“I looked at it, but I really didn’t look at it. I was going through sensory overload,” Humphrey says. “I said, ‘Well, sir, what would the FBI want with me?’” Deep down, Humphrey — a 57-year-old model-railroading enthusiast who works parttime jobs at an area hobby shop and bookstore — knew why the Federal Bureau of Investigation had dropped by his north-end home (the Springfield FBI wouldn’t confirm that this visit occurred).

A month earlier, on March 7, the State Journal-Register published an op-ed called “Don’t blame Israel for civilian deaths,” by George Sisk, who was then chairman of the Springfield Jewish Community Relations Council. Later that same day, American Everyman, a blog dedicated to discussing political issues, including, “the plight of the Palestinian people,” posted a rebuttal of Sisk’s column. Humphrey was an avid blogger on the Web site and joined in the ensuing debate. He used it to draft his own response to Sisk’s column.

Humphrey’s letter to the editor — “Israel is not blameless for Gaza civilian deaths” — ran in the SJ-R on April 1. He wasn’t surprised that the FBI knocked on his door the next day, he says, because other bloggers on American Everyman had already told him that speaking out would get him into trouble.

“Up until that point, I hadn’t considered these issues before,” he says. “I’m not an anti- Semitic campaigner for the destruction of Israel. I just don’t support what they’re doing.”

According to Humphrey, the man who identified himself as an FBI agent told him that they were investigating a series of possible threats that had been made against Sisk.

When Humphrey told the pair that he did not threaten or intend to harm anyone, he says, they left.

Three months later, on July 13, he was visited again — this time, he says, by two men, one who identified himself as Steve Gudgel, a special investigator with the Sangamon County state’s attorney’s office. Humphrey says the men accused him of making threats against Sisk on the American Everyman Web site and expressed a concern that someone would bomb the local synagogue. Humphrey again answered that he did not threaten or intend to harm anyone, he says, and they left.

“Increasingly we’re going to see people stop speech, which used to be virtually unheard of in this country.”

Gudgel, accompanied by a deputy with the Sangamon County sheriff’s office, returned to Humphrey’s home and arrested him on Aug. 26. He was taken to the Sangamon County jail and charged with two counts of harassment through electronic communications and two counts of disorderly conduct.

According to the official complaint, one count of disorderly conduct relates to a blog posting he wrote on March 7 about Sisk’s column; the other three charges relate to a blog posting he wrote on April 9 about a rat he encountered while working another part-time job. The post included the name “George.”

Sisk told Illinois Times that he does not wish to comment on this pending criminal investigation.

Think of the Internet as a giant megaphone.

Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York City, says in the past, individuals who had

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