An Anarchist Twitter User...

[kblessinggr]

The Irony: An Anarchist is defending his constitutional rights...

Twitter anarchist raided under 'riot' laws - CNN.com
It's long even by cnn's standard, so cutting pasting some of the more interesting pieces.

An anarchist social worker raided by the feds wants his computers, manuscripts and pick axes back. He argues that authorities violated the U.S. Constitution and the rights of his mentally ill clients while searching for evidence that he broke an anti-rioting law on Twitter.

Madison, who counsels more than 100 severely mentally ill patients in New York, seems to have first drawn attention from the authorities at September's G-20 gathering of world leaders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There he was arrested on September 24 at a motel room for allegedly listening to a police scanner and relaying information on Twitter to help protesters avoid heavily-armed cops -- an activity the State Department lauded when it happened in Iran.

If Madison were an Iranian using Twitter to coordinate government protests, he'd likely be considered a hero in the West. Instead, the self-identified anarchist -- who volunteered in Louisiana after Katrina -- is now facing up to five years in prison for each count a grand jury cares to indict him on.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, the warrant was legitimate. Signed by Judge Honorable Viktor V. Pohorelsky on September 26, it authorized the government to seize:
Computers, hard-drives, floppy discs and other media used to store computer-accessible information, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, electronic storage devices and related peripherals, black masks and clothing, maps, correspondence and other documents, financial records, notes, ledgers, receipts, papers, photographs, telephone and address books, identification documents, indicia of residency and other documents and records that constitute evidence of the commission of rioting crimes or that are designed or intended as a means of violating the federal rioting laws, including any of the above items that are maintained within other closed or locked containers, including safes and other containers that may be further secured by key locks (or combination locks) of various kinds.
The list of what was taken stretches pages.

The federal anti-rioting statute is serious business, and is seemingly easy to violate. For instance, it is a felony to "organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a riot; or [...] to aid or abet any person in inciting or participating in [...] a riot." By that token, simply telling a person fleeing cops with batons which way to run makes you a felon.

Funny thing though... if push comes to shove they could and would probably say the patriot act allows them to prosecute him in such a manner, which pretty much nulls and voids the constitution anyways.