I would love to hear the pros and cons on this because I believe this is something that will be broached eventually.
Are we talking about simple expression, or harrassment and acts of malice as well?
I'm not talking about thoughts, feelings or beliefs, I speaking of action which results in damages, which is why I was asking about the feasibility of statutory damages.
For example, there are two members of U.S. Message Board whom have racial and religious animosity towards me. Actually there are more but these two have been extreme to the point where I've asked them to stay off of my threads and to cease and desist their communications to/with/about me. Of course being told to stop only makes them take the stance of "who does she think she is, and I'm going to show her she can't tell me what to do or make me do ANYTHING".
Because I've asked them to discontinue there unwanted behavior towards me, they've acknowledged that they've been told to discontinue said behavior ONLY IN RESPECT TO ME, they're continuing to do so, if what the legal fields calls prima facie evidence (the evidence speaks for itself so to speak) that their behavior is INTENTIONAL after they've been told it's unwanted.
They've been doing this for several years and most recently just a day ago even after again being reminded of the cease and desist.
Every time they post a comment to/about/etc. me, they reset the clock on the statute of limitatation and the statute starts running again from the beginning. And each post is one more piece of evidence of deliberate harassment.
Now these two are just an example, and because it's online it's in a slightly different category, but I believe I've mentioned elsewhere people who call the police on you when you're not engaged in unlawful behavior, which can start a domino effect of consequences, which I will not outline here, is another example. If you access the case files for that police agency for these types of reporting and categorize them by gender, race, nationality, etc. you can use that data to support your case and or the case of others. You can also look into the person who made the call - we all remember Amy in Central Park behaving hysterically and falsely telling the police a black guy was threatening her. I would pull every tangible piece of documentation that exists, find out if and who else she has done this to, and talk to them, pooling resources and knowledge.
Legislation does not necessarily mean the criminal code. In fact sometimes you can get more done utilizing the civil system because you don't have to rely on the police & prosecutor's office to make a determination that your case is deserving of their assistance. And the threshold to prevail is only 51% versus the 98% it's said is needed to prevail in a criminal case (beyond reasonable doubt).
I'm just bouncing around a couple of ideas because after those 3 racist cops in Wilmington North Carolina stated to the investigator that they're not racist, we have to start working on something. Things can't go one the way they do.