Dumb Criminal Promises To Shoot Someone For 100 Retweets, Is Promptly Arrested

from the how's-your-foot-feel? dept

Tue, Mar 25th 2014 12:03am — Timothy Geigner

We've seen dumb criminals do a lot of dumb things with the technology on their fingertips, always resulting in their prompt arrest, because that's how things turn out for dumb criminals. Whether it's sharing the police Facebook post seeking their arrest or college kids celebrating their illegal behavior online, the idea is that for the nefarious criminal, over-sharing can get you into lots of trouble.

But for the idiot criminal who wants to set the record for being the biggest assbag, I'll simply point to Dakkari Dijon McAnuff, who was angry enough at apparently being named after a condiment that he sent out the following tweet:

I'll give you three guesses what happened next, but you'll only need one.

Dakkari Dijon McAnuff, of Los Angeles, was booked Wednesday on suspicion of making criminal threats, police said. He remained in jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. The investigation began Wednesday morning when LAPD officers were notified about a photo on Twitter. The photo shows a rifle pointed at a Los Angeles street with the caption "100 [retweets] and I'll shoot someone walking."

I have to say, even though you'll often find me wandering the halls of my workplace muttering under my breath about the ridiculous over-prosecution and punishment in our legal system, $50k bail seems a bit light to me. Perhaps McAnuff was joking, except that his joke wasn't funny, it was a promise to harm people. Perhaps he thought people would realize it was an air rifle (as police later determined) and not a hunting rifle, except that really doesn't make any damned difference. And, to my mind, the kind of person who would send this out for any reason whatsoever isn't the kind of person I trust getting back out on the street without a severely taught lesson applied to him.

Here's to you spending some time in jail, Mr. McAnuff. I want you to think real hard about what you've done, now.

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Filed Under: criminals, self-incrimination

33 Comments

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Manok, 25 Mar 2014 @ 12:21am

Criminal?
Dumb Criminal? First, is there anyone here on TechDirt who'd think it was a serious promise? That would be the dumb, in Dumb Criminal.

Then... Criminal? I don;t read anywhere he was a fellon or former inmate...

Bad taste, perhaps.

"Politically Incorrect Person Promises To Shoot Someone For 100 Retweets, Is Promptly Arrested" would be a much more suitable title for this article, I'd say.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 12:30am

Timothy, I'm happy you've come around a bit, and now start to appreciate zero-tolerance.

It indeed really doesn't make a damn difference whether it was an hunting rifle, air gun, toy gun, photoshopped gun, fingers held as a gun, or a piece of bread with a bite out of it. Agreed!
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That One Guy (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 12:41am

Re:
How is this 'zero tolerance'? You've got some moron threatening to shoot someone, with what appears in the photo to be a real, 'puts large messy holes in people'-rifle, of course the police came down on him for it, he should have expected nothing less.
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Kaemaril (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 12:58am

This seems to be the "criminal threat" statute in California.

California Code - Title 11.5: CRIMINAL THREATS

Section 422

(a) Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family's safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.

Seems like a vague threat to "shoot somebody" fails the test at being an actual threat to an actual person. It's certainly not an "unequivocal, unconditional, immediate" specific threat with an "immediate prospect of execution" that's likely to put a specific person in "sustained fear" of their safety or their family's safety.

Guy's a bit of an ass, clearly, and hopefully he can be slapped with something to deter him from going around going 'Ha! Gonna shoot somebody!" but if they're actually gonna prosecute under this section as opposed to something else a half competent lawyer should surely be able to generate reasonable doubt on this one pretty easily?

But IANAL so what do I know? :)
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 1:20am

There's always some asswipe that thinks it's cool to shoot someone. I mean as long as it isn't his hide. This is nothing short of stupid. Doesn't make a rats ass if it was a hunting rifle or a bb gun.

