Student Arrested And Charged With 'Terrorizing' For Shooting Classmates... With An iPhone App

from the reportedly,-assailant-also-made-'pew-pew-pew'-noises-with-his-mouth dept

Much like non-terroristic threats are now the new terroristic threats, in today's climate of zero tolerance policies, fake weapons have become the new real weapons. Pop tart bitten into a vaguely gun-ish shape? That's a weapon. Fingers clasped together in a gun-like fashion? That's a weapon. Drawing of a gun? That's a weapon. And now, virtual, video-game, only-appear-on-a-powered-up-iPhone guns? Those are weapons.

In a story that sounds as absolutely made-up and ridiculous as the name of the high school at which it occurred (which I would love to believe is a mashup of H.L. Mencken and the upper middle class twits he would have tweaked bitterly and mercilessly), a student has been arrested for "shooting" his classmates with an augmented reality app. NO. I AM SERIOUS.

A student at H. L. Bourgeois High School accused of using a mobile phone app to simulate shooting his classmates was booked and jailed in Terrebonne Parish.

There's no part of that preceding sentence that isn't mind-flayingly ridiculous. Want to see how lifelike this "simulation" is? Here's some "exciting" video of the app (Real Strike) in action.

If you'll note, the other mall patrons don't seem the least bit alarmed that someone is firing off round after virtual round at them with an iPhone. In fact, everyone looks completely unaware, not to mention unscathed. I suppose it might be a bit more unsettling if this were uploaded and publicly viewable [oh wait...], but the emphasis is on "a bit." Unless you're Major Malcolm Wolfe of the Terrebonne Sheriff's Department.

[Major Malcolm] Wolfe's office says a 15-year-old was arrested after posting a video on YouTube using the Real Strike app to shoot other kids at school, “He said it was a result of him being frustrated and tired of being bullied. He said that he had no intentions of hurting anybody. We have to take all threats seriously and we have no way of knowing that without investigating and getting to the bottom of it.”

He says the student was arrested for terrorizing and interference of the operation of a school.

Wolfe says "investigating," but nothing else in his statements indicates any sort of investigation has taken place. As for the charges, they seem disproportionate, to say the least. No one was terrorized or interfered with while the video was being recorded. After the video was uploaded, there still wasn't much "terrorizing" or "interfering" occurring. People were being not being physically shot by an arsenal of fake weapons contained entirely within a kid's cell phone, nor were they being threatened in any specific sense. Just because it was (temporarily) uploaded to YouTube doesn't suddenly make the "shooting" more "real."

Here's the actual wording for Louisiana's "terrorizing" statute, not much of which seems to fit the student's actions.

§40.1. Terrorizing

A. Terrorizing is the intentional communication of information that the commission of a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist, with the intent of causing members of the general public to be in sustained fear for their safety; or causing evacuation of a building, a public structure, or a facility of transportation; or causing other serious disruption to the general public.

B. It shall be an affirmative defense that the person communicating the information provided for in Subsection A of this Section was not involved in the commission of a crime of violence or creation of a circumstance dangerous to human life and reasonably believed his actions were necessary to protect the welfare of the public.

C. Whoever commits the offense of terrorizing shall be fined not more than fifteen thousand dollars or imprisoned with or without hard labor for not more than fifteen years, or both.

That's a whole lot of time served and a hefty fine for playing an iPhone game. It's going to be pretty hard for a prosecutor to make this stick as none of the above really applies to the teen's actions. Some concerned parents contacted the authorities after viewing the video, but it's hard to believe the student's actions resulted in creating "sustained fear" or a "serious disruption." The school wasn't evacuated or put on lock down so other than someone in administration overreacting (and there's no details suggesting anyone has), there's really no "interference" there.

But I guess this all depends on whether the prosecutor is as easily moved to overreaction as the Sheriff's Department is. Wolfe sounds overly worried. Let's hope that's not contagious.

“You can’t ignore it,” says Major Malcolm Wolfe. “We don’t know at what time that game becomes reality.”

I don't know, Maj. Wolfe, but I'll try to guess. It becomes reality when the student has access to 25 military-grade weapons? Or access to any weapons? The willingness and ability to actually gun down his classmates with real weapons? His parents stated their son didn't have access to any guns. But still: safety.

Here's the money quote, the one that indicates that "safety" means overreacting.

“With all the school shooting (sic) we’ve had in the United States, it’s just not a very good game to be playing at this time,” according to Wolfe.

With all the school shootings? As a member of law enforcement, it might do Wolfe some good to exchange his hysteria for facts. The number of mass shootings (school or otherwise) isn't rising. Just because something happened recently doesn't mean it's increasing and just because you want to arrest a kid for exercising a little non-violent catharsis doesn't make this belief any more true.

And for all the tough talk by school districts and other authority figures about fighting bullying, it's the bullied kid who ends up in cuffs. Nice one, Team Safety First.

