rather rudely).

[dalebert]

It may simply be legal issues. Someone may have advised them that the prosecutor might use things posted here against them in court.

[Porcupine_in_MA]

  NO, damnit!  It's time to stop worrying about how some petty pissant peon is going to misinterpret every word and gesture, and start saying, loud and proud, "We love our freedom, now get out of the way and let us have it!" 

Damn straight.

[Friday]

Why was the thread locked?

I think most here would agree that there is nothing to gain by talking to the cops. I think most here would agree that cops read this forum.  Some here might then think that posting here is the same as talking to the cops.

It seems reasonable to me that at the time of arrest, they might want everyone that could help them to know they had been arrested.  Now that they are out, there isn't anything to be gained by public discussion.  I don't know their intentions, but I would guess that legal counsel would advise them to not discuss anything publicly, and to definitely not say anything else to the police. 

They personally haven't posted anything here.  Until they have a chance to get back to everyone that knows something about the event and ask them to not discuss it, they asked an admin to lock the thread. 

There may be some precedent on this forum for troublesome threads to be deleted entirely.  Maybe those situations were different somehow.

In any event, it was a request.  Of course you may grant or deny the request however you choose.  Maybe by now they've had a chance to see what was posted and no longer care if it's locked or not.  I don't know.   I think they will understand your decision either way.

I understand what you're saying.  But, by coincidence, I'm rereading 1984 right now.  In that depressingly prescient novel, people are "disappeared" on a regular basis.  When it happens, the citizens are not allowed to discuss it, or question it, in any way.  In fact, they must immediately start acting as if the disappeared person never even existed, so as not to even potentially question Big Brother's decision.  I disagree with the idea that the people who know Bill and Ivy, either as friends or acquaintances, must not make any public mention of what happened to them, because the state might conceivably use it against them in some way.  Or that discussion that has already taken place should be "tossed down the memory hole".