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"Terrorist" Lyrics Land High Schooler In Jail
An anonymous reader writes "A Methusen, Mass. high schooler, who goes by the rapper name 'Cammy Dee' has been arrested after posting lyrics that police felt were 'communicating terrorist threats.' This wouldn't be the first time rap lyrics were investigated, but if formally charged for 'communicating terrorist threats' this would a set a chilling low bar for terrorist investigations."
Really, if the police have time enough to deal with this, then clearly all the more important crimes have been resolved.
Welcome to the USSA where freedom of speech means freedom to praise your government, where the right to bear arms means the right to go hunting, where the right to not be searched without a warrant doesn't apply, where due process can be ignored if the president wants you dead.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
but if formally charged for 'communicating terrorist threats' this would a set a chilling low bar for terrorist investigations."
Please. It's already chillingly low. How many christians have publicly said gays "should burn in hell" ? How many famous celebrities have said they would shoot government officials if they came to take their guns away? I could come up with dozens of examples of more volatile speech by talking heads on television... and god help us if I decide to include examples from that cesspool of humanity called the internet.
Being called a terrorist or avoiding that label all comes down to who and what you are. It is, and always has been, about that -- not what you say. Look at the boston bomber -- muslim. Terrorist. But the Aurora shooting? Not a terrorist. Those people that blew up a shiite church in Wisconsin? Not terrorists. In fact, as long as you aren't black, or a muslim, you can probably avoid the "terrorist" label.
The 'terrorist' label is just like the 'communist' label, and before that the 'fascist' label, and before that... you get the idea. Every generation has had their government-sponsored boogieman. Terrorist is ours.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
From looking at the story, it seems like some prosecutor here wants to come off as tough on crime and terrorists to further their political career. This is Aaron Schwartz all over again. This person in question is just some 18 year old who did something stupid. A reasonable punishment seems like 500 hours community service and a $1000 fine. No reason for 20 years in prison for doing something stupid that harmed no one.The average sentence for rape is around 20 years.
The very same day, the head of the NRA said that all americans should be trained in automatic weapons for the eventual day when we have to take over our government.
That was actually a multi-billion dollar statement in terms of cost to the US.
Why? because now all those people who hold security positions and had to sign that they had never belonged to an organization that advocated the violent overthorow of the US govt will have to be re-investigated if they continue to belong to the NRA.
It's basically sedition.
where the white house gets attacked. why dont we lock those fillmakers up? or at least those actors spewing those hateful lines.
Dystopian fiction has always been an interesting topic for nerds. I mean, I'm pretty sure all of us have at least read one or two good dystopian novels that have changed our ways of thinking (1984, Brave New World, We, Anthem, The Time Machine, A Clockwork Orange, etc.) and so when we see the dystopian future that we hoped only existed in the realm of fiction (or at least somewhere other than the US and Western Europe) happening in our backyard, it becomes a discussion point.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
People buy what they want to emulate and it doesn't really matter the genre of music.
I mean, look at AC/DC's Shoot to Thrill
"Shoot to thrill, play to kill Too many women with too many pills Shoot to thrill, play to kill I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will"
Or 22-20 Blues by Skip James (written in 1931)
"Sometimes she gets unruly An she act like she just don't wanna do But I get my 22-20 I cut that woman half in two"
Almost any genre of music has "questionable" lyrics. I think it is less of music making people bad as much as it is that those who are attracted to a life of crime will listen to music about a life of crime. Just like how people who like hunting, drinking beer and driving trucks listen to country music, its not because of country music that you like those things, you like those things so you listen to country music.
Because of this, there will always be an audience for "criminal" rappers, having a bunch of "quality" rappers won't change it.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Three. Ever.
Fool. The American people own their government by right spelled out in the Constitution. They can't "take over" what is theirs. Armed citizens are the ultimate last ditch the protection against the government being taken over by rogue elements. Go crawl back under your rock.
