Teen Tweets Stupid 'Threat,' Surprisingly Manages To Avoid Terrorism Charges

from the a-rational-response-for-once dept

Another teenager has taken to social media and made an ass of himself by unleashing a severely stupid statement. "Mark" (Twitter handle: @Mark12394995) responded to the George Zimmerman verdict with this moronic tweet.

If Zimmmerman free imma shoot everybody in Zion causing a mass homicide, and ill get away wit it just like Zimmerman

It should be noted the Zion Mark refers to is his hometown. Mark swiftly deleted the tweet once the backlash started, but by then it was too late. While Mark received tweets from angry Tweeters, the local PD's phone was ringing off the hook.

Dispatch started receiving calls, including one from Kansas, the FBI, and Fox News who told Zion they heard it from a caller in Washington.

Mark was hauled off to the police station and questioned by Zion police. Considering recent events, one could be forgiven for assuming Mark is still in jail, facing terrorism charges and unaffordable bail. Oddly enough, the Zion police did a little investigating and realized Mark posed a threat to absolutely no one.

“There is no credibility to the threat. He has no weapons and no access to weapons,” he said.

The police took Mark's "threat" seriously, which isn't a problem. Law enforcement should investigate incidents like these to determine whether there's any seriousness to the threat. But unlike other police departments and prosecutors, no one attempted to pursue excessive criminal charges despite being unable to find anything that indicated the statement should be taken seriously.

The Zion Police still charged Mark with a crime, however -- disorderly conduct, a Class 4 felony. This seems excessive considering the police didn't find Mark's threat credible. Most likely this charge was issued as a result of the switchboard lighting up as "concerned" Tweeters nationwide reported the tweet. If you've got the perp down at the station and the FBI is on the phone, you can't very well let him walk away with nothing more than a "turn on brain before tweeting" warning.

Still, things could have been much, much worse. It's been noted that you can't "fix stupid." However, what we've seen lately indicates you can arraign it on terrorism charges.

Filed Under: arrested, george zimmerman, teenagers, twitter