WebProNews

Tag: threats

  • Teen Threatens to Kill Everyone in Texas Town on Facebook

    There are two things that teens should know about posting incendiary, possibly terroristic messages on Facebook in 2014. First, someone’s going to notice and you’re going to get caught. Also, they’re going to take that shit seriously.

    Meet Melissa Johnson, which isn’t her real name. Johnson is the Facebook pseudonym created by a 13-year-old Texas girl in order to bully a cancer patient and threaten to kill the whole town.

    News92 in Houston reports that first, the teen sent a Facebook message to a 13-year-old boy currently fighting cancer. It said “you should have died.”

    Luckily, the boy’s mother intercepted the message.

    But wait, there’s more.

    It was a status, posted shortly after that incident, that put folks in Splendora, Texas on edge. “I am going to kill everybody in Splendora on July 13th.’” Rather ambitious, but pretty straightforward.

    Police say that Facebook was a bit resistant to help them with their investigation into the threat, but eventually gave in. Soon, police had arrested the girl.

    What’s her prize for this wonderful episode of Facebook douchebaggery? Terroristic threat charges, which is a third-degree felony! Police also took all of her electronic devices, which to a 13-year-old girl, may have been the worse of the two.

    “We hope this young lady will learn from her mistake and do something positive with her life,” said Constable Hayden. “We also hope this is a wakeup call for parents. We cannot stress enough the importance of knowing what your children are doing online and talking to them about the serious consequences they’ll face if they engage in this type of behavior.”

    Yeah. That about sums it up. I don’t mean to sound Orwellian here, but you should probably keep an eye on what your 13-year-old is doing online. Thirteen-year-olds have this annoying habit of being stupid as hell.

    Image via Montgomery County Constable, via HLN

  • Man Gets 5-Year Social Media Ban After 6-Month Stint in Jail over Tumblr Post

    A Georgia man has been sentenced to time served, probation, and given an all-out 5-year social media ban after pleading guilty to making terroristic threats via his Tumblr blog.

    20-year-old Caleb Jamaal Clemmons has spent the past 6 months in jail, having been unable to afford his $20,000 bond. He’ll be credited with that time and given 5 years probation, during which he’ll be banned from four counties and barred from posting to any form of social media – all because of one post he made on Tumblr this past February:

    hello. my name is irenigg and i plan on shooting up georgia southern. pass this around to see the affect it has. to see if i get arrested.

    Clemmons was a former student at the university. His “plan” worked, as he was arrested just a few hours after he made the post. University police credit an anonymous tipster who alerted them to the troubling Tumblr post via email. Police searched Clemmons’ residence and found no evidence to suggest that he was planning on actually harming anyone at the school.

    But Clemmons languished in jail, unable to make bail. His story sparked a petition on change.org, where his supporters argued that it was just a joke made on a “literary/satire/activist blog,” and that Clemmons had absolutely no intention of shooting anybody.

    “Caleb has stated multiple times throughout his Tumblr and Facebook that his blog was an experimental literary piece and an art project for a character named Ryan Lang he created. He went out of his way entertain his followers and friends with uncanny jokes as well as complex philosophical ideas. He has addressed this openly and personally upon receiving questioning of his posts,” read the petition.

    “Caleb Clemmons is not a terrorist. Throughout this process, Caleb has been very honest, patience, and compliant; in spite of this, this sweet young man has been absolutely traumatized over this horrific ordeal. He’s located in an overcrowded, underfunded prison filled with racists. He was punched in the face and verbally and physically assaulted on multiple occasions over his skin pigmentation. He has been sent to solitary confinement due to the actions of others.”

    Although Clemmons is now out of jail, he’ll have to complete mental health classes in order to suspend his time at a probation center. And of course, there’s that 5-year social media ban.

    Clemmons isn’t the only young man to fake charges of making terroristic threats online. In May, a YouTube rapper was arrested and charged after posting “fuck a boston bombinb wait til u see the shit I do, I’ma be famous for rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me” on his Facebook page.

    Although he claimed it was simply “rap braggadocio,” the teen was held for over a month without bail. The DA’s office finally dropped the charges back in June.

    [Stateboro Herald via The Verge]

  • Kentucky: Threats Made After Cop’s Death

    Kentucky: Threats Made After Cop’s Death

    Back in May, a Bardstown, Kentucky police officer was gunned down on his way home from work. The officer, Jason Ellis, had stopped to move debris out of the road and was shot multiple times with a shotgun by someone who had apparently laid the debris as an ambush.

    Police in the 12,000-population Bardstown began investigating whether Ellis was the specific target of the attack. They began soliciting tips from possible witnesses and started a donation fund for a reward for the capture of the killer. Now, threats are making it seem that police were the target of the ambush.

