punk inmates use newspaper gunowner map to threaten guards.

[powderman]

         Inmates using newspaper's gun owner map to threaten guards, sheriff says  Published January 04, 2013
FoxNews.com    Law enforcement officials from a New York region where a local paper published a map identifying gun owners say prisoners are using the information to intimidate guards.
Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, who spoke at a news conference flanked by other county officials, said the Journal News' decision to post an online map of names and addresses of handgun owners Dec. 23 has put law enforcement officers in danger.
"They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That's not acceptable to me," Falco said, according to Newsday.
Robert Riley, an officer with the White Plains Police Department and president of its Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, agreed.
"You have guys who work in New York City who live up here. Now their names and addresses are out there, too," he said adding that there are 8,000 active and retired NYPD officers currently living in Rockland County.
 
Local lawmakers also say that they intend to introduce legislation that prevents information about legal gun owners from being released to the public.
The newspaper published the online map last month alongside an article titled, "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood." The map included the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
 
While the paper ostensibly sought to make a point about gun proliferation in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the effort may have backfired. A blogger reacted with a map showing where key editorial staffers live, and some outraged groups have called for a boycott of parent company Gannett’s national advertisers. Ironically, the newspaper has now stationed armed guards outside at least one of its offices.
Click here for more from Newsday

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/04/law-enforcement-latest-critics-on-public-display-gun-owner-data-officers/#ixzz2H7Melt62

[coyotejoe]

How would they like it if someone published addresses of everyone undergoing treatment for a psychological disorder, certainly it could be argued that such persons pose a greater threat to the public than do persons who merely own a gun. It really is an excellent argument  as to why firearms registration should never happen, but the nit-wit liberals will never see that.

[BUGEYE]

If this leads to the death or injury of one of those gun owners, the newspaper should be held liable in a civil suit.

[lakota]

There should be a price to pay for the practice of irresponsible journalism.

[tom548]

But then maybe it will go the other was as criminals allready have their gun and don't need mine, they may just Target the unarmed home.  If I were a B&e man I would have a copy with me at all times, kind of like a robbery GPS.  Tom

[oldhunter]

I agree with the comments, but also question the ability of inmates to have access to the internet or newspapers that allows them to obtain such information.  In my opinion, they have far too many rights that should have been lost when they were convicted of their various crimes.
 
oldhunter

[powderman]

I agree with the comments, but also question the ability of inmates to have access to the internet or newspapers that allows them to obtain such information.  In my opinion, they have far too many rights that should have been lost when they were convicted of their various crimes.
 
oldhunter

 
AMEN brother. A computer should not be a right. POWDERMAN. 

[Swift One]

While I don't agree with what the paper did with publishing all the names and addys, If you have your name an addy listed in the phone book, it is considered public information.  Inmates, believe it or not, have the right to know the public information of the people that are paid to provide care for them (protection, medical, ect.).  That was decided by the federal court years ago.
 
Most correctional employees, skirt this by not having their name, number, and addy listed in the phone book.  BUT, This may not be the case.  The newspapers got intell on gun owners through what I consider unethical means and published the intell with a malicious intent.  I agree, if any harm comes to those correctional staff or thier families because the intell in the paper lead to that harm, the newspaper could and should be held completely responsible.
 
It's more than likely not computers that gave the intell to the inmates.  They more than likely got that information from a smuggled in smart phone- which is a huge epidemic in prisons today.  And while some reading material is screened for suitable DOC approved reading material, newspapers have long been considered an acceptable source of material for inmates to read.  Which, is yet another exapmle, as to why that newspaper is so wrong for doing what they did.