Pseudonym = Alias?

Don · Aug 31, 2014

Hapax Legomenon said:
How would he even be guilty of thoughtcrime? I guess I'm confused. At least from the blurb it sounds like he's writing about a school shooting as still an obviously evil thing. How is that thoughtcrime?

You obviously haven't absorbed the whole ""war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength" thing.

It's a thoughtcrime because that's what the authorities say is a thoughtcrime.

veinglory · Aug 31, 2014

Because as per 1984, thinking about forbidden things at all is one

Stacia Kane · Aug 31, 2014

veinglory said:
It is not generally that easy to get someone sectioned. So either there is much more to this persons conduct than a few novels, or very widespread incompetence including the school, police and psychiatric ward.

Fruitbat said:
Yeah, that's what I thought, too. It doesn't seem likely to me that these two novels are all there is to this, especially since several different groups are involved. From the articles I've read, it's the media (as usual) who are presenting it as something shocking and outrageous, mistreatment of the teacher. And the authorities (as usual) are pretty much just saying that they have cause and that it's under investigation. I hope that's it anyway. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

Yes. I really can't, in this day and age, read a media report of anything and think, "Well, clearly that's the whole story and there are no facts unreported or other information that may change things." The media no longer cares about getting the story straight or presenting only the facts or finding out what the truth is. They just look for the most inflammatory angle and get it out there immediately, and who cares about the reality. (To use an old example, look at the Kaitlyn Hunt case; there are still people who believe some poor lesbian on a high school basketball team was ripped from her parents' arms out of the blue the day after she turned eighteen for the crime of being in a loving relationship with a girl two years younger, when in fact she was almost four years older than the girl, was not on the team and wasn't allowed near them because of her prior behavior, repeatedly threatened her "girlfriend" when the girl tried to end the relationship and had her mother do the same, was told by the girl's family to leave her alone or they would press charges, had turned eighteen five months prior, and then violated court orders and sent the girl numerous pornographic pictures and videos along with more threats.)

Journalists used to investigate stories before they reported them. Some still do, of course, but generally they just repeat whatever one-sided crap they're told and get it out there as fast as they can, and damn the potential consequences to anyone.

I, like Veinglory, have kind of a hard time believing that of the numerous people involved in this case--the school board, the police dept., the doctors etc.--not one of them stopped and said, "Wait a minute, this could really be a serious violation of numerous rights including the First Amendment, and we could get in some serious trouble for it if we yank this man from his home without cause," but instead just went, "Wait, he wrote a book about a school shooting? Let's GET HIM!!"

Winning a teaching award does not preclude a psychotic break or any other type of mental illness. Winning a teaching award also does not preclude being a twisted individual who hides it really well.

And given the "Look how they're persecuting this innocent man!" slant of the reporting, I don't think a Google search for this guy's name is going to necessarily keep him from being hired anywhere else in future, especially if he's innocent. (I also think, like others, that if he is innocent, he won't have to worry too much about future employment due to the settlement he'd be likely to get.)

I don't know if this is truly persecution or not, because nobody has any way of knowing that until we actually have the facts and not just the media trying to get us all riled up to get more website hits.

Plot Device · Sep 1, 2014

I would be less worked up about this whole thing if the police would just please please PLEASE include an additional statement that might go something like this:

"And there were other patterns of behavior in Mr. McLaw's personal and professional conduct --including outbursts at work, complaints from neighbors, and generally disturbing incidents that made others around him feel that he was a threat to them. Also his Facebook page contained blah blah blah terroristic threats, and he had an ex-girlfriend who has filed several domestic disturbance complaints against him. "

But no such statement has been released. He seems to have been a model citizen and an exemplary teacher/colleague. In short, we STILL keep circling back again and again to their having no other problem with him other than having written a novel.

And the fact that he changed his legal name when he was 18 years old --I know two other people who did exactly that. They has shitty parents and they wanted to redefine their personalities and separate their identities from their parents --not an unhealthy thing to do when emerging out of an abusive situation. I don't know if that was why McLaw changed his own name at age 18, but part of me is fearful that he has no family at this time, and so it's possible that NO ONE is advocating for him while he languishes in lockup in an undisclosed location.

Meanwhile, my understanding of the Patriot Act states that they can hold him indefinitely ... like forever. He may never see the light of day again. And if he pulled even the tiniest of freak-outs when they apprehended him a) I wouldn't blame him, and yet b) that kind of freak-out might have been enough for them to say "Oh --easy diagnosis. Totally insane. Lock him up for good." And c) such a freak out MIGHT have been more likely in the event that he knew he was totally alone at this time in his life and had no one to call (if my theory is correct and he has estranged himself from family).

