If you’re local, and you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the local blogger at MPD Enforcer 2.0. He/she/it blogs about the Memphis Police Department. They have been critical of the muckity-mucks in the MPD, and of the way some investigations are handled. Now the city of Memphis and Police Director Larry Godwin are suing to find out the identity of the blogger. Here’s a blurb about it from the Commercial Appeal
Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, a Washington-based public interest law firm founded by Ralph Nader, will represent the anonymous bloggers at MPD Enforcer 2.0 whose identities are being sought by Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis.
The lawsuit, filed in Shelby County Chancery Court, asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership. The bloggers operate under the name Dirk Diggler, a porn-star character in the movie “Boogie Nights.”
Godwin and the city have asked the Circuit Court of Loudon County, Va., to subpoena Virginia-based AOL’s Custodian of Records. The city’s July 10 lawsuit asks that the records produced by AOL be sent to the law offices of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC.Levy said Wednesday afternoon that he hasn’t decided whether to seek to quash the subpoena in Virginia or in Tennessee.
The case has been sealed by Chancellor Kenny Armstrong.
Levy said he has been in contact with the city’s lawyer, David L. Bearman, seeking the city’s and Godwin’s legal explanation for the request.
“I’m trying to get them to provide me with a copy of the sealed papers that will tell me what the basis for their claim is,” said Levy, who has handled similar efforts to identify anonymous bloggers that helped create the legal standards applicable to the Memphis case.
Read the rest of the article here
I have myself gone on to rant a few times here at my own little slice of heaven. And I’m not shy about naming names the few times I have gone off the deep end. This is my blog, it’s my place to rant and scream from the top of my virtual soapbox. I hope no one ever takes it away. If anyone doesn’t like what I say, they can comment, or even stop coming here. But don’t try to intimidate me into shutting up. That’s what the city of Memphis is doing here. If I were this guy/girl/whatever, I would be scared as hell. I mean come on. In a city with crime rates like Memphis do you really want the police department pissed at you? It’s the age of the internet folks. 
If you don’t like anonymous bloggers bitching about your every move, get out of the public eye. Or do the smart thing and address their concerns. If you can’t or won’t, then ignore them and move on. But the city and Godwin made a huge blunder here, in my not at all humble opinion here. By suing them, they’re drawing attention to them, and driving more traffic to the site. Way stupid. I would never have heard of this blog if not for this lawsuit and the publicity that goes with. And then of course, the guts of the lawsuit itself. If you don’t like the message, listen to something else. Don’t try to shame the messenger into giving up their name. Does the MPD have a “Suggestion Box”? If there’s a suggestion in there they don’t like, do they do fingerprint tests or call in handwriting experts to find out who dared suggest it? This is the sad attempt of a bunch of bullies to find out who they should be picking on. It’s cowardly and I hope that no court entertains this crap and they wind up paying all the blogger’s legal fees. For shame, city of Memphis, for shame.
