Idiots Arrest Idiot for Saying Something Idiotic on FB (TX)

[TheHammer]

Sorry, but she's either a crazy person or malicious bitch. Who else would look up your residences distance from a school before contacting law enforcement?

I think she was maybe on the fence about whether she should actually say anything, and seeing he lived close to a school pushed her over it. Maybe the fact that he lived near a school was actually immaterial, and she was looking up his address simply so she knew which police dept to contact.

Thinking about it from her pespective. Sandy Hook had just recently happened, and here was a kid essentially saying the same thing. Is it a joke in poor taste or is it something he might actually do? She was hardly in a position to make that determination. It would seem perfectly reasonable to report it to local police, let them investigate, and determine if there is truly a threat. That's why I don't fault her for reporting it, I fault the authorities she reported it to for knee-jerk over-reacting. Again, this is presuming that the only "evidence" in this case is the facebook posting as we have been lead to believe.

[TheHammer]

I bet law enforcement wishes they had this abuse of power in the gangsta rap era. Every hip hop artist would be in jail for making "terroristic threats".

Well they did try to introduce rapper's lyrics as evidence at trials, but since rappers could afford good lawyers they successfully prevented that. Most famously, I remember the trial of "Snoop Dog" where they wanted to introduce some of his more graphic lyrics as part of their murder case against him and his associates. The defense successfully prevented that by arguing that the music lyrics were strictly "in character" as entertainment. Essentially, they were saying that "If Arnold Schwartzeneger were on trial for murder, you certainly wouldn't allow them to show footage from his terminator movies". The bottom line, "street cred" was undesirable when you were on trial, and it was better to be a "poser" and free than "legit" and in prison.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

Well they did try to introduce rapper's lyrics as evidence at trials, but since rappers could afford good lawyers they successfully prevented that. Most famously, I remember the trial of "Snoop Dog" where they wanted to introduce some of his more graphic lyrics as part of their murder case against him and his associates. The defense successfully prevented that by arguing that the music lyrics were strictly "in character" as entertainment. Essentially, they were saying that "If Arnold Schwartzeneger were on trial for murder, you certainly wouldn't allow them to show footage from his terminator movies". The bottom line, "street cred" was undesirable when you were on trial, and it was better to be a "poser" and free than "legit" and in prison.

That's what I was referring to. The point was that if the idiotic legal interpretations used against this poor kid were applied to rappers in the late 80's and 90's, the lyrics themselves would constitute a crime with no need to try and pin murders on them. There are plenty of other ridiculous outcomes that would result from applying this "logic", that was just the first to spring to my mind.

[Rogue 9]

Someone made bail for him.

Anonymous Person Posts $500,000 Bond To Free Texas Teen

by Elise Hu
July 11, 2013 4:50 PM

Justin Carter, the 19-year-old who was arrested and jailed in February after making a Facebook comment about a school shooting, is out of jail. An anonymous donor posted the $500,000 bond to allow Carter to go home. Carter plans to stay near New Braunfels, Texas, to await his trial on a felony terroristic threat charge.

"He's glad he's out. His family is ecstatic. He feels good. He is relieved. It's been an ordeal," said Don Flanary, Carter's attorney. Flanary said he got a call Wednesday from the sympathetic donor, who said he wanted to help. The donor wired the money last night. "We got a cashier's check cut this morning and got [Carter] out. He's free," said Flanary.

Carter, who was indicted by a Comal County grand jury in April, has gotten global attention because of the First Amendment questions raised by his case and the high bail that kept him behind bars for nearly five months. Flanary told NPR last week that he had represented "murderers, rapists, terrorists" and none had had such high bail.

Carter will be staying with his family as his case winds through the courts. Flanary says the donor wants to remain anonymous. "He is betting $500,000 that Justin will show up for court," Flanary said. "At the completion of the case, the court will return the money to us, and we'll return it to the wonderful person who sent it."

Comal County District Attorney Jennifer Tharp released a statement last week saying, "Ethical rules prohibit a prosecutor from making any statements ... therefore, there is very little information we can provide at this time."

[Kuja]

Whoever that person is, they deserve a goddamned medal.

