Gothamist Commenter Arrested For Threatening NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly

Just a friendly reminder that police officers are carefully monitoring your comments on the Internets, so you should probably refrain from threatening to kill anybody. Just sayin! Idiotic death threats are a clear violation of the Gothamist comment policy, and we will not hesitate to cooperate with the NYPD if you're making such threats. A few days ago Gothamist publisher Jake Dobkin was subpoenaed by the NYPD over this threatening comment, seen above. Dobkin explains what happened next:

In general, I try to evaluate every subpoena on the merits. If it's a subpoena in a civil case, we'll generally notify the commenter that someone is trying to get their information. Although now that we've switched to Disqus and Facebook authentication, we often don't have email addresses for the commenters, which makes them harder to contact. In criminal cases, the subpoena often prevents us from doing that- our only choice when we believe the subpoena was issued in error or bad faith is to have our lawyers fight it in court.
But in this case, where there was a clear death threat against a public official, I felt there was a strong reason to comply and give up the commenter's IP address (we didn't have his email.) That's not the kind of comment or commenter that we want on our site.

Police sources tell the Post that they've arrested Brooklyn resident Richard Strauss, 49, for allegedly making the comment. (YES, we saved Ray Kelly's life but the Post still got the scoop on this, shut up.) The tabloid's sources say that in April 2004 Strauss was charged with gun possession after firing shots out his window. Yeah, sounds like one of ours.

We do our best to moderate the comments with our tiny staff, but obviously it's a Sisyphean task, and sometimes things slip through. (The subpoena prevents us from deleting this comment for now.) Once again, here are the rules about commenting, and YOU can help moderate comments by flagging them and emailing us when some hateful troll says something heinous. And besides hate speech and threatening to kill people, here are some other comments that the editors are prone to delete:

What does this have to do with New York?
Hipsters.
Slow news day?
Stupid bike lanes.
This is the worst journalism ever.
That's not Williamsburg that's Bushwick.
Saying Jen Carlson writes for Teen Beat.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on February 22, 2012 10:30 AM

Comments [rss]

unfaithfulsfan

OK, let's try this again.....Am I the only one here who was not aware there were multiple Internets?

unfaithfulsfan

Just curious....Maybe I'm missing the point but am I the only one who was not aware there were multiple Internets?

HpPavilion22

why is it that a murder suspect Hameed- adul Jabbar can be caught with a unregistered illegal loaded 9 mm pistol, a loaded shotgun,, a billy club,, and 27 bags of pot can be released with no bail.. but some dude who rants on websites can be traced and arrested.. could it be cause the murder suspects daddy is a cop?

Ryan Ng

That is so unfair and racist. Now we can't even tell what we want to say, even if it expresses hate. They're violating our 1st amendment rights.

BTW...come and try to catch me. Mwahahahahahaha! (Cue evil laughter)

MEDICNYC

This guy is such a hater and a loser. Good riddance.

TrollyMcTrollington

Tor.
It's not just for 4chan and foreign dissidents anymore.

Elderta2

Oh shit! This shitz for realz!

petey2

A 49 year old wannabe fire fighter computer tech who gets nabbed pretty easily on the computer, who lives with his mother.

ChasInNJ

Ahhh, the NYPD where anti-Muslim paranoia is official policy, patrolmen can kill non-whites with impunity and the brass are not to be prosecuted. If you wonder why Greg Kelly from Fox 5 was never charged with rape it's because he's the police commissioner's son.

TheRealCannibal

Whats going on guys?

b8664400

Thank you, John Del Signore, for alerting us to the spinelessness of Jake Dobkin. His lack of respect for net neutrality dates back to at least Nov of 2010 when he outsourced commenter logins to other companies lining up to turn us into the product they sell. At least now it's out in the open that he's sleeping with Ray Kelly. We won't miss either of them when they're gone.

Dead Himmler

Thank you Mr. Number Name for alerting us to the spinelessness and stupidity of anonymous trolling.

b8664400

What's the difference if someone calls themselves Number Name or spineless and stupid Dead Himmler? Neither are 'real names'. What matters is the thought. It's not trolling to point out just how easily Jake gives into—becomes—big brother.

Adam Moreira

That was over the line---disagreement is okay---threatening an official's life...he kind of had it coming.

franticdoll

Not that I would ever do this, but out of curiosity, could commenters who click "like" on such threats also get into trouble?

Dead Himmler

The Founding Fathers obviously did not think it was necessary to protect citizens in conjunction with clicking the "Like" button.

crusher153

wow! to think i might have to find another person to disagree with! to be honest, i didn't take that guy for threatening public officals. look everyone here should have a different opinion (thats why i write here). but some opinions you should keep to yourself.

by the way a computer programmer that lives with his mother! i knew he was just a buff! can you change your name since you've been outted for not being a fireman?