Cynics Unlimited

Main Entry:
iro•ny
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural iro•nies
Etymology:
Latin ironia, from Greek eirōnia, from eirōn dissembler
Date:
1502
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result

A few days ago, this blog wrote a sharp criticism or Dardene Prairie’s decision to enact a law to prevent harassment over the internet. The law was enacted in response to 13-year old Megan Meier’s high-profile suicide, and while it has no effect outside the city, there is still a possibility that several other municipalities/states/etc could follow suit.

One must reasonably assume that Megan Meier’s demographic profile (an innocent-looking teenage girl) tugged at more than a few heart strings, implying this law was little more than a latent and simplistic reaction to an unfortunate and complicated issue.

Megan could have been our daughter!
There ought to be a law stopping this from happening to our daughter!!

Well now there is a law in one municipality and first beneficiary of that law may be none other than the woman who allegedly drove Megan to suicide – Lori Drew.

Lori Drew, the woman accused of being behind that fake I.D., has denied through her lawyer that she knew what was going on, noting an 18-year-old employee created the false profile. But a strange thing has been happening since then. Someone purporting to be Drew has started a fake blog on the net, using a first person account to justify “her” actions.
Both Drew and her lawyer insist she didn’t post anything and authorities believe her. But the response from the public has been understandably vitriolic towards the woman and she now fears for her family’s safety. Attorney Jim Briscoe has contacted blogger.com owner Google and asked them to take the posts down.
…
The town of Dardenne Prairie, where this bizarre drama has been unfolding since October 2006, rushed a law into existence designed to prevent harassment over the Internet. And the first person it could be used to protect may be Lori Drew herself.
“I would say that would be a possibility, that they could be the first,” Mayor Pam Fogarty admits. “A law is a law is a law,” she concludes. “You can’t discriminate.”
-CityNews

So, essentially a law designed in response to a sympathetic victim may instead be used to protect her alleged attacker. Moreover, Meier’s alleged attacker is being protected from the on-line vigilante justice that would have otherwise been her only retribution for inducing Meier’s death. The folks scared of the ‘puter have potentially imperiled the efforts of their technologically-inclined sympathizers.

This is a deliciously ironic example of what happens when vague laws are quickly passed on the emotion of the moment.