Remember Walter Abbott? The guy who threatened via e-mail to (figuratively, according to him) strangle Gov. Martin O’Malley? He was convicted of that threat and given a suspended sentence of six months in prison and two years of unsupervised probation for it. He got what he deserved. Threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment.
But public officials are not the only people protected from threats. The lives of we the people are just as important as those of the men and women we elect or choose to work for us in government positions.
So it is terribly disappointing that two citizens the likes of which Baltimore City desperately needs were treated by an alleged “public servant” like the trash they try to remove from their neighborhood.
Nathan Flynn and Sebastian Sassi, two neighborhood activists from Pigtown, pick up trash, repair what needs repairing in the neighborhood and work with police to make the community safer. When a drug dealer allegedly threatened to kill Flynn and his dog last week, they took it to the authorities.
But the authorities in the court commissioner’s office told them to go home. As Flynn recounts, “The woman there told me it’s not against the law to threaten a citizen. … She said it would be a crime to threaten [Baltimore Mayor] Sheila Dixon, but not an average law-abiding citizen.”
Huh?
Since when did the law only protect those in power? Those who come to the police with credible evidence of threats do so at risk to their own lives. Remember the Dawson family, who died when a drug dealer angered by their many calls to police about drug activity in their East Baltimore neighborhood set fire to their house? Denying those few with the courage to speak out against violence and drug activity the force of the law will only silence them and their work.
We wonder how many other people have gone to the court commissioner and have been turned away. We are glad agents from the state’s Department of Parole and Probation are investigating the threats. But we the people need confidence in those who serve us.
To start, Dixon should send a memo to all employees reminding them of citizens’ rights, and post them on the city’s Web site and in city offices. That is the least the city can do for those who risk their lives to make Baltimore a better city for all.
