On
July 18, 1989, the 21-year-old actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered
at her Los Angeles home by Robert John Bardo, a mentally unstable man who had
been stalking her. Schaeffer’s death helped lead to the passage in California of
legislation aimed at preventing stalking.
Schaeffer
was born November 6, 1967, in Eugene, Oregon.
She worked as a teenage model and had a short stint on the daytime soap
opera One Life to Live, but was best known for co-starring with Pam
Dawber in the television sitcom My Sister Sam. Bardo, born in 1970,
had written Schaeffer letters and unsuccessfully tried to gain access to the
set of My Sister Sam, before showing up at her apartment on July
18, 1989. The obsessed fan had reportedly obtained the actress’s home address
through a detective agency, which located it through records at the California
Department of Motor Vehicles. On the day of the murder, Schaeffer reportedly
complied with Bardo’s request for an autograph when he appeared at her home and
then asked him to leave. He returned a short time later and the actress, who
reportedly was waiting for someone to deliver a script, answered the door
again. Bardo then shot and killed her.
Arrested the next day in Tucson, Arizona, Bardo was later prosecuted by the Los Angeles
County district attorney Marcia Clark, who later became famous as a prosecutor
in the O.J. Simpson trial. In 1991, Bardo was convicted of capital murder and
sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1994,
California passed the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which prevented the
Department of Motor Vehicles from releasing private addresses.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sitcom-actress-murdered-death-prompts-anti-stalking-legislation
Later the same year, a federal law was also passed.
The Driver's Privacy
Protection Act of 1994 (also referred to as the "DPPA"),
Title XXX of the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act, is a United States federal statute governing the
privacy and disclosure of personal information gathered by state Departments of Motor Vehicles.
The law was passed in 1994. It was
introduced by Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia
in 1992, after an increase in some opponents of abortion using public driving
license databases to track down and harass abortion providers and patients.
Prominent among such cases was physician Susan Wicklund, who faced protests and harassment
including her house being picketed for a month. The law is currently codified at Chapter 123 of Title 18 of the United States Code.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_Privacy_Protection_Act
The law actually did not go into effect until 1997. The
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation provided details on how the law works
in that state.
https://www.dot.state.pa.us/Public/DVSPubsForms/BDL/BDL%20Fact%20Sheets/fs-fd.pdf#:~:text=FEDERAL%20DRIVER%E2%80%99S%20PRIVACY%20PROTECTION%20ACT%20The%20Federal%20Driver%E2%80%99s,requirements%20are%20in%20place%20across%20the%20United%20States.
Despite the passage of both state and federal laws, an
individual’s home address can still be obtained.
In 2005, the husband and mother of U.S. District judge Joan
Lefkow were shot and killed in
Evanston by an aggrieved former plaintiff who had appeared in her court and
then, angered by her courtroom decisions, hid in her basement apparently with
the intent to kill her. Instead, he meted out revenge on her family.
In July of 2020, the family of judge Esther Salas was
attacked. Her son was killed, and her husband was seriously injured.
Federal judges are entitled to a home and court
security systems and protection by the U.S. Marshals Service, which has
provided security for federal judges and courtrooms across the country since
1789. The killing of Salas’ son and the shooting of her husband allegedly
by an anti-feminist lawyer highlights the problem on
which Lefkow and the Federal Judges Association have spent over a decade
sounding the alarm: judges are being threatened and attacked, often by those
angered by decisions made from the bench.
According to data compiled by the Marshals
Service, some 4,449 documented threats and
“inappropriate communication” were recorded against protected federal judges,
jurors and other members of the federal judiciary in 2019. That number is
unusually high: On average, the service has seen 1,350 threats
and inappropriate communications against such
individuals annually since 2015.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/attack-judge-salas-family-highlights-concerns-over-judicial-safety-n1234476
The Federal election of 2020 really brought out
the crazy people.
On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) announced the arrests of 13 men suspected of
orchestrating a domestic terror plot to kidnap American
politician Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan, and
otherwise using violence to overthrow the state government. Half of the suspects were tied
to a paramilitary militia group
that called themselves the Wolverine Watchmen Six of the suspects were
charged in federal court, while the other
seven were charged with state crimes. A week later, a fourteenth suspect was
arrested and charged in state court.
One man has pleaded guilty while two
have been acquitted. Two
additional suspects' trials ended in a hung jury, and prosecutors
have announced they will re-try them.
The group had planned to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation
cabin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretchen_Whitmer_kidnapping_plot
Two election workers in Georgia (Ruby Freedom and her mother)
received death threats because members of the Trump cult thought that they were
stuffing ballots foe Joe Biden.
https://www.businessinsider.com/2-georgia-election-workers-targeted-trump-sue-gateway-pundit-defamation-2021-12
In Arizona, state representative Rusty Bowers (who testified
for the January 6 committee) refused to go along with the Big Lie. As a result,
he was harassed at his home by Trump supporters, who were oblivious to the fact
that Bower’s terminally ill daughter was in the house at the time.
Katie Hobbs, the Arizona Secretary of State, also defended the
results of the 2020 election. But
that defense also made Hobbs the target of violent threats, including at least
once when protesters showed up outside her home chanting, "We are watching
you." The threats extended to Hobbs' family: her husband of 26 years,
Patrick Goodman, a child therapist, and their children, a 23-year-old son now working
in marketing and 20-year-old daughter balancing school and work. Her son's
phone number was leaked and he was harassed, Hobbs said.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/07/12/katie-hobbs-arizona-governors-office-primary-election-2022/7500222001/
Recently,
judge Kavanagh was harassed at his home by people who were angered by the
Supreme Court’s foolish reversal of Roe v. Wade.
For most
of my life, many households in America would get the White Pages delivered to
their homes at no cost. Although I have not seen that happen for quite a while,
we had been getting the Yellow Pages delivered to us until very recently.
The White
Pages are still available, online, and the free search still provides a great
deal of information. If you want further details, like you address and phone
number, a small fee would be involved.
https://www.whitepages.com/name/Thomas-Brennan/Tucson-AZ?fs=1&searchedName=thomas%20brennan&searchedLocation=Tucson,%20AZ
Since we are all on a variety of social media platforms, at
least some of our personal information can be obtained fairly easily.
There is no sure-fire way to protect your privacy, and pubic officials
are even more vulnerable. The only option that we all have is to rely on law enforcement
agencies to protect us – which is precisely how Governor Whitmer’s tormentors
got brough to justice.
I’m a firm believer in the fact that it’s not necessary to own
a gun to protect your privacy, but you DO need to be aware of any unusual
activity around your property.
After all, a man’s home is his castle.