As for the 72-hour thing, it's been WELL more than 72 hours and we haven't heard from him. I suspect it means they found grounds to lock him up longer --perhaps on the grounds of my hypothetical freak-out. And STILL no one seems to be advocating for him. He has essentially been disappeared.

All because he wrote a novel (and MAYBE pulled a freak-out after being apprehended).

Don · Sep 1, 2014

Plot Device said:
As for the 72-hour thing, it's been WELL more than 72 hours and we haven't heard from him. I suspect it means they found grounds to lock him up longer --perhaps on the grounds of my hypothetical freak-out. And STILL no one seems to be advocating for him. He has essentially been disappeared.

All because he wrote a novel (and MAYBE pulled a freak-out after being apprehended).

*Builds fire in fireplace with two half-finished novels and a number of plot outlines.*

Stacia Kane · Sep 1, 2014

Plot Device said:
I would be less worked up about this whole thing if the police would just please please PLEASE include an additional statement that might go something like this:

"And there were other patterns of behavior in Mr. McLaw's personal and professional conduct --including outbursts at work, complaints from neighbors, and generally disturbing incidents that made others around him feel that he was a threat to them. Also his Facebook page contained blah blah blah terroristic threats, and he had an ex-girlfriend who has filed several domestic disturbance complaints against him. "

But no such statement has been released.

The police may not have the information, or the authority to release it. This didn't start as a police investigation, according to the second link posted in the threadstarter here; it was an investigation being done by the State Attorney's office, and the police and local authorities were only notified of it recently.

He seems to have been a model citizen and an exemplary teacher/colleague. In short, we STILL keep circling back again and again to their having no other problem with him other than having written a novel.

John Wayne Gacy seemed like a model citizen and an exemplary weekend clown, too. That doesn't mean he wasn't a serial killer. I'm sure when he was first arrested everyone was shocked and disgusted at how he was being persecuted, too, which still doesn't mean he wasn't a serial killer.

I don't think this teacher had bodies buried in his yard and I'm not saying this absolutely isn't a travesty, just that we do not know whether it is or isn't, and we really don't know much about him, period. We don't know why the State Attorney started investigating him; was it because of the book, or was it because of creepy threats he made online that got traced back to his pseudonym that then got traced back to him through that pseudonym? Was he out using his pseudonym as an ID while he bought bomb parts and talked about bombing government buildings? We don't know.

WE still keep circling back to him having no other problems aside from writing a book, because WE are not privy to any facts in the case beyond that. The book(s) could be incidental to everything else.

As for the 72-hour thing, it's been WELL more than 72 hours and we haven't heard from him. I suspect it means they found grounds to lock him up longer --perhaps on the grounds of my hypothetical freak-out. And STILL no one seems to be advocating for him. He has essentially been disappeared.

All because he wrote a novel (and MAYBE pulled a freak-out after being apprehended).

And MAYBE lurked around the school in the middle of the night with bomb parts in his backpack. And MAYBE went to anarchist meetings to show off the bomb he was building. And MAYBE went online asking where he could buy little children to kill and eat. And MAYBE informed the police, when they came to question him, that he was actually an infiltrator from the planet Wargoz whose job was to destroy the Earth, and if they didn't leave him alone he'd shoot them all with the raygun in his hand. And MAYBE wrote anonymous/pseudonymous letters to the State Attorney's office filled with bomb threats. And MAYBE started calling members of the school board at home to ramble about how he knows they're not humans but aliens because the chipmunks told him so.

Did he do any of those things? We don't know. Did he get arrested just because he wrote a book and maybe got upset when questioned? We don't know that, either.

The mere fact that the vast majority of comments on this story are people extremely upset at the idea that he was arrested simply for writing a book makes it very hard for me to believe that the State Attorney's office, police department, school board, and psych ward is made up of the only idiots on the planet who think it makes total sense to arrest him and hold him for that reason. One or two of them, sure, but really, all of them? Not one person in any of those places believes in the Constitution or Due Process or anything else?

And as far as no one advocating for him, well, no one we've heard from. But psych ward doctors/nurses/psychiatrists do not work for the police. They work for the patient and the hospital system, and they are professionally accountable for their treatment and decisions.

Even if there was some vast delusion that overtook all of the law enforcement officers and agencies in the area or they were all in on a conspiracy to persecute this man because Reasons, it's hard to believe that several medical professionals completely unrelated to law enforcement in any way would look at a very sane, normal man who is understandably upset about being questioned for writing a book, and decide his emotional reaction is due to him needing psychological help and not the persecution he's facing. It's very hard to believe they'd willingly risk losing their licenses to practice by agreeing to commit a sane and healthy man just because the police say he wrote a suspicious book. It's hard to believe they'd risk the enormous, potentially career-ending malpractice and professional incompetence suits they'd face, or that the hospital would be willing to risk the multi-million-dollar settlement it would have to pay out.

