St. Louis man charged with threatening police

[Lite Beer]

St. Louis man charged with threatening police
Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis man was charged Thursday with making threats against police and the St. Louis City Justice Center on Twitter.

Jason Valentine, 35, faces 10 felony counts of making a terrorist threat, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's office said Thursday.

Valentine is being held on a $100,000 cash-only bail, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which did not specify which jail. It wasn't clear from online court records whether he has an attorney or when his first court appearance would be.

Valentine allegedly tweeted about "Kill a pig Night" throughout December, the probable cause statement said, and that he threatened an explosion at the Justice Center on Wednesday.

"St. Louis City Justice Center Mysteriously Exploded 12/31/2014," one tweet read, according to the statement. Another said, "New Years Eve Massacre Kill A Pig Night."

Many of the alleged tweets mentioned Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black 18-year-old was shot and killed by a white police officer in August. The incident spurred local and nationwide protests in the following months.

Prosecutors also said in the statement that Valentine's tweets alluded to Vonderrit Myers, a black 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a white, off-duty St. Louis city police officer in October. Police contend Myers opened fire on the officer first, though Myers' family has disputed that.

Valentine's Twitter account has been suspended.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-02

[H1w4yR1da]

Another innocent black unjustly targeted by the racist white Dirty Harry police force.

[Wat dee]

Sounds like fun!! Next they should try full purge!!

[ukrules]

Jason Valentine, 35, faces 10 felony counts of making a terrorist threat,

This is interesting isn't it - they've caught lots of 'terrorists' since these new laws came into force.

Of course they're not the kind of terrorists who blow up buildings and fly planes into them, they're just rounding up idiots to make up the numbers.

When was the last proper terrorist attack by a trained private army against the US ?

Edited January 2, 2015 by ukrules

[Ulysses G.]

When was the last proper terrorist attack by a trained private army against the US ?

You don't think that the Boston bombers were terrorists? Very few terrorist attacks anywhere are by trained private armies.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Ulysses G.

[ukrules]

When was the last proper terrorist attack by a trained private army against the US ?

You don't think that the Boston bombers were terrorists?

You should read my post again, every word was carefully chosen.

[Ulysses G.]

Of course they're not the kind of terrorists who blow up buildings and fly planes into them, they're just rounding up idiots to make up the numbers.

I DID read your post. Again, you think that the Boston Bombers were just "idiots rounded up to make up numbers"?

[ukrules]

Of course they're not the kind of terrorists who blow up buildings and fly planes into them, they're just rounding up idiots to make up the numbers.

I DID read your post. Again, you think that the Boston Bombers were just "idiots rounded up to make up numbers"?

Of course the Boston bombers are not the usual idiots, the idiots are the people who make a stupid tweet or facebook post. Being stupid doesn't make them a terrorist so charging them with a terrorist related crime reduces the gravity of what terrorism is.

These laws should be and are used against people who make terrorist attacks like the Boston bombers did, they shouldn't be used against an idiot on twitter.

Blurring the line between sending a tweet and being an actual terrorist with the means and motivation to carry out an attack regardless of whether they belong to any organisation or not is a very dangerous precedent to set.

The point I'm making is that these laws are being misused. It's classic prosecutorial overreach.

There is a distinction to be made about the Boston incident in that they acted alone and not as part of a traditional terrorist network. The problem here being that it would be very hard to get any intelligence on them before they struck for the first time. They almost certainly won't have posted any threats on Twitter.

[F430murci]

<deleted>. That eating to kill cops and blow up government buildings need to be taken seriously, especially given cops being shot at or killed is several states recently after threats posted. Charge them as terrorist and remove their <deleted> from society for a while. It's up to a jury to decide if their actions meet the elements of the offense not us.

This type if action does not reduce effectiveness of terrorism acts. It enhances it and shows your butt can be prosecuted under the act if you act like an idiot and threaten government workers or government buildings.

[csabo]

The terroristic threat laws were around before true terrorism as we now perceive it was a legitimate concern. You are just getting caught up in the terminology. The above debate is moot.

Edited January 2, 2015 by csabo

[ukrules]

The terroristic threat laws were around before true terrorism as we now perceive it was a legitimate concern. You are just getting caught up in the terminology. The above debate is moot.

I remember the bombs going off in the 70's and 80's in the UK.

[OMGImInPattaya]

The laws under which these people are being charged for what are in effect unpopular political opinions is troubling. It's unfortunate the police have the political power to have local district attorneys attempt to use very broadly laws to suppress free speech. Hopefully, a St. Louis jury will see through such bogus charges and nullify the case.

Edited January 2, 2015 by OMGImInPattaya

[Ulic]

I will guess drunk.