Meet the Kid Who's In Jail For Cracking a Joke on FaceBook

In Austin, Texas, a "19-year-old has been in prison since March for the crime of sarcasm."

After a Facebook friend with whom he played video games described him as “crazy” and “messed up in the head,” Carter replied — sarcastically, one imagines — “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.” He added “lol” and “jk” for good measure. For this he was arrested, charged with making a “terroristic threat,” and thrown into prison. He may languish there until the start of the next decade.

Carter’s joke was witless and flippant — typical, in other words, of late-teenaged men. By no means was it criminal. Nevertheless, a woman in Canada, who inexactly described herself as a “concerned citizen,” saw from afar what Carter had written and shopped him to Texas police. Police acquiesced to her request, searching the family’s house in the process — and finding nothing. “They really want my son to go away to jail for a sarcastic comment that he made,” Jack Carter, the boy’s father, said. Apparently so: He’s been incarcerated since March without trial.

Cooke (an Englishman) goes on to explain America to Americans. Yes, it's come to that. He needs to explain to our fellow countrymen that one has the right to say all sorts of foolish, wrong, and even hateful things in America, without being arrested by the Inquisition hunting for practitioners of speechcraft.

posted by Ace at 03:37 PM

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