Phrase "Killer Cops" Offends Someone

There was a "Justice for Henry Glover" rally in New Orleans today in response to the re-trial of former New Orleans police officer David Warren in the fatal shooting of Henry Glover, an unarmed man, after Hurricane Katrina.  

Apparently one of the organizers attempted to use the CallingPost Messaging Service to send mass invitations. After sending a message, his account was locked because he violated the User Agreement with the phrase "killer cop."

Referring to police officers who kill people as "killer cops" is apparently inappropriate, says Calling Post. 

It's unclear which part of the User Agreement in Section 11 was violated except maybe "You will not use, or attempt to use, the CallingPost Service to convey any information that may be considered unlawful, harassing, libelous, abusive,  threatening, obscene, hateful, offensive, harmful, vulgar, distasteful, defamatory, or invasive of another person's privacy or proprietary rights."

"Killer Cops" could fall under "offensive" depending on the recipient.

This is a pretty vague reason to suspend an account. The first two paragraphs of the User Agreement explain that CallingPost should NOT be used for  "political purposes" and "material deemed to be offensive to the recipients or CallingPost."

So in other words, if CallingPost or the recipients deems the content inappropriate, the account can be locked. One of two things probably happened. Either the sender intentionally included a recipient who would be offended by the message and that recipient filed a complaint, or CallingPost simply found the message offensive. If the latter is the case, this is just another disturbing example of censorship.

NOTE: I do not know if this user of CallingPost has been a habitual offender or what his relationship is with the service, but received the email below.

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Hi Folks

Just wanted to let everyone know about another expression of the  censorship we have in this country. This is the message I received after sending out a ‘calling post”—mass, recorded phone message-- to the C3 phone list to encourage folks to attend today’s rally to demand justice for Henry Glover-- yes, to put ‘killer cops’ behind bars.

Until the victory always,

 

[REDACTED]

From: Customer Care [mailto:info@callingpost.com]
Sent: Monday, December 9, 2013 11:37 AM

Subject: CallingPost Account Hold

 

Mr.[Redacted]

Your account has been placed on "Locked" due to inappropriate usage.  Section 11 of the "User Agreement", which was entered into at the time of registration, states that an account holder cannot use CallingPost Communications for inappropriate reasons.  The term "killer cop" was stated in the outgoing message for December 8th at 8:36pm and CallingPost has the right, as stated in Section 12 of the "User Agreement", to deny you access to the account based on this information.