Man Arrested For Failure To Tweet

Proof • November 22, 2009

Here’s an interesting legal situation.
The Vice President of a record company that was backing the tour of some tweener pop star I’ve never heard of was arrested after he refused to send out a Twitter message asking the rioting attendees at a performance to disperse.

Police arrested a vice president from Bieber’s record label, Island Def Jam Records, saying he wasn’t cooperating with attempts to disperse the crowd.
James Roppo, 44, of Hoboken, N.J., was charged with a series of misdemeanors, including endangering the welfare of children and obstructing governmental administration.
“We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message,” said Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith. “By not cooperating with us, we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk.”

Is failure to act a crime? Should it be a crime?
There are a lot of ways to look at this. For instance, gun rights advocates (such as myself) are fond of linking to news stories where property owners are charged with crimes (or otherwise vilified by the media/police) for using a gun to protect their own property. In that instance, they’re being punished for acting in their self defense.
On the other hand, it’s also a crime for people in certain professions (teachers, doctors, etc.) to fail to report some crimes like domestic violence or child abuse. In that instance, people are being punished for failing to act.
The question is, what duty do we citizens have to protect one another? If someone is drowning in the lake, and you are an expert swimmer, are you liable for their death if you don’t rescue them? If you’re driving through a blizzard and don’t stop to pick up the hitchhiker with the thin jacket you see along the road are you liable if that hitchhiker ends up frozen to death in a snowbank?
Is an event organizer liable for injuries and damages if he doesn’t act to disperse a crowd?
Legally, how do we draw these lines?

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics

http://Array sayanything-2

And did y’all go read the article? These cops are a laughing stock! They could not control a crowd of teenaged girls and their mothers/friends. Too funny, all the way around. And look at the pic of the doofus singer. A feminized Donny Osmond. Sweet bleeding Jeebus.
sayanything-3960

It’s interesting that you think that the defendant has to prove anything in a criminal case.

The defendant is certainly entitled not to to testify at all, but I don’t like his chances after the police get up and testify that they asked him to help. The police are professionals in this area and in their judgment it would have been useful. That is enough to establish the presumption of usefulness. So the defendant can rebut this presumption. So in all they just have to prove the request was lawful and reasonable.
sayanything-3960

‘

No it doesn’t. The question is not whether he has a duty to act on his own, but whether he has a duty to act once the police ask him to. Likely he will have to show that it was an unreasonable request or would have added to the mayhem.

However since these are a bunch of misdemeanors he will likely plea out and pay a fine.
lock’em’up

Moronic is not understanding the legal issues and possible trampling of the Constitution by the police through their attempt to commandeer this mans property for law enforcements use. But then, you only like the Constitution when it matches your ideology. Warrantless wire taps, illegal searches & seizures, and such, are ok as long as they are done for causes that you like.

Got dam asel!
http://hamster-kaefig.blogspot.com/ Sven

Come on, there sure is a difference between rescuing a drowning guy and dispersing a riot by sending a tweet. One works, the other one certainly won’t. It’s like KayJ says, you won’t look at twitter when you are rioting and even if you you did you probably wouldn’t care.
Brent

Ideally, if you aren’t the cause of someone’s finding themselves in harm way, you ought not have a legal (i.e., be punished for) failing to save them.

Morally, I assume people would act in at least most of the example situations you mentioned.
Bruce

Isn’t that what the tear gas is for? Can he counter-sue the police for failing to gas the crowd?
I don’t like today’s GOP

Huh? I’m surprised that I didn’t see a headline that said, “Northwest pilots fired for flying a plane”? You could write headlines for the National Enquirer.
sayanything-12

The question is not whether he has a duty to act on his own, but whether he has a duty to act once the police ask him to.

Writing new law now, LC?

Show us what statute requires anybody to aid the police in a case like this.

You really are a closet Big-Brother advocate.
sayanything-3960

Show us what statute requires anybody to aid the police in a case like this. Where did I say I believed that he had a duty to act. I said that was the question. It is clear that he didn’t have a duty to act without the police request, so the question is whether the police request established this duty.
http://www.wizbangblog.com/ Jay Tea

I see both sides here.

It was an event he organized, so he has some moral responsibility to do what he can to pull the plug when things get out of hand.

On the other, sending out the twitter wouldn’t really do that much to actually resolve the situation.

I’m wondering if the idea was to have him send out a “party’s over” message to keep more people from showing up, as this all went down two hours before the event started. I can see the cops’ point there — if he sends out the message, he might head off even more people showing up.

I guess the tweet would be the equivalent of having him take down or change a marquee sign once the event was officially canceled. And the idiot should have done as the police asked.

But legally, was he obligated to? Tough call…

J.
sayanything-2

Why don’t you ever produce that list of the thousands and thousands of American citizens who have been persecuted by Bush Admin using any part of the Patriot Act? Where is your proof. liar?
sayanything-2

The court is going to have to prove that a twitter message would, in fact not opinion, had an effect on the crowd. How they going to do that? And Def Jam has sufficient financial and legal resources to ram this case up their a$$.
lock’em’up

Where’s my claim, dumass?
sayanything-2

As I said, they will have to prove that a text message from this person would have actually had any effect on the actions of third parties.