There's also dang little common sense on either side of the fence when it comes to zero tolerance. A finger gun by a kid is not something you go all bananas on. How in the world are you gonna confiscate all those finger guns and exactly how injured are the victims going to be with it?

What is certain, is the finger gun is no danger. Some idiot playing like he has a real weapon is totally different when it shoots something besides verbal bangs.

I keep a bb gun. I live in town. I have no desire to shoot my neighbor or anything like that. I do however want to keep skunks (yes real live ones complete with smell and black and white coat) out of my yard. No one calls the cops that they heard a gun go off, no one is threatened (except the skunk who will live another day after being shot) and no one is going to come expecting someone else is being threatened.
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FauxReal (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 1:23am

Re: Criminal?
Well, he was dumb for tweeting that photo and message which led to his arrest and depending on if he is convicted... he will become a criminal.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 1:29am

Maybe he was named after Dijon, France where Dijon style mustard was first created. There's also a typo in the article. "doesn't make aand damned difference"
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 1:36am

You seem to be missing the part where there's less than a snowball's chance in Hell that he has $50K laying around.

In other words he's already going to be in jail for a long time. I'd say that barring priors he's already gotten his lesson. Thinking otherwise = you're doing "Being a Liberal" wrong.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 1:39am

I can't help but think, "This is it, this is what our generation will be remembered for".
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 2:23am

Re:
Can you actually read what you post?

"with the specific intent that the statement, made"

Where is this "specific" here?

Typical bullshit reporting by a "reporter" who has no clue about the subject he/she writes about. And you are not far.
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Ninja (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 3:18am

I may be lynched but I think the worst that should have happened is the police paying the guy a visit and giving him a hard wrist slap. Prison should only become an alternative if he actually carries the promise or if he has criminal records that justify taking the threat seriously. Other than that it seems to be just a bad joke with some overreaction about it.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 4:56am

Air rifle?
It doesn't matter that it was an air rifle in the photo. It could be his fingers, or a piece of paper with a drawn arrow.

Nothing on that message says he'll shoot "with the weapon on this photo". A reasonable reader can easily assume he meant he'll shoot "with something", and the obvious meaning for "something" would be "a weapon", any weapon.
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Niall (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 5:45am

Re:
Just because it doesn't apply to a specific 'person' doesn't mean he hasn't broken this law. It looks pretty clear that any reasonable person might think he did plan to shoot someone, enough that anyone who saw him might fear for their life.
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Mike C. (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 5:46am

Re:
I'm actually in agreement here. My first thought was "wait - isn't this just a more extreme version of what Justin Carter did?"
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Crusty the Ex-Clown, 25 Mar 2014 @ 6:15am

Air rifle?
A few years ago I did the ballistics calculations for an RWS 9mm air rifle. It was roughly equivalent to a .32 caliber firearm in terms of stopping power, at least at close range.

My Gamo .177 caliber will bury a lead pellet over an inch in a live maple tree.

These are not toys - they can kill people.
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Kaemaril (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 6:28am

Re: Re:
So, if you as person X comes along and reads this tweet it's going to put you in fear for your life or your immediate family's life?

How?

How is "I'm a gonna shoot someone if I get enough retweets" an unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific threat to you that has an immediate prospect of execution?

There's nothing in that specific statute which says 'Oh, and by the way, if it's just a rather vague undirected threat that's isn't specific and isn't immediate it still totally counts.'

Oh, and if people did retweet him ... will they be charged as accessories to his crime since he only said he'd do it if he got enough tweets? :)
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 6:28am

Re: Re:
This is Tim, who thinks unless a cop has a knife stuck 3" into his gut, he shouldn't use deadly force against criminals. For him to say someone who threatened people with a fake gun should be imprisoned is a step forward.
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twocsies, 25 Mar 2014 @ 6:52am

Criminal?
He was convicted already? Wow, Techdirt moves them from accused to criminal really fast.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 6:53am

To me, a far more interesting debate is if anyone was to re-tweet this message, should they be liable? They would be encouraging and aiding the person to commit the act.