    According to a Louisville Courier-Journal report, Bardstown police have now received threats against their lives. Chief Rick McCubbin stated he received a letter last week that stated more officers will “go down like the first one.” The precise wording of the letter is being kept secret, and a separate threat against police has been made by phone. Though police have stated they have not clues to determine who is making the threats, they are being treated seriously.

    There are currently two funds set up in honor of Ellis. One, The Jason Ellis Memorial Fund, is for the family of the slain officer. The other, The Jason Ellis Reward Fund, was up to $125,000 as of Monday, to be given out for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the officer’s murder.

    (Image courtesy the Bardstown Police Department)

  • YouTube Rapper Will Not Face Terroristic Threat Charges

    YouTube Rapper Will Not Face Terroristic Threat Charges

    A Boston teen and aspiring YouTube rapper will not be charged with making terroristic threats in the hours following the Boston Marathon bombings after a Grand Jury has rejected his indictment.

    18-year-old Cameron D’Ambrosio was arrested on May 1st after officials were notified of Facebook posts containing “with disturbing verbiage,” according to police.

    What did he post exactly?

    fuck a boston bombinb wait til u see the shit I do, I’ma be famous for rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me.

    “He’s telling people to shut up and in order to get some props he’ll have to go kill somebody. He says he’ll go insane and make the news,” said Police Chief Joseph Solomon at the time of the arrest. “And he said people shouldn’t cry when they see what he does because they have it coming.”

    D’Ambrosio has been held without bail for over a month. The charges leveled against him could have resulted in up to 20 years in prison.

    The case drew national attention, as many free speech activists argued that the arrest and subsequent incarceration amounted to a First Amendment violation.

    Noted First Amendment advocates Fight for the Future launched a petition to free D’Ambrosio. That petition received over 90,000 signatures.

    “The post contained no specific threat of violence against any person or group of people, and in the context of the rest of the lyrics and Cams’ rap persona, it was clearly nothing more than a metaphor and rap braggadocio – Cam wasn’t saying he would ‘outdo’ the Marathon bombing, as the media has frequently reported, he’s saying he’s going to be famous rapping, more famous than the marathon bombing. A la Biggie Smalls ‘blowing up like the World Trade.’ It may be a distasteful line, but it’s free speech and it’s protected by the Constitution,” said FFTF.

    “At an initial bail hearing, the prosecution was clearly grasping at straws and brought up incidents from Cam’s past – like the fact that he allegedly bit another student during a fight when he was 11 years old, and the fact that the police were called after a fight he had with his sister several years ago.”

    “There will be a bail hearing this afternoon, after which point he will probably be released, is my educated guess,” said Essex County DA spokesperson Carrie Kimball Monahan.

  • Amanda Bynes Threatens Lawsuit For “Fake” Drug Pics

    Earlier this week it was reported that Amanda Bynes was turned away from boarding a private flight from New York to Los Angeles for refusing to provide proper identification. The former child actor’s driver’s licence was revoked last year after several driving charges, including a hit-and-run accident involving a police cruiser.

    Now, Bynes has once again taken to her Twitter account to rail against the tabloid press she fells is involved in a conspiracy to smear her good name. Since losing her representation, Bynes has been using her Twitter account to document her experiments with makeup, hair, and nudity.

    This week, Bynes’ ire was focused on a new InTouch magazine feature which seemed to show pictures of marijuana her apartment. The actress claims that the pictures are faked, but doesn’t mention the drug use. From Bynes’ TwitPlus post:

    That’s not my bed! Those aren’t my toes! My toes are pedicured! I just did an exclusive interview with intouch last week, now they bought fake altered photos by that ugly black man in the photo or someone who knows him! They used an old shot of me on the cover with a bad angle of my old nose before I had surgery to reshape my profile and to remove the webbing from my eyes. I have to sue because that’s not my apartment, those aren’t my clothes! They morphed photos of my face onto someone’s body to ruin my life! I have to make a big deal of this and sue because that’s not me! I care about my appearance so I have to defend myself! I look like a different person now that I had surgery! Why did they put an old shot of me on the cover? I don’t look like that anymore! I only want photos of my gorgeous new nose on the cover of tabloids and real magazines! The photos in this issue are fake and mocked up! I don’t care enough to keep talking about it. Just assume that I fucked the boyfriend of the editor of intouch because they fucking hate me!

  • ‘Bishop’ Gets 37 Years For Pipe Bombs

    ‘Bishop’ Gets 37 Years For Pipe Bombs

    A letter carrier whose calling card was “The Bishop” was sentenced this week for mailing pipe bombs to investment firms.

