The head of the Memphis, Tennessee Police Department, Larry Godwin, has filed a lawsuit against AOL seeking to obtain the email address of a person, suspected to be a Memphis police officer, who posts messages critical of Godwin and the department on a blog.
The seamy underbelly? Godwin and the city have used taxpayer resources to file the lawsuit, and yet Chancellor (Judge) Kenny Armstrong has sealed the case, making it impossible for citizens and journalists to examine the merits of the case for themselves.
Well, which is it? A public lawsuit or not? The peasants are paying for it, so they should be able to see what all the fuss is about, and investigate why their benevolent "authorities" seek to nullify an anonymous person's First Amendment right to complain about them. If the person posted falsehoods or libel, then let the people know what they were. If Godwin is just peeved about someone kvetching on a Web site, then tough cookies. That's part of being in a public service position.
In other news, Godwin has announced that he'll be joining forces with Captain Queeg in order to find out who took the strawberry ice cream from the freezer.
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