CT Blue

We live in strange times. Just when you think someone has done the most outrageous thing you can think of, someone comes along and tops it.

You can read the full story at the link. I’ll summarize: A reporter in Missouri discovered a flaw in a state website that exposed the personal information of thousands of state employees. He got the information in a way that anyone with a fairly basic grasp of how the internet works could have done. He pressed a button on the state website, then pressed another that allowed him to view the source code. He notified the state of his discovery and his paper did not publish an article about the situation until the state took steps to correct it’s unbelievably stupid programming error.

Well, remember, we’re talking about Missouri, which is still somewhat of a border state, in that it’s not completely under the thumb of the yahoos, but said yahoos sure have a lot of influence, including, at the moment, the governorship.

His honor, the governor decided that the reporter, who had just done the state a service, should be rewarded for his good works by being arrested for allegedly hacking the state website, which he decidedly didn’t do.

It will not surprise you to learn that the governor is a Republican. It will also not surprise you to learn that he has some decidedly interesting ideas about what constitutes totally legal behavior:

Why, yes, that is the same governor who just pardoned gun nuts Mark and Patricia McCloskey for waving guns at racial justice protestors walking down the street. Because that’s not a “real” crime.

There is no way the reporter committed a crime. Back when I went to law school, before the law had been perverted as it has been recently, there was a civil cause of action for malicious prosecution. A plaintiff could sue a state actor for bringing patently false criminal charges. If they actually arrest this guy, he would have had a slam dunk case. But who knows? There may be an exception for plaintiffs who embarrass Republican governors.