Brianna Boston Arrested: “Delay. Deny. Depose. You People Are Next!” Free Speech or True Threat?

This will shed a little light on what I’m talking about.

To be completely fair, I haven’t reviewed the Florida statute that she’s charged under. But basically she calls Blue Cross Blue Shield about some denied claims. Gets angry. Says “Delay, Deny, Depose, you people are next!” And gets charged with terrorism or something like that, with $100,000 bail. Apparently she’s a mom with no history of violence and no criminal history.

My gut reaction? The authorities are in fear mode. They know that there were a lot of people happy about the recent shooting I blogged about, and they think they can contain that stuff by making people afraid of what the law might do to them if they step out of line.

But screw my gut feeling. Let’s be real. Under American law, speech is not protected by the First Amendment if it is a true threat.

So I googled true threat and let the AI do the work for me.

A true threat is a statement that a reasonable person would interpret as a serious expression of intent to commit unlawful violence against another person.

Well, I can kinda see problems with this prosecution already. Does a reasonable person believe “you people are next” from a mom that’s angry about her claim being denied really mean she’s going to commit unlawful violence against them? I see how we could get there. But I also think there are much more “violent” statements that the police would never arrest anyone for.

For example, I was once told by the relative of someone I was dating that if I hurt her, they would kill me. And you know, when he said it, I was actually a little scared. Now, I didn’t run to the police. But I know the vibe of cops on Staten Island, and I have a feeling that if I went to them and recited this, they’d laugh at my face and tell me to go away. I’ll never know for sure.

But I know for a fact that when a doorman called the NYPD during my medical incident in Manhattan years ago, where that doorman obviously felt the situation required police intervention, they just never showed up. So, you know, for us little people, at least anecdotally and from stories I’ve heard over the years, it’s hit or miss on whether the cops are going to help you, shoot you, or no show. But when you make an off comment to an insurance company employee? Boom. Arrested. 100k bail. I know it’s different states. I concede that.

I think the hinge here is intent. Did she intend to communicate a threat of violence? And I guess that depends very much on the definition of intent.

Did she intend to threaten the person on the other end of that phone?

What will the courts ultimately decide? I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer and I could easily see myself arguing it either way.

But my gut, again, is telling me this is a not guilty situation. It’s more a crime of stupidity than any actual terrorism.

Then again, we live in a country where people who post legal annotations online have been called terrorist.

Maybe I’m a terrorist too?

When Autocraptions Fail, Stenographers Step Up

In a series of images posted by Michelle M. Kirkpatrick on September 28, 2021, the failure of automatic captions was on full display.

What society would turn a blind eye to this kind of suffering?

Knowing that people were in need, she stepped up to help and contacted deaf people in the area to let them know what the broadcast said.

It’s very clear how close to danger these people were.

This comes on the heels of reports that digital reporting proponent Verbit was pseudo-cybersquatting on 121 Captions.

Alternative to 121. I should try this strategy with them and see how it goes.

Given all the data released on Stenonymous as of posting, it is clear that digital and ASR solutions are inadequate for captioning. The dishonesty and blatant disregard for standard industry practices from Verbit in particular has been contemptible. The stenographic captioner has the best value out of all available methods. People interested in joining the profession and ensuring access for all should check out NCRA A to Z, Project Steno, or Open Steno. Despite claims by the STTI that there is an equivalency in modalities, it’s been shown that digital and non-voice writing ASR solutions would harm African American Vernacular English speakers. In the words of one ex-digital reporter, they were simply not paid enough to care. Luckily, spam filters continue to place STTI promotional material where it belongs.

The Disappointment Paradigm

There’s something important that every student and new reporter should know before they hit the working world. In life, and especially working life, you’ll be encouraged to be a pleaser. People will ask for tighter deadlines with no additional pay. People will ask for favors that will go forever unreturned. There will be great pressure on some of you externally and internally to be a certain way, do a certain thing, or agree when you’d rather not.

The very unfortunate truth is that you can be all the people and do all the things expected of you. You can get on that hamster wheel of expectation and run until tired. And when you are tired, there is no gold medal or ebb. There is disappointment. The same people that lifted you up when you were doing them a favor will hate you. The same people that told you what a wonderful job you were doing when you were doing a job for them will talk about you behind your back. Those same people who were urging you to speak out and be a part of the conversation will seek to silence you.

Can you stop the disappointment paradigm? I don’t think so. But remember that you are always in full control of your train. You can balance the demands placed on you. The favors you do for people should be done either without expectation or with expectations made clear. You can be a good person and still set boundaries. In fact, I’ve found that you need to set boundaries or you lose the ability to be a good person. You lose your humanity altogether and get treated like furniture. Your favors are there, and “appreciated,” like a fine rug.

So set boundaries. Be willing to help those in need. But also be willing to say no. So many of us suffered so much from being unable to say no that by the time we learned to say no, it became all we could say. Being an altruist requires you to be strong and give yourself recharge time to help others. Being a hard worker requires much of the same so that you can continue to do great work. Listen to your body and mind, give yourself time to recharge, because chances are pretty high that there’ll be work to do and people to save tomorrow. The day you give yourself won’t mean very much to anyone else, even if they go on about how disappointed they are, but it’ll mean the world to you.