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The Annoyed Man wrote:I don't consider what I post to be irresponsible, but I flat out refuse to be intimidated from speaking in a forthright and honest manner because someone else got their unmentionables in a twist.

OK, I am glad to see we are in agreement then. My misunderstanding was that you might not see how posts can be used against you. But you do understand, as I now see. All I really wanted to do was make sure people were aware of the possible consequences and how easy it is to get the evidence. Many people think they are anonymous on the Internet because they post behind a pseudonym instead of using their real names. These are the people who need to understand the real world.

I applaud you on your stance. I also refuse to give in to fear and change my ways of doing things because of what someone else might do. I post how I feel on various topics, and some of those opinions may not be popular. But they are my opinions and I will stand behind what I say, so I don't care if someone else doesn't like them. I cannot believe how many people are willing to change their very lifestyles out of fear of some other person's reactions instead of standing up for what they believe.

After the recent shooting in Washington, Police magazine did an informal web survey of cops to see how many would stop eating in local fast food restaurants. I was amazed that more than 50% said they would stop that to avoid being shot in an ambush. I cannot believe that these cops would change their lifestyles out of fear. How can they possibly make the public any safer if they are afraid themselves?

Annoyed Man,

Evidence does not have to prove a single specific act that has happened in the past. It could be evidence of an attitude or pattern of behavior, for example. And the incident that makes it usable against you might not have happened yet when you make the posts.

As one example of how things that we post can be twisted by someone with an agenda to prove, consider how many times we post scenarios here and discuss how we would react. I am not saying not to do this since I consider it important and valid training. But, if there are a dozen scenarios posted, and in six of them you said you would shoot the BG, it can be twisted to make you look like you wanted to shoot someone.

One of the great tricks some people use is to only present part of the evidence. Consider the Fish case. The prosecution tried to make him look like he wanted to shoot and kill. Suppose they had evidence he had posted that he would shoot in six different similar scenarios. The prosecution is under no obligation to present the six cases where he said he would just be a good witness. The prosecution even objected to presenting similar evidence showing the dead man was just as crazy and violent as they wanted to make Fish look. In the Fish case, it cost him a couple years in jail and a lot of money.

All I am saying about our posting here is to remember that it is out there and can be used in court. The good side of this is that your defense attorney can counter the bad image by presenting the other six posts and other forums. Almost any activity we engage in can be a double edged sword than can help you or hurt you.

I am glad someone else said it before I did. I was beginning to think I was the only one who realized the cops don't need to identify you on line. They just get your computer and it has everything they need. Then they get a subpoena for yoru ISP and the server of any boards you posted to, and they have all the evidence they need.

And to make it worse, it is not just what you post. Think of all the social networking we do now. What do your friends have posted that reflects on you? Is there a picture of a party where you got drunk or did something stupid? A good investigator will find that too. When my daughter had her accident, the first thing the lawyer told her was to start checking what she has posted and what her friends have posted. Here is an interesting article on how posting has affected some cop sin their careers, along with case references:

http://www.policemag.com/Channel/Techno ... -Post.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another good point is made about this. When you apply for a job, a lot of HR departments are checking for you on-line. It is not as easy for them to identify you in forums like this, but it is not impossible either (especially if you are like me and post your real name).