The dead do deserve simple respect and in that we on the whole may have gone to far, however to allow Treadwell's lies and foolishness to pass uncorrected and unremarked upon simply because he died is neither justice nor wisdom.
For Treadwell's actions and belief did not only affect himself, if they had it would be enough to point them out as foolishness so they wouldn't be repeated, but Timothy wasn't satisfied to simply indulge himself.
In the process of his life he slandered Alaskans in general as poachers, lied to credulous people in the States to finance his fantasy and unjustly publicly besmirched the reputation of both the USFS and SoA F&W.
He set himself up as a savior of animals whom (as Cos pointed out) he was actually behaving criminally towards. He chose to willingly expose an innocent party to extreme danger and did not heed her requests to leave. His actions in the end led to the death of animals he "was protecting".
He did not demonstrate the courage of his convictions to confront on film persons he felt were acting in a way to threaten his "protectees" (the rock throwers) and, in the end, he even lacked the courage of his convictions to die according to his own principles. The monks who lit themselves on fire in Vietnam to protest in the courage of their convictions did not end their lives screaming for someone to bring a fire extinguisher to save them.
Treadwell was noble in no sense of the word, he was a fraud, a self-indulgent false prophet who entrapped other innocents, both people and animals, in his self-destructive fantasy life.
He'll get no pass from me until that truth is known and admitted by all who now defend him.
