Let’s start with Ace of Spades.

The upside-down flag is an unofficial symbol of distress, an SOS.

It’s also a symbol of America itself turned upside down.

In the face of harassment and threats against the right to free speech, allies of liberty are fond of saying “We will not be silenced.”

It’s a statement that projects confidence, defiance, and vigorous defense of one’s rights.

But, as noble as this declaration may be, it’s not wholly true.

Because a sufficiently painful harassment, or a sufficiently grave threat, will in fact silence those who would otherwise enter the public square.

Two people have already been silenced. One man has been arrested — arrested, for blogging about the criminal history of Brett Kimberlin, and for describing his ongoing ordeal at Kimberlin’s hands.

Unless Congress acts — and acts swiftly — there will be still further innocent citizens subjected to Brett Kimberlin’s lawless vigilantism.

via Ace of Spades HQ.

The new technique is called SWATTing — putting a false compliant that there is an armed offence occuring at a person’s home. The Armed offender’s squad arrives — which given the information they have is their duty –  the party who is being harrassed is facing a bunch of very jumpy cops who expect an armed offender.  And if you look wrong, you will die.

And it is happening. This is from Stacey McCain, who reminds us frequently that the person he is talking about is harrassing bloggers from the left and the right.

Let me clarify a few things that should be obvious, but evidently are being overlooked by some people: the harrassment is online and directed at anyone who questions a certain Mr Kimberlin.

1. This isn’t just about “SWATting,” but about a broad pattern of harassment by Kimberlin and his associates.
2. We don’t know who was responsible for the alleged SWATtings of Patterico, Erick Erickson or Mike Stack.
3. Nearly all the harassment being carried out online — we won’t name the website or Twitter accounts involved, nor describe the types of harassment involved — is being done under pseudonyms and we will not know who did what unless and until there is criminal prosecution of the persons responsible.
4. Neal Rauhauser has previously described Kimberlin as his “client.” It is therefore entirely reasonable to suspect that Rauhauser is being paid (and may be paying others) to conduct an aggressive online assault against Kimberlin’s critics.

Read Stacey’s article in American Spectator. SWATting may only be part of the nefarious cocktail this man and his cronies have, but it is truly within their portfolio of harrassment.

By now, a year after the cybersex scandal that brought down Weiner, this slow-building march toward an online Armageddon has drawn in many of the most prominent bloggers on the Right, including Patrick Frey, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who runs the Patterico site. When Frey began writing about Kimberlin in October 2010, he was immediately threatened with a lawsuit. Frey was later targeted for a “SWATting,” whereby hoaxers called 911 and, claiming to be Frey, said he’d murdered his wife, prompting a raid that Frey has described in frightening detail. Red State editor Erick Erickson says he, too, was recently the target of a “SWATting.” Neither Frey nor Erickson has specifically blamed Kimberlin for these dangerous hoaxes, but the use of this tactic against conservative commentators has finally called major national attention to the Kimberlin saga.

This is simply evil.

Now, I’m quite conservative. Since I live in NZ, you end up meeting and working with people of all persuasions — I have personally met a bunch of people who are now in government, were in the last (Leftist government) and people in the Greens. The person I liked the most of all of them is Jeanette Fitzsimmons, who I disagree with politically but respect as a person of integrity. I have seen people from the Greens, National (right), ACT (far right) and Labour (Left) ally to preserve neurosurgery in southern new zealand.

We may disagree, but we don’t get personal. We argue vehemently, but we accept the other person is human, and we have a duty to treat them with decency.

It seems this is being abused by Kimberlin in the USA. The normal political discourse is bruising enough there.. Ann Coulter wants people to be offended by what she says, and the Leftist bloggers return the compliment.

This is part of free speech. Getting the cops to inadvertantly be your terrorists, and using the law to shut people up by twisting the harassment laws while you yourself are harassing them — is wrong. It is against any sense of natural justice, and it is why vexatious litigation laws and anti stalking laws were invented.

Now, I do not always agree with Stacey, Ace, or any other people who are speaking. I do not care if it is Richard Dawkins (who considers be a fool for being a Christian) or Peter Singer (whose ethical analysis I found anathemic) who is being harassed. We need to allow free speech. We do not need intimidation. This is a free speech issue.

And to those in the US who are in a position to fix these issues — the bloggers around the world are watching. You will not be able to hide what you are doing. You will be held accountable. And we are not under the jurisdiction of your weird US ideas that have expanded felonious conduct to include human behaviour.