Have you ever heard of such madness in your life?:
Judge Upholds Pseudonymity of Cincinnati Police Officer Who Is Suing His Critics for Libel
I wrote about the case (in which news outlets, the defendants, and I are opposing pseudonymity) a few weeks ago here. Yesterday, WKRC (James Pilcher) wrote about the latest hearing, in which Judge Megan Shanahan has ruled that the case can continue to proceed pseudonymously:
Shanahan said the officer faces danger in the current climate for the reason in keeping his name out of the court record. She listed off several examples of other attacks on police nationally.
“Must we wait until this officer’s wife is stabbed in the eye with an ice pick on her doorstep before we find real-world evidence [of malice or threat], which just happened a few states away?” Shanahan said as she issued her ruling….
(Me: Uh, what? Oh. Heh. Still, I don’t think that changes anything.)
Under the “officer faces danger in the current climate” theory, essentially any lawsuit against or by police officers — or other controversial public officials — would be pseudonymous.
Wouldn’t that be hilarious if her decision stands and now all government employees get to go by fake names to preserve their anonymity while they go about their daily oppressions? I was sick of my security force pretending to not be my enemy anyway honestly. Let’s go ahead and give them all Stormtrooper helmets so we know who’s on whose side here.