As for paying the fine, I’ll wager he will ride this for all the free publicity he can get. Candlelight vigils, rallies, fund raising concerts, t-shirts and posters and bumperstickers, the standard Full On Jesse.
sayanything-2

“”They are not allowing me to come into the mall,” he said in a message sent to fans through Twitter” So, in the article we have proof that sending tweets did NOT help, it in fact made the situation worse. Well, well, well.
lock’em’up

He disregarded a police order. That doesn’t sound like a civil matter. Not sure he disregarded a legitimate, lawful, police order, though.

It kind of sounds like the police were trying to commandeer and force him to use whatever communication device he would have used to tweet. I don’t think that would have been a lawful seizure, you Bush fans might disagree.
sayanything-693

Crimes always require an act or an omission. In this case, an omission is criminal only if there is a duty to act. There is a good argument that an event organizer has a duty to take reasonable actions to ensure the safety of his event attendees.

This case is going to hinge on whether or not a jury feels that tweeting, as instructed by cops, would have been a reasonable action to help ensure safety. I’d say probably yes, but I don’t know all the facts.
sayanything-1317

Well the cops are claiming that he put lives in danger by not tweeting, which is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Moreover, the tween is claiming the cops threatened him if he showed up (which would’ve defused the whole situation anyways).

I’m sorry, 5 minor injuries is a pathetic reason to arrest someone. And it’s an even more pathetic reason for the cops to be telling the news that this guy “put lives in danger”.

Sounds like police overreaching when someone didn’t comply with their illegal demands.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

It was an event he organized, so he has some moral responsibility to do what he can to pull the plug when things get out of hand.

Morally I think he should have sent out the twitter message. I mean, why wouldn’t he? Seems like a real heel for refusing to do it.

That being said, the moral question is not the same as the legal question. Which you point out.
sayanything-5621

“In this case, an omission is criminal only if there is a duty to act. There is a good argument that an event organizer has a duty to take reasonable actions to ensure the safety of his event attendees.”

Wouldn’t this be a civil, rather than a criminal, act/failure to act?
sayanything-1317

No it doesn’t. The question is not whether he has a duty to act on his own, but whether he has a duty to act once the police ask him to. Likely he will have to show that it was an unreasonable request or would have added to the mayhem.

However since these are a bunch of misdemeanors he will likely plea out and pay a fine.

It’s interesting that you think that the defendant has to prove anything in a criminal case. The police have to prove that the order was lawful, and that it would’ve been useful. They also have to prove that his inaction caused or had the potential to cause, more damage.

They can’t do any of that.
sayanything-1317

The police are forced to prove that the action would’ve been helpul. Not just that they asked him to…or that the request was reasonable…or even that he called their mothers whores.

They have to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt:

1. That he had a responsibility to act. If he did not, then all further questions are useless.
2. That they had a legal right to ask him to do what they did. Cops can’t just make a “reasonable” demand (that they deem useful) and expect you to follow no matter what it is. The cop may think it’s reasonable for you to do naked cartwheels for his amusement. Means nothing. If the request wasn’t legal, no other questions matter.
3. That the action would’ve helped. This is the area where any lawyer they bring in is going to lose. No one is good enough to argue that a text message would’ve dispersed a rowdy crowd who were ignoring police.

And since they’ll have better lawyers than the DA’s office:

4. They’ll have to prove that the Tweet wouldn’t have caused more damage. Given that the crowd was rowdy over him not getting there quick enough, they might have ACTUALLY rioted with a text that said “Sorry you waited so long. You’re getting nothing. Go home.” Any lawyer with an IQ above mud could point out dozens of incidents where this has happened in the past, and get an automatic aquittal.
sayanything-1317

So being a leftist makes you a psychic? You know my positions on everything?

You’re kinda like John Edwards (the phony psychic, not the phony family man/ambulance chaser). Bogus and self important.

Back to silence, tool.
sayanything-1317

Well I mean, let’s be realistic. What real effect would tweeting have on the crowd? Wouldn’t it be about as effective as urinating the message in some snow?

So the cops, who have guns and authority are arresting a man for refusing to send TEXT MESSAGES to the crowd asking them to leave? Moronic.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

There is a good argument that an event organizer has a duty to take reasonable actions to ensure the safety of his event attendees.

The problem I have with this argument is that you’re projecting responsibility for the actions of the crowd onto the event organizer.

Who is responsible? The guy who organized the event or the people who freaked out?
sayanything-1317

You actually ARE getting less intelligent aren’t you?

Go away fool. You’re making H and Dino look smart.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

I knew this would attract Lioncourt the self-styled legal scholar.

Always funny to read his self-important analysis.
sayanything-21215

Just a little bit harsh. If you’re rioting, you’re not exactly looking at Twitter.

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Man Arrested For Failure To Tweet

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