On August 29th, teacher and fellow science fiction writer Patrick McLaw (above) was arrested by Dorchester County (Maryland) police and taken in for an "emergency evaluation". They searched his office and home for dangerous weapons.
His crime? So far, all we know is that he wrote books (links here and here). The topic was a school massacre 900 years in the future. According to Daily Kos, "Mr. McLaw was earlier in the year nominated for First Class Teacher of the Year and was previously featured in USA Today for helping a 14-year-old student self-publish e-books on Amazon."
There has been no information in the media released for three days. We are forced to consider that this treatment is unfair and unjust, especially as NO WEAPONS OR DEVICES WERE FOUND. Help us approach the highest authority in the United States to plead for more information about Patrick. No author should have to fear the authorities just for writing a book. We demand to know where McLaw is and that he has the rights for a full trial--especially since there's no real evidence that he did anything wrong.
Dear Barack Obama,
Your countryman, Patrick McLaw, was arrested by Dorchester County (MA) police for writing a book. No information on his whereabouts or his actual crime has been released. This is not the action of a free country. The word "Orwellian" doesn't even begin to cover it. It is, however, the kind of thing that would have been very familiar in the darkest moments of the Soviet era.
Please intercede and release information about Patrick, or better yet, the man himself. Writing science fiction, even the darkest kind, is not a crime. If there was reason for suspicion due to other actions, tell us. Don't make writers and artists live in fear.
This is not the America you want your daughters to grow up in--a police state, where the wrong word, thought, or the "wrong" skin colour are enough to land them in custody. No citizen should be jailed without due process and without concrete evidence of wrongdoing. No person should have to fear their government.
Sincerely,