No, no. It's the right to bear arms. You can have brown bear arms, black bear arms, polar bear arms... but not panda bear arms, because they're endangered. And also not koala bear arms, because they're not actually bears.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
A couple questions:
When in US history has the government been taken over by rogue elements? In these cases did an Armed Citizenry actually stop said rogue elements?
In the numerous cases where the government has actually oppressed it's people (slavery, segregation, etc.), can you name a single instance of the armed citizenry stopping them?
That's called a confirmation bias. I think you'd have to be pretty ignorant to ignore the social conditions that drove the birth of gangster rap, and the fact that the rise of gangster rap in the 90s was actually thanks to the purchasing power of the white suburban class who wanted to be bad ass. I'm fairly confident in saying that you haven't any credibility on the history of rap anymore than I have any credibility in speaking about metal.
"Old man yells at systemd"
If its ok to plot killing the president if its for a book?
I am sure most people are ok with people making an alternate reality that may be terroristic in nature if its for the purpose of a piece of art or whatever.
I am no rap fan, but if those are rap lyrics he is as guilty as a writer that wrote a terrorist plot.
Its not impossible to carry a serious message, but it is very possible and likely that its intention is not to be a bomb threat.
Tribe Called Quest? Jurrasic 5? J-Live? Curren$y? Drake? Jay-Z? Jungle Brothers? De La Soul? Pharcyde? Kanye? ... fuckit, that took about 5 seconds and I'm bored already. I'm even too bored to google for delicious metal lyrics. As an intelligent, employed, classically musically trained white guy from the burbs, I feel sad for folks who really think they're "above" rap. You don't have to like it, but it's no smarter or dumber than any other genre.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Armed citizenry is kind of how we broke free and ultimately formed the nation. Just because it wasn't specifically against the US government, it isn't any less valid.
Armed citizenry is kind of how we broke free and ultimately formed the nation. Just because it wasn't specifically against the US government, it isn't any less valid.
And the French Army, which is a small detail overlooked by libertarian revisionists.
"start restricting freedom of movement'? Take a trip to Cuba.
You'd think so, but apparently the US government is so jumpy that they are willing to strip away its citizen's rights piecemeal.
Basically, the terrorists have won.
The Armed citizenry was part of it, but you're missing a lot. The Prussian Drill Washington instituted under Baron von Steuben was the antithesis of Armed Citizens, and even with an Armed Citizenry and an actual army Washington couldn't win until after Admiral de Grasse delivered the historic coup de grasse at the battle of Chesepeake. Armed citizens could make it difficult for the British to hold territory, but they simply could not drive the British out.
And that was in the days when 100 guys with hunting rifles were better-armed then 100 combat troops with military-grade weapons. Nowadays military technology has moved on. A guy with a rifle is not a threat to any modern Army. What they fear are roadside bombs, IEDs, and similar devices.
Giant pandas are, in fact, considered bears (though that was not always the case). Red pandas, however, are still more closely related to raccoons..
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Do you mean 1776? Because the change in government in 1774 was the creation of Congress, and if Congress is the "rogue element," that an Armed Citizenry is supposed to fight then the Armed Citizenry lost.
If you're trying to refer to 1776, as I mentioned in another post we couldn't have won that war without a professional army, the French Navy, and French money to pay for it all.
Even if you give the Armed Citizenry 100% credit, you have to ask how they'd beat the US Army today?
The Taliban have weapons orders of magnitude better then anything that has even been legal in the US because they have RPGs. Their backup weapon is better then anything currently street-legal in the US (fully auto AKs are not street legal). And yet most of their successful attacks are IEDs.
Military technology is changed. As a weapon today the rifle is where the sword was in 1860-65. It's useful militarily in certain tactical situations, but basing your entire tyranny-prevention policy on rifles...
Yep, as done by such armed civilians as General Washington.
Sorry, but the pathetic myth of some guys with old muskets freezing in the woods winning a country alone is pissing on the graves of your ancestors who were not as stupid as you'd like to pretend they were.
