This sounds to me like nothing more than an abuse of power by a DA. Those are much more common than people realize.<p>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 up charges?<p>Why did this happen? Various reasons. When bf unexpectedly comes home to find his gf having sex with the husband of the house that they're house surfing at, the upset bf can get the gf to make up a rape case. (The guy shouldn't have been having the affair, but it wasn't rape.) When said husband is a Native American in a rural area, the DA knows that given racism and the fact that the guy was doing something dislikable, there is a reasonable chance of winning no matter what the facts happen to be.<p>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. When the DA can use the powers of the state to send people to prison, and PERSONALLY PROFITS from this, abuse of power is only to be expected. And even when the DA loses - as in this case - the prison still gets paid. And if the bill doesn't get paid, care to guess whether a hard line will be taken...?<p>I have no idea how widespread this type of conflict of interest is. I suspect that it is much more widespread than most people think (because the people who run private jails are well aware that getting the DA on board generates profits). But as long as it mostly impacts poor people that nobody cares about, it won't be a political issue.
> "(Expletive) a boston bominb wait till u see the (expletive) I do, I’ma be famous"<p>> The actual line is:<p>> "(Expletive) a boston bominb wait till u see the (expletive) I do, I’ma be famous <i>rapping</i>"<p><a href="http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/05/teen_methuen_rapper_held_without_bail_for_facebook_bomb_threat" rel="nofollow">http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/05/...</a><p>> An accused teenage rapper pleaded not guilty today to making a bomb threat on Facebook he warned <i>would eclipse the horror of the Boston Marathon tragedy and make him “famous.”</i><p>That's absolutely disgusting. The media should be ashamed of themselves for twisting the words <i>of a kid</i> like that.
"Terroristic Threats" are one way that free speech is under attack. Another is harassment laws.<p>Law student Anya Bargh was arrested for sending an email saying "Let’s celebrate diversity by having the next dean NOT be Jewish."<p>If that isn't protected speech I don't know what is.<p><a href="http://www.volokh.com/2013/05/03/law-student-arrested-chiefly-for-anti-semitic-and-racist-e-mail-to-student-government-and-for-offensive-posts-about-professors/" rel="nofollow">http://www.volokh.com/2013/05/03/law-student-arrested-chiefl...</a>
Wow, this is disgusting. Is this kid really being held without bail because he posted rap lyrics on Facebook? I feel like we're not hearing the full story here, but either way given his age and the fact they supposedly found nothing to support the claims they're holding him on, this is atrocious and I hope this story comes to light, so it can play out fairly in the public eye under fair scrutiny.
This is on par with a cannabis activist being held without bail because a Federal Magistrate found the accused to be "a danger to the community."<p><a href="http://the-last-marijuana-trial.com/author/roger-christie/" rel="nofollow">http://the-last-marijuana-trial.com/author/roger-christie/</a>
The government should, in addition to this teenager, put Epik High, a korean hip-hop group, into jail as well.<p><a href="http://www.jpopasia.com/lyrics/10708/" rel="nofollow">http://www.jpopasia.com/lyrics/10708/</a><p>Take a look at these incinerating words, I find them very threatening:<p>"my flow! I'm a mother f<i>ckin criminal!
my flow! on your TV and radio!
my flow! come and check out my video!
here we go
everybody say f</i>ck the president!
my flow! I'm a mother f<i>ckin criminal!
my flow! on your TV and radio!
my flow! come and check out my video!
everybody say f</i>ck the government!"
The Supreme Court case to look up is Virginia v. Black (2003). It has the definition of a true threat as "those statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals."
If the facts on the web site are correct, than this is really something that needs more attention. One hand you have people looking to hurt this country which must be stopped, but then on the other you have stories like this. It seems this would be a story that I think it would be good if it were picked up on by larger media to either help ley this boy go, or bring up the true facts of this case.
Trying to avoid political discussion and ask something about startups and law:<p>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?<p>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?<p>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?<p>I guess this is different based on what country you're in and what your product is.
If those are actually the facts of this case, sounds to me like he just has a terrible lawyer.<p>For what it's worth I'm not a lawyer in Massachusetts. However in most jurisdictions I'm familiar with it would NOT be a difficult or expensive task to get him before a court to test the basis for the charges against him.<p>The facts are straightforward, there isn't copious amounts of evidence to work through. Simply interpretation of a statute which could be sorted in a morning's hearing.
<a href="http://valleypatriot.com/methuen-police-arrest-high-school-student-on-terrorism-charges/" rel="nofollow">http://valleypatriot.com/methuen-police-arrest-high-school-s...</a> says:<p>“We took this very seriously,” Chief Solomon said. “He posted a threat in the form of rap where he mentioned the White House, the Boston Marathon bombing, and said ‘everybody you will see what I am going to do, kill people.”<p>The word "kill" does not appear at all in this rebuttal. Is the rebuttal being selective in what to rebut, too? Are the police misquoting him? What did he really say? Why does this rebuttal not cover this?
there was a similar story with an ex-marine last year.<p><a href="http://www.nbc12.com/story/19396255/marine-brandon-raub-speaks-out-following-confinement" rel="nofollow">http://www.nbc12.com/story/19396255/marine-brandon-raub-spea...</a><p>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?
So, the kid's flow is weak and he used a metaphor, maybe in poor taste, but that does not constitute a tangible threat.<p>Maybe he actually is trying to be like Eminem who made a controversial reference to Bush that got him a visit from the FBI. <a href="http://www.mariamagic.com/music-games-media/eminem-bush-fbi.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.mariamagic.com/music-games-media/eminem-bush-fbi....</a>
"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),"<p>Perhaps this guy is really smart and a political activist?
You should check this out if you have a Facebook account. It shows you the crimes you're guilty of, all over the world, just for posting stuff on Facebook:<p><a href="http://www.trialbytimeline.org.nz" rel="nofollow">http://www.trialbytimeline.org.nz</a>
This kid is 100% idiot and deserves some major ridicule, but he isn't a threat and doesn't appear to have done anything actually illegal. This DA is wasting time and money, which offends me far more.<p>I wish terrorists actually did post their intent on Facebook.