BUFFALO, NY - Freedom of speech is a solid principle of the American democracy, and even hate speech is protected under the first amendment.
However, a Buffalo woman found herself charged for a series of alleged Facebook posts, and police are defending their decision to arrest her for what she said in them.
“There is a very delicate balance between freedom of speech, and speech that becomes threatening, harassing, alarming, and annoying," said Capt. Jeff Rinaldo of the Buffalo Police Department.
And police say Rosalyn Colligan, 40, crossed that line with series of Facebook posts which they allege violate a state law against making a terroristic threat.
Charged under NY State Law
“She had a series of posts threatening to come to the (gay) pride event at Canalside and murder people,” Rinaldo said. “The posts were very explicit, and they had threatened to ‘shoot the event up’ as well as to bring a series of knives and commit heinous acts."
Rinaldo added that the posts were directed at specific individuals who Colligan allegedly “had differences with and who she believed were going to attend the event.”
“It is enough to get you charged,” confirm Buffalo attorney Paul Cambria, one of the nation’s leading First Amendment attorneys.
“The intent of the statute is to not let people inflict ‘terror’ in the population. And whether or not you can carry out what you say, you can still create a belief and an opinion and a fear of ‘terror’ which would cause people to react, and that’s what these statutes are designed to accommodate.” Cambria said.
Part of the statute requires that the defendant, through their actions, causes a reasonable expectation or fear of the imminent commission of harm against others.
And while he declined to be entirely specific as to what led police to the conclusion that Colligan indeed posed such a threat, he offered that in these times, you can’t be too careful.
“As we've seen unfortunately around the country, there's often warning signs that pop up before one of these events, with people afterward saying law enforcement didn’t respond. In Buffalo, we will respond to these threats,” said Rinaldo.
Just Making the Threat is Enough
Rinaldo confirmed that when confronted by police, Colligan was not found to possess any knives or guns.
However, he noted that under the statute, she wouldn’t have to have actually possessed such weapons in order to be charged.
"You don't have to be in the process of putting together the mechanism to carry out the threat, so you don’t have to be in possession of a firearm…or a bomb. The fact you posted the threat is what gets you in trouble,” said Rinaldo.
Colligan;’s arrest follows another last week of a teenager charged with making threats against Hutchinson Technical High School, and the arrest last month of a Buffalo man accused by federal prosecutors of posting threats against police officers on social media.
“We especially want to stress to parents and school age children that when these threats are posted. There are serious penalties which can have serious consequences later on in life if someone has a criminal charge on their record for doing this,” Rinaldo said.
The charges Colligan faces are considered a ‘Violent’ D-felony, punishable by up to two to seven years in prison. She remained held Monday on $100,000 bail.