A teenager from Texas could spend the next eight years in prison if a court decides that the sarcastic comment he made during an online argument is enough to convict him of issuing a terroristic threat.
Justin Carter was only 18 years old when he and a friend got into
an online spat over Facebook back in February with another
person. They were arguing about the computer game “League of
Legends,” his dad told a local ABC affiliate, but one snarky
remark made by the teen was apparently enough to raise suspicion
in one woman who was watching the conversation unfold all the way
up in Canada.
“Someone had said something to the effect of ‘Oh you’re
insane, you’re crazy, you’re messed up in the head,’” father
Jack Carter told KKVUE News, “to which he replied ‘Oh yeah,
I’m real messed up in the head, I’m going to go shoot up a school
full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts.’”
According to the parent, the teenager from Texas followed up that
remark with the phrases “LOL” and “JK”– Internet
shorthand for “Laugh out Loud” and “Just Kidding.” The Canadian
witness wasn’t amused, however, and reportedly conducted a
cursory Google search to find out more about the sarcastic gamer.
That information led her to learn that the Carter household is
located close to a local elementary school, prompting her to
alert the police.
Carter, who has since turned 19, was arrested in late March and
has so far spent three months and one day behind bars. His trial
is slated to begin in July, and if convicted of “making a
terroristic threat” he could spend most of his twenties in
federal prison.
Under Texas law, a person could be charged with a misdemeanor if
he or she “threatens to commit any offense involving violence
to any person or property” with the intent to prompt a
reaction, cause fear in another or interrupt the occupation of a
public place. If the defendant is thought to have made a threat
to cause impairment or interruption of a public service, it’s a
felony in the Lone Star State.
“These people are serious. They really want my son to go away
to jail for a sarcastic comment that he made,” Jack Carter
told KVUE.
It’s likely that the timing of the teenager’s quip – only two
months after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
left 26 people dead in Connecticut – didn’t discourage
authorities from launching an investigation. His father said his
son didn’t mean anything of it, though, and was just being
behaving like an average teenager.
“Justin was the kind of kid who didn’t read the newspaper. He
didn’t watch television. He wasn’t aware of current events. These
kids, they don’t realize what they’re doing. They don’t
understand the implications. They don’t understand public
space,” said Jack Carter.
“If I can just help one person to understand that social media
is not a playground, that when you go out there into social
media, when you use Facebook, when you use Twitter, when you go
out there and make comments on news articles, and the things you
are saying can and will be used against you,” he said.
Carter’s trial is expected to begin July 1 in Texas. Earlier this
month, a grand jury in Massachusetts declined to indict an
18-year-old aspiring rapper who was accused of making terrorist
threats after posting prose on his Facebook page that referenced
the Boston Marathon bombing. Cameron B. D’Ambrosio was detained
for one month in jail and stood to serve as much as two decades
if convicted.
Republished with permission from:: RT