Comment by tveita | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tveita | Hacker News Reader

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They don't mention the exact charges, but I think it's safe to assume that's the maximum sentence for the charges.

So "terrorist threats with nothing to back it up" aren't necessarily worth 8 years in prison, but terrorist threats could be, under maximally aggravating circumstances. Say you were an actual terrorist going to great lengths to make plausible threats in order to terrorize the populace.

Remember that terrorism isn't about bombing or shooting or killing. As Bruce Schneier said, "Terrorism isn't a crime against people or property. It's a crime against our minds". Making threats is the crux of terrorism.

What's ridiculous is charging a kid who clearly wasn't making the kind of serious threat that these laws were intended for.

(I'm making some suppositions here - my case would be stronger if I had dug up the actual laws and charges.)

So this seems to be the relevant law: http://law.onecle.com/texas/penal/22.07.00.html

I think the most relevant items are "threaten[ing] to commit any offense involving violence to any person or property with intent to:

(2) place any person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury;

(5) place the public or a substantial group of the public in fear of serious bodily injury"

Which are certainly serious things to do.

But the tone and context are not a convincing threat as the comment was made as a joking example how "insane" he was instead of a credible threat targeting anyone specifically.

There is a serious question on proportionality here. Kids do and say stupid things. You cannot bar them from their rights while forcing them to attend school to "protect" them, meanwhile throwing the book at them for every minor stupidity or bad division they might undertake.

Lately I hear more cases of ruining lives by charging minors with ridiculous crimes than school violence... Protecting the youth...

if a drunk guy in a bar says "i'll punch you" to another drunk guy with intent to scare that other guy then that is a terrorist threat? And actual punch is a terrorist attack?

I don't think so, that might just be intent to assault and assault and battery, they probably have a lot of discretion to choose when to charge someone with terrorism. Basically another tool in the DA's arsenal to get people under his thumb.

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