Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone says of Phil O’Connell, the man who taunts passersby with his hand-lettered signs, “The signs he’s holding are not against the law and he’s typically not the antagonizer” (“Free speech rights,” Sept. 5).
I would agree with the first part of that statement, but not the second. The whole point of the signs is that what he does is, strictly speaking, not against the law and is most certainly antagonizing.
This person’s whole purpose for being in the central intersection of downtown Amherst, is to antagonize people. In the online world, he is what would be called a “troll,” defined by Urban Dictionary as someone “who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.”
This person’s signs are calibrated to move right to the edge of protected speech. For example, one of his signs reads “Kill feminism.” This way the person can claim he’s not engaging in hate speech because he’s not advocating murder of people, just the murder of an idea.
Phil’s signs are disgusting, patently offensive — and they achieve exactly what he wants: To rile people up and get them to look at him. I am told that the best way to deal with a troll is simply to ignore him. But that’s hard when the troll is as irritating as this man.
Maybe the best thing to do is to organize counterprotests with signs bearing a message: “Just Laugh at the Troll.”
Alex Kent
Amherst