Again, is it possible the guy is going through all of this because some overzealous fool convinced some other overzealous fools that writing a book means fantasizing about mass murder? Yeah, I suppose it is. But it's also possible that there is some real solid evidence that this guy was a genuine, serious threat. I just don't think we should all jump on the "Evil police! Violation of rights! Innocent man thrown in the hospital!" bandwagon until we actually know the facts.

robeiae · Sep 1, 2014

Stacia Kane said:
WE still keep circling back to him having no other problems aside from writing a book, because WE are not privy to any facts in the case beyond that. The book(s) could be incidental to everything else.

You are correct.

But it looks bad.

Here's another one that looked bad: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198490

We never really got the whole story there, either.

Stacia Kane · Sep 1, 2014

Oh, I agree it looks bad. And if an investigation was truly started just because he wrote a couple of books, and he was hospitalized just because he got a little upset at being questioned about it, then that is a shocking violation of his rights and those responsible should issue a public apology as their last act before leaving their offices and facing charges themselves.

I'm just very tired of the "Well, a reporter said this inflammatory thing, so it must be true! Who cares about the facts, let's hang 'em!" thing that seems to happen so often now, especially when the majority of the time the truth ends up being very, very different and the poor persecuted victim of the evil stupid police ends up being guilty as sin.

Hapax Legomenon · Sep 1, 2014

Seems strange that they're not releasing any additional information at all, though. I thought PR was important in these situations.

Stacia Kane · Sep 1, 2014

Hapax Legomenon said:
Seems strange that they're not releasing any additional information at all, though. I thought PR was important in these situations.

Except they've explained that they cannot release any additional information because the investigation is ongoing--releasing more info could compromise it. The job of the police is not to have good PR, it is to investigate crimes and prevent crimes.

The man actually does have a right to privacy, too, and to not have all of the evidence or information about his activities spread all over the internet.

Pyekett · Sep 1, 2014

Stacia Kane said:
Except they've explained that they cannot release any additional information because the investigation is ongoing--releasing more info could compromise it. The job of the police is not to have good PR, it is to investigate crimes and prevent crimes.

Yes.

The man actually does have a right to privacy, too, and to not have all of the evidence or information about his activities spread all over the internet.

And if there is information pertaining to his mental health, any providers with that information would not be able to release that information (or even allude to it indirectly) without justification, such as a court order. Such orders are necessarily quite tightly circumscribed.

Doesn't mean he isn't being railroaded. Does mean one cannot assume one has the full story.

benbradley · Sep 1, 2014

Plot Device said:
I would be less worked up about this whole thing if the police would just please please PLEASE include an additional statement that might go something like this:

"And there were other patterns of behavior in Mr. McLaw's personal and professional conduct --including outbursts at work, complaints from neighbors, and generally disturbing incidents that made others around him feel that he was a threat to them. Also his Facebook page contained blah blah blah terroristic threats, and he had an ex-girlfriend who has filed several domestic disturbance complaints against him. "

I'm thinking if there were ANYTHING like that last one, any such complaints to police would be public record and we would have heard about them.

Stacia Kane said:
...
John Wayne Gacy seemed like a model citizen and an exemplary weekend clown, too. That doesn't mean he wasn't a serial killer.

Uh oh, that means we ALL could be serial killers...

Instead of yelling "Geronimo!" we should yell "Guantanamo!"

Plot Device · Sep 1, 2014

Stacia Kane said:
I'm just very tired of the "Well, a reporter said this inflammatory thing, so it must be true! Who cares about the facts, let's hang 'em!" thing that seems to happen so often now, especially when the majority of the time the truth ends up being very, very different and the poor persecuted victim of the evil stupid police ends up being guilty as sin.

The reason I don't give a shit about the poor misunderstood police having their poor feelings hurt is because

1) innocent until proven guilty

2) he's just one man up against the whole vast inhuman machinery of The System

3) innocent until proven guilty

I never give a shit about any situation in life where the ones with ALL the power get mercilessly scrutinized in how they wield it. I never will.

kuwisdelu · Sep 1, 2014

Also, if the police had better PR, people would be more willing to cooperate and help them. They should care about PR.

Gillhoughly · Sep 1, 2014

Patrick McLaw Petition

This is a story we need to keep front and center, because any one of us could be next.

A 20-year old self-publishes a a first novel (yeah, I know), it languishes, overpriced and ignored on Kindle for three years...