What if he was serious, 100 people re-tweeted and he ended up shooting and killing someone? What if 1000 people re-tweeted? Would all 1000 be equally liable?

Now back to reality, and this was caught before any mishap and likely a joke. He definitely deserves some kind of reprimand, but again, what about those that re-tweet?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 7:02am

Re: Criminal?
I guess Criminal was kinda jumping the gun *knee slap*

But this was crawling straight into 'psychopath killer zone' with nothing to say this was actually a joke. Nothing taken out of context, no completely absurd statements just a straight up threat. The '100 retweets' could be taken as a joke... but it's kinda weak if placed there on it's own.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 7:02am

Re: Re: Re:
Deadly force isn't always necessary. Reasonable force permits non-lethal options way before the situation gets out of hand.

Pragmatic here. On an unrelated note, does anyone know why I keep getting a red "Error" message when I try to post? It's been happening for the last two days and it takes several efforts to get any comment made. I can't use a screen name, that's when the error comes up.
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weneedhelp (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 7:44am

Enhance your calm Timmah
"except that really doesn't make and damned difference"
Any maybe? :)
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Fushta (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 8:02am

Re:
If they outlaw finger-banging, I will no longer have a sex life.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 8:08am

Re: Criminal?
Dumb american person arrested by dumb american police with the full approval of other dumb americans for saying something dumb and or objectionable on twitter in the U.S.*

Words=actions and it's not like words are protected by anything official in the good ol' US of A.

* People in US really need to watch out if saying dumb or objectionable things becomes illegal then they might as well just wall the entire nation. **

** Please do.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 11:20am

Re: Air rifle?
And of course, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

I was shot in the ass with an air rifle once; the idiot kid doing the shooting thought it was gonna be like a BB gun and sting a little bit.

That lead pellet went deep, and being lead, needed to be dug out. Not fun, it was a bit traumatic for 12-year old me. And I still have a dead spot about three inches across on my butt from nerve damage.

While I'd rather be shot with an air rifle that with a 9mm, I'd rather not be shot at all. The motive power is fucking irrelevant.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 11:32am

no one else is curious how many retweets he actually got?
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Kaemaril (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 11:58am

Re: Re:
I can, yes.

I'm not sure who the final paragraph is referring to, but given it ends with the nonsensical "And you are not far." ... well, I think you should be asking yourself if you can actually read what *you* post.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 12:32pm

Re: Re:
You should really be asking yourself if *YOU* can read. Guy is quoting a criminal code.. in the articles post "specific" would be referring to shooting someone.

Typical bullshit ranting by incoherent 5 year old, I really wish they would stay off mommys computer.
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Bryan (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 12:48pm

What About Twitter?
Obviously, if it weren't for Twitter, this idiot wouldn't have been able to do this. So why arrest him? The simple answer is to simply blame Twitter and ban it like the Turks did. That ALWAYS works!

Bryan
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That One Guy (profile), 25 Mar 2014 @ 1:34pm

Re:
No, I'd agree actually, just having him cooling his heels in jail for a few days until his court date sounds like punishment enough to me, as in the end he didn't harm anyone, so other than incredibly bad taste in 'jokes', he hasn't actually done any damage that would warrant a prison sentence.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2014 @ 6:18pm

Re: What About Twitter?
That'd be ridiculous. It is much better to use the full force of the law against an individual for making an unapproved joke.
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99guspuppet (profile), 26 Mar 2014 @ 9:05am

*WORDS* do not equal *ACTION*
Maybe a visit by the police ....maybe ... that would be the most that I could justify #PrisonWorldakaAmerica
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btrussell (profile), 26 Mar 2014 @ 10:07am

Reminds me of the guy threatening to blow up the airport a few years ago.

This guy said shoot, not kill, with what is obviously an air rifle.

Who determines what is a joke or not and whether it is funny or not?
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