Half a million dollar bail for a dumb comment on the internet, Jesus Christ.

[TheFeniX]

Looks like Mississippi got to the got to the finish line first in the "We throw people in jail for 10 years for scary words" race:

Authorities in the Carter case mentioned the recent shooting in Newtown, Conn. — where two dozen people were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary — as one reason to be extra vigilant when threats are made.

Ah yes, the "you can't be too careful, so send in the SWAT team" idiot brigade strikes again.

Pillault got popped back in October of last year, but no one was around to post his bail, nor inform him it would be a good idea to get a lawyer (because the cops sure as fuck won't). When he finally got a lawyer, he was either in to deep or his lawyer was an idiot: so he plead guilty. So now your (at least those of you in the States) tax-dollars get to keep a 19-year-old Runescape player in federal prison for a decade.

The more I think about cases like this, some form of civil/criminal justice classes should really be mandatory in primary school. Government doesn't cut it because all you learn about is the Bill of Rights, which is pretty much bullshit. We had the talk about how yelling "Fire!" in a crowded room was an acceptable limitation on the 1st amendment (though arguable for some people) because intent is to cause an imminent dangerous situation with a high chance of injury or death. But I don't think our teacher would have been prepared to look into laws like this.

There's really no one around besides your parents to inform you how fucking stupid the laws could be and many parents don't know dick anyways. If you're writing laws where words get you more than an investigation, you should maybe spread some of that money to make sure people understand that.

Good Lord, I consider myself fairly informed of the law and even though I've never made direct threats against anyone or anything, I wonder at what point in time that me telling someone to "go die in a fire" is going to land me in some shit.

[Ahriman238]

Honestly, when I went to high school we covered things like people writing violent stories or song lyrics in history/social studies. Several schools I know of have a "Street Law" class in the socialstudies department that covers the basics of what's legal, what isn't, and why.

Of course, all the schools I know of that do this have it as an elective with one or two teachers, and it's a hard class to get into.

[TheFeniX]

Yea, we had nothing like that at my high school. The only thing close was in general Health class, they would bring in city PD guys to talk to us about general crime (where to avoid, what to look for etc) and covering things like drug use. It was an elective class as well. When I was dicking around in community college, they had a criminal justice curriculum for future law-enforcement and legal-types which any student could take, but they were routinely full because the people actually in the degree plans (rightfully) had first dibs.

But kids are graduating school without the barest sense of the justice system (or money management, but that's a whole other topic) and getting chewed up because they honestly believe the 1st amendment means anything. Factor in just how much communication takes place through text these days (and how much more shit we will type than we will say) and I'm surprised we don't have entire units dedicated to throwing kids in jail because it's becoming more and more apparent "no tolerance policies" are leaking into the real world.

Even on the most basic of rights, I've lost count of the number of people who I have to tell (or argue with) on even basic shit like "you can tell an officer 'no' when he asks to search you or your residence." Of course, it doesn't help that every law show out there has the upstanding cops forcing their way in anyways, but it's ok because anyone who doesn't trust the police ends up being guilty by the time the credits roll.

[Kamakazie Sith]

The more I think about cases like this, some form of civil/criminal justice classes should really be mandatory in primary school. Government doesn't cut it because all you learn about is the Bill of Rights, which is pretty much bullshit. We had the talk about how yelling "Fire!" in a crowded room was an acceptable limitation on the 1st amendment (though arguable for some people) because intent is to cause an imminent dangerous situation with a high chance of injury or death. But I don't think our teacher would have been prepared to look into laws like this.

There's really no one around besides your parents to inform you how fucking stupid the laws could be and many parents don't know dick anyways. If you're writing laws where words get you more than an investigation, you should maybe spread some of that money to make sure people understand that.

Good Lord, I consider myself fairly informed of the law and even though I've never made direct threats against anyone or anything, I wonder at what point in time that me telling someone to "go die in a fire" is going to land me in some shit.

I've been an advocate of something like this for a long time. In addition to educating people about what their rights are while dealing with police it will also educate them as to what they aren't allowed to do during interactions with police.