If any Patterico readers are in Tennessee near Manchester — or even extreme northern Alabama or northwestern Georgia — you might consider covering the federal government’s latest attack on free speech.
From the Tullahoma News (Via Instapundit and Judicial Watch):
A special meeting has been scheduled for the stated purpose of increasing awareness and understanding that American Muslims are not the terrorists some have made them out to be in social media and other circles.
“Public Disclosure in a Diverse Society” will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 4, at the Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center, 147 Hospitality Blvd.
Special speakers for the event will be Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Kenneth Moore, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Knoxville Division.
Sponsor of the event is the American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee — a 15-member board formed two years ago when the General Assembly was considering passing legislation that would restrict those who worship Sharia Law, which is followed by Muslims.
Killian and Moore will provide input on how civil rights can be violated by those who post inflammatory documents targeted at Muslims on social media.
Posting inflammatory documents can violate federal law? Federal criminal law?! Do tell! I’d like to hear more!!
“This is an educational effort with civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion and exercising freedom of religion,” Killian told The News Monday. “This is also to inform the public what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.” . . .
. . . .
Killian said Internet postings that violate civil rights are subject to federal jurisdiction.
“That’s what everybody needs to understand,” he said.
Killian said slide show presentations will be made.
Matt Welch of Reason.com says:
I sincerely hope they make that Power Point public, since I’m unaware of any federal civil rights prosecutions for “inflammatory” Facebook postings, and want to keep up to speed with the Obama administration’s increasingly brazen encroachment on free expression.
I don’t think we can count on sitting back and waiting for the Obama administration to make such things public. We have to take the initiative and do a little citizen journalism.
And so . . .
Here is the Google Maps location for the Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center in Manchester, Tennessee.
I’m writing Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit to see if he might be going, but it’s almost a three-hour drive from his university, so that might be difficult. My message to Prof. Reynolds: if he goes, I will personally deposit $100 in his PayPal account and encourage my readers to do the same (not that the money likely matters much to him, but I think it’s important to demonstrate support for such projects).
We may not be able to get Prof. Reynolds to go (though I hope we can), but we should get someone to go. If any of you is closer, make the trip. I can’t advise you as to whether recording it would be legal, but maybe someone else would know. In any event, I believe any first-hand account of this meeting would be interesting and would get wide coverage, given the interest this story has generated.
Let me know in comments or by email if you think you might make the trip.
UPDATE: Thanks very much to Instapundit for the link. (New readers please bookmark the main page, and follow me on Twitter and Facebook.)
Unfortunately, Prof. Reynolds will not be able to go. So it’s up to you, the readers.
UPDATE x2: Bill Hobbs says he is going, and will record it:
He says he will post the video on YouTube.
I encouraged him to give the law enforcement officials a couple of examples of inflammatory speech by Muslim clerics, and ask if those statements are governed by federal law. That would make some good video!
UPDATE x3: Milton Stanley says: “My wife & I will be there. I’m a regular reader of Instapundit, and I’m a reporter for the Manchester Times. The meeting is not my beat, so I won’t be covering it for the paper, but I will be there taking notes and possibly making a recording.”
I have offered Mr. Stanley a guest spot here to post his coverage if he likes. I don’t know if his employer would allow him to publish a guest post on a blog, but if they do, he is welcome to at patterico.com.