Man faces charges after tweeting kill 'all the white people' in town; bail set at $250,000

[Teh One Who Knocks]

The Associated Press


http://i.imgur.com/eCWqCcl.jpg

LA PLATA, Md. – Police say a 20-year-old man has been charged after he tweeted about killing "all the white people" in a Maryland town.

Charles Hollins was charged on Wednesday with making a threat of mass violence. He's being held on $250,000 bond. Online court records do not list an attorney for him.

According to police, the tweet read, "TONIGHT WE PURGE! KILL ALL THE WHITE PPL IN THE TOWN OF LA PLATA." Police say it was posted on Wednesday afternoon. The account that posted the message appears to have been deleted.

Hollins, who is black, was arrested on Wednesday evening.

Police say extra officers were sent out on patrol in La Plata, about 65 miles south of Baltimore, in response to the threat.

[RBP]

Eh, I am not too motivated to prosecute speech.

[HyperV12]

How many followers did he have?

[RBP]

How many followers did he have?

I am curious why that would/should influence your view of this as criminal or not.

[HyperV12]

Oh it's still criminal, I was merely curious as to how many people his tweet reached.

[RBP]

I don't think it's criminal at all. Not without some action behind it.

[HyperV12]

Surely it's incitement to commit a crime? I mean if he'd said 'I think all white people in La Plata should die' that's an opinion however if he were the leader of a group it might incite some of them to fulfil his opinion, I don't know. I understand your freedom of speech stance but, certainly over here, there is line the law won't let you cross. At the very least it's race hatred which is a no no over here too.

[RBP]

Fine line I guess, but yes, I defer to free speech unless there is a reason not to. We are already sliding down a slippery slope on thought crimes.

[HyperV12]

Freedom of speech is very important I agree and I rail against the nanny state as much as any one but I also think there are boundaries. The problem with boundaries is they are subjective, what pisses me off might make you laugh. As you said, a fine line.

[DemonGeminiX]

Did he follow up with, "But buy my record first!"?

:-k

[HyperV12]

:lol:

[HyperV12]

Given the two Purge movies content I think that has a smidge to do with this too.

[Goofy]

Fine line I guess, but yes, I defer to free speech unless there is a reason not to. We are already sliding down a slippery slope on thought crimes.

It's a fair point about freedom of speech i guess......... but lets for a second imagine a white guy had tweeted "TONIGHT WE PURGE! KILL ALL THE BLACK PPL IN THE TOWN OF LA PLATA", there would be national outcry.

[Hal-9000]

I think it depends on how the thought is framed in words. If he says - I think all white people should die - leave him alone. If he says - I'm going to use my sig 9mm and shoot some crackers next door tonight - the cops have a right to ask him some questions.

I agree with Hyper about incitement and I go a step further calling it intent. How far can we let written intent go without responding to it?