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Calif. Man Arrested For ESPN Post On Killing Kids
SternisheFan writes with an AP story as carried by Yahoo that illustrates one of the boundaries of free speech online: "A California man accused of posting comments on ESPN's website saying he was watching kids and wouldn't mind killing them was in jail Tuesday on $1 million bail after he was arrested for investigation of making terrorist threats, authorities said. Several guns were found Monday at the home of former Yale University student Eric Yee, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Steve Low. Yee was arrested after the sports network ESPN reported threatening posts were made in a reader response section to an online ESPN story on Thursday about new Nike sneakers named after LeBron James that cost $270 a pair. Some of the nearly 3,000 reader comments on the story talked about children possibly getting killed over the sneakers because of how expensive they are, said ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys. 'What he was posting had nothing to do with sports," Soltys said Tuesday. "We closely monitor the message boards and anytime we get a threat, we're alerting law enforcement officials.' An employee at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., notified local police the same day and they linked the posting to Yee's home in Santa Clarita in northern Los Angeles County."
But he has done something. Communicating threats is a crime in most states.
Communicating credible threats. "I want to do [bad things] to [indeterminable targets]" is not a credible threat.
Look, if you are not going to go out killing children then don't say you will (and if you are, what's the point of saying it?). What's the point? Having some fun on someone's expense?
People do care about their children and the possibility that something bad and unfixable might happen to then. Simple as that. Just don't be a stupid moron (or if you're, keep your stupid ideas to yourself).
Ever heard the "if you don't have anything good to say, just shut up" ? Works every time. It'd have helped the moron that is now in jail.
As for jailing him or not, I think it's self evident that he is a danger to society (either by wanting to kill children or by being a stupid moron).. so it looks fair. Or you just let him go if you had children and he told you that he was going to kill them? I bet you would do something instead of relax and grab a beer over it.
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