Shouting fire in a crowded theater

I have very vivid memories of Superstorm Sandy in New York. He was 18^th called the storm of 2012, 10^th the hurricane, and 2^when a major one. It caused an estimated $100 billion in property damage and killed 254 people.

Throughout the entire debacle, a few things stand out:

–Visiting the marina where we keep our boat and see the water levels up to the top of the bulkheads, which were about 13 feet above high tide. It was confusing to look up at the bottom of the boats in the marina because normally you look down at their decks. It took my brain a few minutes to comprehend what my eyes were seeing.

–No electricity for 13 days! The first day or two was an adventure, then it quickly became tiring and soon dangerous. Fortunately, my sister lived in a town with buried underground power lines, and we settled there for the last few days, dogs and all (where I had the biggest shower of my life).

–A freak snowstorm in October which briefly blanketed Long Island just as power was being restored (just to be annoying).

–Misinformation on Social Media. Shashank Tripathi, a 29-year-old hedge fund analyst and campaign manager for a congressional candidate — and just a badass — intentionally created chaos by tweeting things that were false:

“Throughout the night, Tripathi tweeted several false rumors, including that Con Edison was shutting down all power in lower Manhattan, that Governor Andrew Cuomo was trapped on the island and taken to a safe haven, and most notably that the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was under water.” – Daily Dot

Once exposed, Tripathi resigned as campaign manager, left Twitter for a few years, and laid low. He’s since come back as a right-wing piece of shit, but that’s a story for someone else to tell.

To me, the most interesting thing that happened was that the New York City Council asked the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to file criminal charges. None appeared.

The ban on shouting fire in a crowded theater comes from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the United States Supreme Court case, Schenck v. United States. Specific legislation against “false shouts of fire to incite or produce imminent lawless action” is not a very common piece of legislation.

Why?

Until the advent of social media, it was hard to imagine that anyone would intentionally use a hurricane or other disaster as an opportunity to put people at risk of imminent harm or simply create panic for “shit and giggles.” There isn’t a whole lot of legislation to stop someone from being a dangerous jerk in these situations, just because they can.

Fast forward to 2024.

Hurricane Debby, an irregular Category 1 storm, caused widespread flooding and billions in damage across the southeastern United States in August. Then in September, Hurricane Helene hit, a devastating tropical cyclone that caused widespread destruction and death. October brought Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in Florida before Helene’s cleanup began in earnest.

And all the while, a torrent of willful disinformation has been pouring out from various players: candidates, shitposters, Russian disinformation operations, Chinese agents, wingnuts, innocent dupes, and other useful idiots. Many others shared the bad information. It kept people who desperately needed assistance from getting it. People were hurt. Property has been damaged or destroyed. People died. The public sources listed below share some of the damage caused by this disinformation campaign.

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I spoke to several well-connected Floridians and Carolinians, all of whom were upset about what had happened.

In the coming months, numerous cities and states (including FL and NC) are expected to introduce new legislation to create civil and criminal penalties for “Intentionally creating and distributing false information or intentionally misinforming the public about health, safety, and emergency services during a weather or civil emergency that results in damage, injury, or death.”

You are free to tweet whatever you want, give speeches, give TV interviews and shout whatever lies you want from the rooftops. But once this storm damage is cleaned up, don’t be surprised to see a slew of new legislation creating civil and/or criminal liability for the kinds of reprehensible behavior we’ve witnessed this storm season.

Before you scream The First Amendmentrecall the laws of slander and libel that allow a teller of lies to be held liable for the harm he creates.

Read here first…

See also:
Fact-checking fakes about FEMA funding and Hurricane Helene
by Stephen Fowler
NPR, 7 October 2024

North Carolina Republican dismisses hurricane misinformation: ‘No one can control the weather’
By Caitlin Yilek
CBS, October 8, 2024

America’s disinformation terrorists
Oliver Willis
09 October 2024

Many, many lies about Hurricane Helene, debunked
by Li Zhou
Vox, October 8, 2024

Weathermen receive death threats as Hurricane Milton conspiracy theories thrive
By Lorena O’Neil
Rolling Stone, 9 October 2024