Unfortunately we do have a huge problem with prosecutorial abuse.
They make a valid point that it's probably not something you should joke about, especially because similar comments led to actual attacks. The part where insanity comes in is where many people are seemingly incapable of acknowledging the degree of wrongness, and think this warrants anything more than a police visit. Instead, they opt to effectively ruining his adult life, which he had barely started. For nothing. Society is not better off, we are not safer, we wasted a life because someone wanted to make a point.
The US has shifted towards charging everything and anything remotely possible, maybe investigate, then plea down to something that only looks good because of the extreme first set of charges. Brilliant strategy from the p(er|ro)secutors that keeps cases from going to court and pads their stats with lots of 'wins.'