Discussion for article #239891
Teen gets 11 years (!) for succumbing to the lure of mentally vomiting on twitter, and yet Dick Cheney is immune from prosecution.
7 Likes
After reading about this, I got an undefined chill. Thinking aloud here… From what the story revealed, he took someone to the airport, and delivered a letter to the person’s family. Everything else was just on twitter? Did he raise money for ISIS? If so, that might be worth of a stiff sentence, but the story doesn’t say. Do we go after White Supremacists who encourage hate online? Do we go after YouTube videos that show how to make explosives? Do we go after people that spout anti-Obama hate speech while spraying a target with an AR-15? Do we go after companies that make targets that look like Obama – or even just an anonymous black person?
I suppose I’m a little surprised that one sort of hate speech is being prosecuted bloody harshly, but others aren’t. Should they be though? Should a 17 year old get 11 years for spreading hate speech on twitter? To me it seems disproportionate when considering the amount of hate flowing freely around social media.
1 Like
If he’s dumb enough to think, or have thought, IS is a religious movement he deserves the time. IS is a criminal organization. A bunch of marauders on a crime spree.
Let him rot. He made an adult mistake and deserves an adult punishment.
1 Like
Read up a bit. The TPM bit doesn’t really cover it all that well. He hooked up with Islamic State, became a voice for them and recruited at least one American to serve with them. That man did leave ( with Ali Shukri Amin’s assistance ) and go to Syria where he is now a member of IS.
What were you thinking when you were a horny 17 year old? I’m betting it wasn’t religion…
1 Like
I don’t necessarily have a problem with him facing charges, but the difference in the way this is handled versus say the way that whole Robert Doggart or the Bundy situation have been handled is rather striking and frankly disturbing.
Edit: I mean I have a bit of mixed feelings about the whole trying a minor as an adult thing, but that is because the whole treating teens as adults when it is convenient for those in authority, ex. punishing them as adults, but not when it would be convenient for the teen, ex. being allowed the right to vote, has always felt like a bit of a double standard to me. A sort of “you are mature enough to be punished by the law as an adult, but not mature enough to have a say in the formation of the law like an adult.”
1 Like
Then explain FOXNews to me. They lie constantly in an effort to stoke hate and fear against minority groups, and when one of their followers acts out on that, nothing is mentioned about FOX at all. They radicalize people and free to do so.
That was slightly tongue in cheek but the similarities are striking nonetheless
2 Likes
Heck, John McCain wanted to provide some of them with American arms!
1 Like
Just wait until tweeting in support of and in order to help people in Black Lives Matter or OWS brings charges like this.
I’ve seen lots of livestreams from protests, people with their phones and laptops, etc. Helping direct marchers away from police blockades, etc. They are already treating protesters in the US like terrorist suspects.
Just wait. There will be livestreamers and leftist twitter users facing charges at some point. The next time a trade deal is supposed to be signed, or the next time white murderers get away with killing non-white people.
They’ve already positioned BLM as a hate group - PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES have.
Dissent is approaching criminality.