County wrong to threaten to sue
Both the State Law Enforcement Division and the State Budget & Control Board are looking into purchases made by the town of Fort Lawn and particularly one officer. Procedures weren’t followed. We’ll know soon enough whether that means anything criminal occured.
Tempers are running hot, and people are saying and writing all sorts of things, including accusations against a couple of public officials, comments that have absolutely nothing to do with the matter. Some go way beyond the pale. Some nasty comments were posted in our web stories about this fuss. We yanked them, and we’ll continue to pull comments we believe to be libelous.That is not our major concern.
The questions being raised about the purchases are legitimate. But many comments go beyond legitimate inquiry.
People are entitled to their opinion, and in America, free to share it. But you can’t say anything and everything about anybody. So people need to calm down and let the investigation and review run their courses.
That’s what County Attorney Joanie Winters had in mind when she went to Fort Lawn last week.
That’s not how it came across. She wanted to urge patience for the results of the investigation. That’s valid. She wanted to chide Fort Lawn Town Council for its handling of the affair. That’s possibly valid. Lastly, she said she wanted to stop slanderous and defamatory comments.
We agree the latter should stop.
But she did not say she was representing the officials as a private attorney. She said Chester County would take legal action if the “defamation” continued. In other words, Chester County would sue its own citizens.
There was obviously more to her statement than the above threat. (Her entire statement is online here for you to see.)
But once uttered, the threat was all anyone could or would hear.
She explicitly said the county would take legal action to stop “defamation.” She told us she was instructed to go to Fort Lawn by Chester County Supervisor Carlisle Roddey.
Your average Joe doesn’t know exactly what defamation and slander are. So when they hear a threat to take legal action to stop it, it doesn’t put a stop to just slander and defamation. People wonder if their comments are legitimate questions or will get them sued for slander. They are given pause.
Such a pause means speech is chilled.
We believe the officials being questioned to be honorable. We regret and are frankly horrified by some of the things being hurled at their feet. They may indeed have been slandered. If so, we hope they take the slanderers to court and win a civil judgment.
But they need to do that as private citizens. Chester County has no business threatening to sue its citizens. That horrifies us more than slander.
We believe the County Attorney and County Supervisor erred in taking this action. They owe their constituents an apology and a promise never again to consider this kind of tactic.