Then the authorities in the school where the now 23-year old young man teaches find out about it and hit the panic button.

The story is about a school shooting 888 years in the future and written under a pen name.

The forces of law and order whisked the author away to an undisclosed location for a "psyche evaluation." They claim that the children at the middle school where he taught language arts are "safe" now. His home has been searched, his life taken apart, and no one knows where he is. Violation of civil rights, much? They've not found ANYTHING, BTW, that could be considered harmful to himself or others.

Here's the basic story with details:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national...oviet-style-punishment-for-a-novelist/379431/

Here's a link to a petition to sign protesting his treatment.

http://www.change.org/p/dr-henry-wa...utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

This young man wrote a work of fiction three years ago and is now sitting in a cell while psychiatrists check him out. I don't think he is even able to make a phone call. He's not under arrest, after all.

The main point is if they can do this to him, they can do this to any of us. Get the word out about this shameful overstepping of authority.

RichardGarfinkle · Sep 1, 2014

There's already a thread about this.
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295559

Captcha · Sep 1, 2014

I'm trying to analyze why I was completely willing to believe police misbehaviour in St. Louis and am having so much trouble accepting it here.

I think it's because this was more drawn out, and there were so many more people involved. One individual acting on bias and responding in the heat of the moment? Ugly, and I don't want to say I can understand it, exactly, but at least it seems possible.

This, though? If so many people, with so much time to think things over, made a mistake as huge as this would seem to be? It's so appalling that I find it much easier to believe that there are unknown factors at work.

Doesn't mean I'm right, but it's what I believe right now.

veinglory · Sep 1, 2014

The thing is that police have several principles above PR. So sure, they could do better PR. But privacy and not causing noise that will effect the investigation is more important.

I wish the media would sometimes compensate for that by doing little investigation. They could be looking into the alleged letter to the school board etc rather than just eating whatever falls into their lap and pooping it onto the internet with inflammatory titles.

Karen Junker · Sep 1, 2014

I got something in my FB feed today about this -- let me go find it and I'll come back and link. I haven't read this whole thread, so it may have been mentioned, but there were some comments by people in the community that some letters had been sent by him (to where I can't remember). Be right back

Hapax Legomenon · Sep 1, 2014

They could be looking at that alleged letter to the schoolboard. They could be looking at if he's still in custody after the 72 hours. Maybe the police have said something important on the matter and they have just decided not to report it.

But yes, either way, I agree with Plot Device. Innocent until proven guilty.

Karen Junker · Sep 1, 2014

Okay, here's the article in the local paper that had comments re: some kind of letter:

http://www.wboc.com/story/26367051/...-on-administrative-leave#.VAKZTP1NlKg.twitter

And here's an update:

http://www.wmdt.com/story/26387570/update-police-search-home-of-suspended-dorchester-co-teacher

Hapax Legomenon · Sep 1, 2014

I hear about this supposed letter and I'm not buying it. If he's been detained for writing a scary letter, then would the headline not be "Teacher detained for writing scary letter"? Writing these books are not illegal and do not merit such action. So either it's true and the reason this guy is being detained is due to his books, or the media has latched onto something incidental to the investigation.

Either way, it is dreadful.

Captcha · Sep 1, 2014

Hapax Legomenon said:
I hear about this supposed letter and I'm not buying it. If he's been detained for writing a scary letter, then would the headline not be "Teacher detained for writing scary letter"? Writing these books are not illegal and do not merit such action. So either it's true and the reason this guy is being detained is due to his books, or the media has latched onto something incidental to the investigation.

Either way, it is dreadful.

Well, you're assuming that the media is being responsible, aren't you?

I don't trust the media to avoid sensationalism any more than I trust the authorities to avoid abuse of power.

Hard to know who to believe these days...

Karen Junker · Sep 1, 2014

I read all the comments and the one about a letter was written by someone claiming to be a parent of children in that school -- but when asked, did not provide any further comment. That person also stated that a map of that school and another one was found in McLaw's home. Didn't say how they knew this.

There were a couple of "you don't know the whole story" posts, but no further details were provided.

I'll see if I can get ahold of someone at the ACLU tomorrow and find out if there's anything happening at that end.

Hapax Legomenon · Sep 1, 2014

Captcha said:
Well, you're assuming that the media is being responsible, aren't you?

I don't trust the media to avoid sensationalism any more than I trust the authorities to avoid abuse of power.

Hard to know who to believe these days...

What I said was:

or the media has latched onto something incidental to the investigation.

As in there is someone being horrible no matter what, but right now we don't know who it is.

Pseudonym = Alias?

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