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Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

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Re: Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

#61

"Terroristic Threats" are one way that free speech is under attack. Another is harassment laws. Law student Anya Bargh was arrested for sending an email saying "Let’s celebrate diversity by having the next dean NOT be Jewish." If that isn't protected speech I don't know what is. http://www.volokh.com/2013/05/03/law-student-arrested-chiefl...

Did you actually read what you linked to? The entirety of the allegations go _way_ beyond that single email.

yes, see my reply above. This is potentially a serious free speech issue, please get all the facts before dismissing it.

If the police say "We are arresting person X because of this statement, and they also did some other stuff", then this suggests that the statements are part of the charges. But as I said above, it's hard to know for certain without seeing the actual charges.

Re: Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

#62
post #28

This sounds to me like nothing more than an abuse of power by a DA. Those are much more common than people realize. As an example, in a recent case that I'm familiar with in Oregon, a man that I personally know was unjustly charged with 4 criminal charges that the DA knew were unjustified. He fought. He won. He now has, in addition to a crushing legal bill, a bill for the time he spent locked up in prison on trumped…

>But in my opinion the biggest single factor is that the DA in question is an investor in the private jail to which he sends people. This is happening more than it should. Lots of hands are reaching into the private prisons industry's resources (cheap labor). Some towns are investing HEAVILY in private prisons. The prisoners that are "good" get to work making products that can easily undercut any competitor. When a w…

Wow, the US is taking inspiration from North-Korea.

Re: Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

#64
post #57

> "(Expletive) a boston bominb wait till u see the (expletive) I do, I’ma be famous" > The actual line is: > "(Expletive) a boston bominb wait till u see the (expletive) I do, I’ma be famous rapping " http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/05/... > An accused teenage rapper pleaded not guilty today to making a bomb threat on Facebook he warned would eclipse the horror of the Boston Marathon tragedy…

I had the exact opposite reaction to that. It shouldn't matter one bit what he said. Neither interpretation of his lyric should be grounds for any kind of criminal punishment.

Right.

But the news was also deliberately slanted to make whatever happened, worse.

Re: Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

#65
post #28

This sounds to me like nothing more than an abuse of power by a DA. Those are much more common than people realize. As an example, in a recent case that I'm familiar with in Oregon, a man that I personally know was unjustly charged with 4 criminal charges that the DA knew were unjustified. He fought. He won. He now has, in addition to a crushing legal bill, a bill for the time he spent locked up in prison on trumped…

> a bill for the time he spent locked up in prison on trumped up charges? Am I reading this right? Are you saying that they charge you for time you spend involuntarily in prison?

> charge you for time you spend involuntarily in prison

There should be a Constitutional amendment specifically banning this practice.

Honestly it should already be there under cruel and unusual punishment (obvious), due process (the process eventually said he was innocent so how can he be punished?) or attainder (punishing someone for something other than an illegal action). But since it's apparently not obvious, it wouldn't hurt to spell it out.

Re: Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

#67
Trying to avoid political discussion and ask something about startups and law:

When you run a site that allows users to post stuff do you have an obligation to hand over details when the law comes knocking?

What do you do if this teenager posted stuff like this on your website under a pseudonym, and law enforcement came to you asking for his identifying information?

Do you wait until they come back with correctly formed court documents signed by a judge? do you go further, and take it to court yourself? Do you risk jail time to protect anonymity of your users?

I guess this is different based on what country you're in and what your product is.

Re: Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

#68
"I’m not in reality, So when u see me (expletive) go insane and make the news, the paper, and the (expletive) federal house of horror known as the white house, Don’t (expletive) cry or be worried because all YOU people (expletive) caused this (expletive),"

Perhaps this guy is really smart and a political activist?

Re: Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

#69
post #14

there was a similar story with an ex-marine last year. http://www.nbc12.com/story/19396255/marine-brandon-raub-spea... Its certainly shocking to see people being arrested over facebook posts. No sure what to do. Maybe start a campaign to encourage people to post 'terrorist' messages in protest? What can they do with 10 million terrorist messages?

Arrest the poor ones, ugly ones, minorities, people they don't personally like, etc.

not enough prison space

Re: Teenager facing terrorism charges for something he posted on Facebook

#70
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arrest the poor ones, ugly ones, minorities, people they don't personally like, etc.

not enough prison space

Then arrest just enough to fill up the prisons. You think America could ever run short on prison space? Prisons are our fastest growing form of housing.
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