Tuesday, July 19, 2022

a man's home is his castle

 



 

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.




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