[rayiner]

I wouldn't count on it. It was some uptight woman who saw the comment and told the police in the first place, and you can bet its the fear of uptight parents that's causing the prosecution. Can you imagine how the shit would hit the fan if the kid had said something like that, the police had been notified, and the police had done nothing, and the kid had shot up some school?

[blisterpeanuts]

But that's exactly the problem -- some fearful little officials saying, "But what if he meant it?"

An intelligent chief of police and prosecutor should have looked at the kid's background, maybe dropped by his house, and said, OK there's no "there" there. Unless there's a history of violence, or record of mental illness, or sociopathic behavior officially noted, etc. Which as far as I know, there isn't in this case. Just pure blind, stupid bureaucratic grinding an individual with their jackboots, simply because they have the power.

[epochwolf]

It's the suburban soccer moms wearing the jackboots. The police are just their messengers.

[rayiner]

I don't know if you remember high school, or more specifically other peoples' parents, but it doesn't ring true to me to blame the bureaucracy with their "jackboots."

Parents are fucking nuts, suburban parents doubly so. This is some town outside of San Antonio--you think these police officials are acting out of step with what most of the local parents want?

[blisterpeanuts]

See my earlier comment :)

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Everything up to calling the police and them searching his house is fine, even expected. Police investigate and find that this is a random, sarcastic comment from an otherwise normal 19 year-old and warn him not to do that again - that's what we should expect, not sitting in jail awaiting trial.

But at the same time, I have to ask where the line should be drawn. Our babysitter's boyfriend was arrested and jailed (charges of making "terroristic threats" again) for leaving a bomb threat in the bathroom of their high school His stated reason: he wanted the day off. He's harmless, but ridiculously stupid. However, he did make the threat. Even if it was an empty threat, he has to be held responsible for the cost of evacuating the school, bomb-sniffing dogs and police searching and the general disruption that ensued.

In the case of this story, though, I'd like to believe that the police or the DA would have had the balls to say "this is just a dumb kid shooting off his mouth. We told him to be careful and let him go."

[javajosh]

You mean like the uproar and lawsuits that occurred when it turned out the FBI was tracking the 9/11 hijackers for months before they attacked?