    According to an Associated Press report, John Tomkins of Iowa was sentenced to 37 years in prison this week for mailing “dud” pipe bombs to investment firms and investment advisers. The 48-year-old mail carrier had mailed the ineffective pipe bombs with letters signed “The Bishop,” an idea he stated he got from criminals in movies. He will serve a manditory minimum sentence of 30 years.

    Tomkins’ crimes were reportedly a scheme to influence the value of stocks that he owned. The letters mailed along with the intentionally disabled bombs had threatened financial executives and their families if stock prices were not raised for certain companies.

    According to the AP report, it took U.S. authorities two years to track down Tomkins. The crimes were eventually pinned to him using the stock market records of two companies Tomkins had mentioned in his threats.

  • Teen Charged with Making Facebook Threats to Upstage the Boston Marathon Bombings

    A Methuen, Massachusetts high school student has been arrested and charged with making terroristic threats after police were notified of posts made on his Facebook page.

    18-year-old Cameron B. Dambrosio is being held on $1 million bond after making the unspecific threats referencing the Boston Marathon bombings on Facebook. According to Chief of Police Joseph Solomon, Dambrosio’s house has already been searched, and multiple devices have been recovered for analysis (computer, Xbox).

    Here’s what went down, according to a Meuthuen Police Department release:

    Tuesday, May 1, 2013, at approximately 12:20, Methuen High School students reported to administration that they had received a Facebook phone message sent by a Methuen High School student with disturbing verbiage. The student made terrorist threats. These threats were in general and not directed towards another person or the school. The administration acted quickly, contacted school service officer Jim Mellor, who then contacted the police department. The student was not in school but has since been located and placed under arrest.

    So, what did the kid say? According to Solomon,

    “F*ck the Boston bombing, wait til you see what I do. I’m going to be famous.” Apparently, he also went on to say that he would “beat every murder charge brought against him.

    “He’s telling people to shut up and in order to get some props he’ll have to go kill somebody. He says he’ll go insane and make the news,” Solomon said. “And he said people shouldn’t cry when they see what he does because they have it coming.”

    Dambrosio has been charged with Terroristic Threats, which can be punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

    The Daily Dot found Dambrosio’s YouTube channel, which shows him to be an aspiring rapper – or whatever you call this:

    [Methuen PD via Eagle Tribune]

  • Suspects’ Aunt: Threats Received, “Picture Was Staged”

    Now that the days-long nightmare following the Boston Marathon bombings is over, the U.S. is coming to terms with who the bombers were, and what that means for the nation.

    The FBI last wednesday revealed its suspects in the bombings, and the following night police gunned down one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, during a shootout. Tsarnaev’s brother, Dzhokhar, managed to escape and led police on a massive manhunt which ended on Saturday when he was found hiding in a boat parked in the backyard of a Watertown, Massachusetts home.

    Though little is known about why the Tsarnaev’s may have wanted to bomb the crowds watching the Boston Marathon, details about their lives in the U.S. paint a picture of seemingly well-adjusted young men. In particular, Tamerlan was a husband and the father of a 3-year-old daughter.

    Now, with national grief still fanning the flames of outrage, the Tsarnaev’s relatives are beginning to speak out. According to a report from the Toronto Sun, the Tsarnaev’s aunt, Maret Tsarnaev (pictured above), has said she and her relatives are receiving threats. In addition, Maret is of the belief that her nephews have been framed.

    “For me, to be convinced that these two nephews of mine committed these kind of atrocities, cannot be taken lightly,” said Maret. “Convince me.

    “I’m suspicious that this was staged, the picture was staged.”

  • Dwight Gooden Threats Lead to Restraining Order

    TMZ is reporting that former MLB pitcher Dwight Gooden has had a restraining order filed against him by his estranged wife. Monique Gooden had called police on March 1, claiming Gooden had made “terroristic threats.”

    A temporary restraining order has been granted against Gooden. Though he had been living with Monique while a divorce is in progress, Gooden has now left the premises. The order also prevents Gooden from visiting his children until a court hearing on March 11, where a judge will evaluate the restraining order and consider whether it should be permanent.

    Unnamed documents quoted by TMZ stated that Monique claims Gooden said, “All bets are off an I will hurt you and your family. You’ll see, just wait.”

    Gooden was arrested in 2005 for allegedly hitting Monique, whom he accused of throwing a phone at him. He was later released on a misdemeanor battery charge.

    Gooden has a history of substance abuse dating back to 1987, when he tested positive for cocaine during spring training. He is currently on probation related to DWI and child endangerment charges.

    (Image courtesy Jeff Marquis via Wikimedia Commons)

  • Florida Man Convicted Over Facebook Threats to Kill Obama, “Watch the Life Disappear from His Eyes”

    You can say a lot of things and stand behind First Amendment protections. Saying that you’re going to kill the President on Facebook is not one of those things, according to a Florida jury.

