Spike Lee Puts Elderly Couple’s Life in Danger over a Tweet
Posted by Cynthia Dermody
If Spike Lee is as smart as he'd like everyone to believe he is, he will "do the right thing" and get in touch with David and Elaine McClain as soon as possible. He will offer the 70-year-old couple a big "make right" gesture for his huge Twitter screw-upthat put them in danger as part of this wholeTrayvon Martin mess. He should act quickly, before one of the many, many lawyers salivating at the thought of suing the filmmaker gets their hands on them first. Although with the way this story is breaking, something tells me one of them probably already has ...
This Trayvon Martin situation is ugly enough as it is, the last thing we need are some greedy, opportunistic people making a profit off of the sad and untimely death of a 17-year-old boy. That said, lawyers still need to get involved here -- prosecutors who should charge the original tweeter, Marcus Higgins, and Spike Lee with defamation of character and interfering with a police investigation.
Davonne Higgins, 33, made the original tweet with the address of George Michael Zimmerman, Martin's shooter, and send it to several celebrities, including Lee, who was the only one to retweet it. But the address was wrong; he confused McClain's 41-year-old son, George W. Zimmerman, who once lived at the address now occupied by the McClains, with the notorious one.
The couple, who both worked in the local school system, had to leave their home for a hotel after getting several threatening letters and people showing up at their doorstep. They are very upset and scared, can you blame them?
At the very least, Lee -- and even Higgins -- should pay for any expenses the couple had in moving out, and maybe throw in a new car for their trouble. I'm sure he can afford it.
Lee already deleted his tweet, and Higgins apologized for making his original one, but we've yet to hear any kind of "I'm sorry" from Lee. He's probably too busy trying to defend himself against the onslaught of Tweeters who are now baraging him with racist tweets in the fallout. it's just all so ugly. And getting uglier.
Lee can afford whatever kind of legal defense or lawsuit comes his way because of this, and the way our society works, the publicity would probably wind up being a good thing for him, anyway.
Perhaps the better and more severe punishment is the one that may be coming outside the workings of the legal system. In retweeting the couple's private address, Lee may have violated Twitter's policy stating you can't publish or post people's private or confidential info without their permission.
The penalty? Suspending Lee's Twitter account and get him to stop talking. Kinda like the sound of that.
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