And in this day and age, it takes much less skill to build things that go boom than it does to learn to shoot well.
MC Solaar. I think most of his songs (with actual instruments, not just drums and bass) are fairly positive, though they are in French.
This.
The thing that will prevent tyranny is an educated populace, and the political faction most associated with the NRA is the same faction that is trying to gut education in this country.
They want everyone ignorant and afraid, so they can sell more guns.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
"Even if you give the Armed Citizenry 100% credit, you have to ask how they'd beat the US Army today?"
Members of the United States armed forces are also CITIZENS of this land. Each of them has a home, located in some city or town, located in some state or another. Each of them (well, the overwhelming majority, anyway) has loved ones, whom they probably value more than they value the US government.
I'll remind you of General Robert E. Lee, who didn't want to see the states fight each other - but decided that if there were to be a fight, he would fight for his home state of Virginia.
If revolution should happen, you cannot rely on the Army, the Navy, or the Air Force to remain intact as fighting units, to be used against the people of the United States. Nor can you rely on the government's ability to retain control over all the hardware, command infrastructure, or much of anything else.
For this reason, and others, the Department of Homeland Security was formed. The government hopes to retain control of DHS if and when the shit hits the fan. Unfortunately for the government - DHS consists of mostly incompetent buffoons, far less capable than agents from any other agency. Further, the loyalty of Napolitano's troops remain untested.
Anyone can sit around and make up scenarios about how a revolution would evolve, and the results of said revolution. History proves one thing: civil wars are fucking MESSY!!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
The thing that will prevent tyranny is an educated populace.
This simply can not be stressed enough.
An armed response is not always the answer.
Mainstream media failed to properly report the peaceful revolution in Iceland recently where the population completely replaced their government. http://rhuni.com/l/R7XUh8IIGB
Or we can look at the revolution in Egypt where only 2% of the population marched on the capital.
Slashdot Beta should die a painful death.
And apologies for being a doofus and not actually reading what you wrote. Doh.
Life needs more saving throws.
The point of a rifle is to send metal ellipsoids flying in a predetermined direction at very high velocity, the rest is up to the user.
The Admiral who won the battle of Chesapeake was the Count de Grasse, so it was literally the blow of Grasse that won the Revolutionary War for us.
So "coup de grasse" is a pun.
A guy with a rifle is not a threat to any modern Army.
Yeah, cause we haven't lost any troops to guys with rifles in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Check the casualty figures.
IEDs are responsible for roughly 60% of our casualties. Every non-IED incident where we had multiple casualties is either a) an RPG, or b) a car bomb.
I didn't say rifles were useless. You can kill people with them. But if the people of America start taking potshots at marines with their rifles the people of America will get their asses kicked. Body Armor exists.
What they fear are roadside bombs, IEDs, and similar devices.
So explosives should be legal?
That would be a valid conclusion to draw if one believed an armed citizenry was a good idea.
I don't.
I grew up in a black area. In the black experience Armed Citizens are the ones who decide that a) they have a Constitutional right to oppress their neighbors, and b) the Federal government has no jurisdiction to stop them. About half the time they actually convince said Federal government of this fact. At various times this has led to actual slavery, KKK terrorism reducing the black population of various southern states by 20 points (in other words: genocide), segregation, etc.
As far as I can tell all an Armed Citizenry has ever done is a) get killed by the Army protesting taxes, and b) got rid of one corrupt Southern Sheriff. In modern times there are perfectly effective methods of protest that don't get anyone killed, so really all you've got is b). And trading one Sheriff for Segregation does not seem like a very good trade to me.
Not just educated, but educated in tyrannical regimes and systems from abusive relationships to cults to dictatorships which all share common elements apart from scale. Sociology of coercive persuasion in should be taught. 1984, Farenheit 451, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest and many others should all be required reading in school. It's not enough to teach math, science, and so forth. The Soviet Union and their satellites had fantastic educational systems when it comes to the sciences.