    A Florida man has been convicted of making death threats against President Obama and is now awaiting sentencing scheduled for April.

    According to the court, Christopher Castillo posted the threats to his Facebook page in November, just days before Obama was reelected for a second term. The posts reportedly said that he if reelected, he would hunt down and kill the President. Castillo also added that he would “watch the life disappear from his eyes.”

    According to the Secret Service, they visited Castillo shortly after learning of the threat from a citizen. He reportedly admitted to posting the Facebook statuses.

    “(Castillo) was given every opportunity to back down and say it was a joke and he never (backed down),” said Assistant U.S. attorney Shawn Napier. “It wasn’t sarcasm. It was a threat to kill the president.”

    Castillo’s attorney argued that the man who notified the Secret Service of the posts was a noted internet troll who had provoked the comments from Castillo, and that Castillo simply said some things he didn’t mean. He also argued that the comments should be protected as “political discussion” under the First Amendment.

    A jury disagreed.

    As this case and many others prove, things you say on Facebook hold just as much weight as things you would scream out front of the White House. Don’t threaten to kill the President, and especially don’t do it on a public forum like Twitter or Facebook.

    [Orlando Sentinel via NY Daily News]

  • Obama Threat Results in Arrest of Washington Man

    A man in Washington state was arrested yesterday after making an making a threat against President Barack Obama in an email. According to an Associated Press (AP) report, the Secret Service spokesperson stated that the man was holding a shotgun when he answered a knock on his door from officers.

    The man, Antono Caluori, lived in an apartment in a suburb of Seattle. He was arrested for making threats against the president and for assault on an officer. Though the nature of the assault has not been disclosed, the AP story recounts that a Secret Service agent believed Calouri was leveling the shotgun against the officers just before he was taken down. No injuries were reported.

    The apartment complex where Caluori lived was evacuated while a bomb squad swept the man’s apartment for explosives, though none were found.

    The AP quotes Calouri’s mother, who also lived in the apartment, as saying the man went to college and was in the military. Calouri is scheduled to appear in federal court at 2 p.m. this afternoon.

    President Obama has been campaigning in Ohio this week, and therefore was not in any immediate danger from Calouri. Still, it appears that the Secret Service found Calouri’s threats to be credible enough to at least warrant a visit to his apartment.

  • Photos Reveal Hypocritical Cop

    Arizona police sergeant Pat Shearer is drawing some attention due to his suspicious and outwardly stupid Facebook posts. This “officer of the law” apparently thinks it is okay to post photos depicting young men with automatic weapons holding an Obama shirt full of bullet holes.

    While I don’t believe this is a crime, shouldn’t it be the position of any law officer to “lead by example” and not promote any materials or actions that would facilitate or condone violence? I do. We pay law officers good money and benefits to protect and serve and we are time after time being confronted with cases where they abuse their power. Shearer says the photo is a political statement and offers these comments:

    “I don’t think that the shooting of that T-shirt is that big of a deal”.

    “It’s not like they were going to go out and shoot the president”.

    Shearer is a 25 year veteran of his department which I believe is reason enough to expect better judgment from him. Secret service spokesman Max Milien does too and he claims the Secret Service is taking the matter seriously.

    In an interview with Politico Milien explained:

    “Any time information is brought to our attention where an individual or a group of individuals expresses unusual direction of interest in one of our protectees, we conduct appropriate follow-up.”

    If the secret service determines that this mindless fool actually intended to threaten (which I doubt he meant to do) the President, legal action could follow.

    Dan Barr, an attorney who works for the First Amendment Coalition explains:

    “It is a crime to knowingly and willingly make a threat against the life of the President of the United States – in order to kidnap him or make a threat of bodily harm”.

    “The first amendment does not apply if a true threat is made against the President of the United States.”

    (image)
    Also of interest is Arizona’s policy of conduct for their Officer’s:

    “Employees shall not post, transmit, reproduce, and/or disseminate information (text, pictures, video, audio, etc.) to the Internet or any other forum (public or private) that would tend to discredit or reflect unfavorably upon the department or any of the department’s employees.”

    Regardless of these policies, Shearer is still an active officer, patrolling the streets and enforcing how others should be conducting themselves! Unreal! Get this guy off the streets!

    If this guy was a private citizen I would say, there’s nothing we can really do about it, but that is not the case. He’s being paid by the State of Arizona to uphold law and order, not to insight violence or promote the use of illegal automatic weapons. He should lose his job. He’s not a rookie who made a “dumb mistake”. He’s a 25 year veteran who is obviously just “dumb”!

    Again, I don’t really believe Sergeant Shearer is a threat to the President of the United States but, if he lacks the common sense to censor himself in a public forum, why is he trusted to enforce Arizona’s laws?