Filed Under: arrests, augmented reality, kids, overreaction, police, terror

Judge Deems Facebook-Posting Rapper Cameron D'Ambrosio A 'Threat,' Denies Bail

from the if-you-can't-do-the-time,-don't-do-the-rhyme? dept

Cameron D'Ambrosio, the Massachusetts teen arrested and charged with "communicating terroristic threats" (or "bomb threats," depending on who's doing the reporting) via a Facebook post (in the form of rap lyrics -- CammyDee has aspirations), has been denied bail by the state's Superior Court.

The judge's decision was based on the "dangerousness" hearing held May 9th in Lawerence County Judge Lynn Rooney's courtroom, in which she decided D'Ambrosio was a threat to others based on his previous run-ins with the law.

“I believe the behavior here has been escalating,” Judge Lynn Rooney said after reviewing a half dozen records of police and probation reports prosecutors submitted at the hearing. “And it’s very troubling.”

The reports included D’Ambrosio’s arrest in June after a fight over $20 with his older sister, who called police after locking herself in her room. During the argument, D’Ambrosio pushed her and, after she locked herself in her bedroom, threatened to stab her, according to the arrest report from June 21.

Police said D’Ambrosio admitted he said that, but said he was just upset. The case was continued on Oct. 17, and dismissed on April 17, exactly two weeks before he was arrested for the Facebook post.

Rooney said she also was troubled by a police report from November 2011, which said D’Ambrosio threatened to shoot two eighth-grade students. Police said he admitted to making that statement, but was only kidding.

D'Ambrosio's past is far from squeaky clean and he seems to have acquired a reputation for threatening others. (He also seems to let his better judgement take a backseat to mouth/keyboard -- the officer who arrested Cameron after his Facebook post knew him from a previous incident, one in which D'Ambrosio was hospitalized after being beaten so severely by another student that his spleen ruptured. This beating was apparently prompted by some Facebook comments D'Ambrosio directed towards the other student's girlfriend.)

So, D'Ambrosio clearly knows how to make specific threats directed towards specific individuals. But it took a vague "threat," delivered in the form of a horrible/horrific "rap" to finally get him locked up, threatened with a 20-year sentence and denied bail. Even Sheriff Joe Solomon, who went to great lengths to read between the lines of D'Ambrosio's Facebook post and attribute him with things he didn't actually say, admitted the post contained no specific threats.

I do want to make clear he did not make a specific threat against the school or any particular individuals but he did threaten to kill a bunch of people and specifically mentioned the Boston Marathon and the White House.

The first part of Solomon's sentence is true -- D'Ambrosio made no specific threats. The second part? Not so much. For clarification, here's the entire Facebook post currently being declared a "terroristic threat" by the state. This includes some additional verbiage (in bold) that wasn't contained in previous reporting.

All you haters keep my fuckin' name outcha mouths, got it? what the fuck I gotta do to get some props and shit huh? Ya'll wanme to fucking kill somebody? What the fuck do these fucking demons want from me? Fucking bastards I ain't no longer a person, I’m not in reality. So when u see me fucking go insane and make the news, the paper, and the fuckin federal house of horror known as the white house, Don’t fucking cry or be worried because all YOU people fucking caused this shit. Fuck a boston bominb wait till u see the shit I do, I’ma be famous rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me!

Rapper addresses haters, makes grandiose claims, plays up street cred with criminal references. Positively unremarkable, except that multiple students reported this status update to school administration. This doesn't necessarily mean these students felt threatened. It's equally believable that D'Ambrosio's mouth, attitude and behavior made him less than well-liked at his school.

Sheriff Solomon then took what little was offered and ran with it, leading us up to this point. But you have to wonder where state prosecutors will go with this as it heads through the judicial system. D'Ambrosio's lawyer points out there's not much here for the state to work with.

DuBosque argued in court that D’Ambrosio was not a danger because he was not threatening specific violence, and police found no explosives, weapons or other writing about violence when they searched his home. The post started out as lyrics, he said.

Because D’Ambrosio did not threaten to use a weapon in a specific place or against a specific person, the post did not meet the state statute’s requirements, DuBosque said.

The statute D'Ambrosio is charged with violating will need to be stretched to cover a "threat" that fails to meet most of the specifications. But once the word "terrorist" is introduced into the mix, specificities tend to suddenly become vague "guidelines" as the law is bent, beaten and painted to match.

On the plus side, D'Ambrosio has more than a few citizens working towards preventing both the First Amendment and the tactless rapper from going down the drain. A petition created by the Center for Rights and Fight For The Future asking for D'Ambrosio's release has gathered over 70,000 signatures. The local Center for Rights has also criticized the judge's decision to deny bail (as well as the charge itself), pointing out that D'Ambrosio is facing a stiffer sentence than if he had actually assaulted someone.

As I stated previously, I don't have a problem with something like this being investigated. But the end result should have been little more than "loudmouth teen says stupid shit," and perhaps some court-ordered counseling or supervised probation, considering his past behavior. Instead, we have a high school student facing a 20-year sentence for saying the wrong thing ("Boston bombinb" [sic]) at the wrong time (too soon).

Filed Under: arrests, bail, cam d'ambrosio, cameron d'ambrosio, cammydee, lyrics, social networks, terror