What happens when all criminal threats become "terrorism"?
by digby
So any threat to rape and murder can now be considered "terrorism"?
The teen who documented his plans to murder and rape fellow students at Comstock Park High School on Facebook and through text messages pleaded guilty to his crimes and faces as much as 20 years in prison.
Benjamin Christopher Malachino sent text messages in March to a female student whom he threatened to sexually assault in front of her friends while at the same time killing fellow students.
[...]
On Monday, Dec. 2, Malchino pleaded guilty to false report or threat of terrorism, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, but the defendant’s age and lack of criminal record will likely save him from a lengthy term of imprisonment when he is sentenced Jan. 23 by Kent County Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock.
Ok, this kid apparently deserves to be locked up. I'm certainly not defending his behavior. And they don't appear to be ready to send him to Gitmo. But if they're starting to call threats like this "terrorism" we are into a whole new realm in American criminal justice because we've just spent the last decade fashioning legal theories around the idea that "terrorism" is such a uniquely horrifying threat that we can no longer afford to follow constitutional principles. We've created prison camps, we've tortured, we've got people locked up for life without trial. We have created a massive surveillance apparatus that's blown a hole through the fourth amendment. "Terrorism" is a catch-all term for the government police authorities to pretty much throw the constitution out the window if it wants to.
I think everyone's been soothing themselves that this will only apply to immigrants and/or Muslims, so it's not a biggie. But that's very foolish. Once you give the government a rationale for throwing out the book, they're going to find ways to do it. This is why granting "exceptions" to the constitution for "bad men" is such a fatuous idea. The police would love to have the power to simply designate someone a "bad man" for whom the normal rules don't apply. Unfortunately, police aren't infallible and sometimes the "bad men" are the police themselves. That's why the old boys wrote the constitution and the Bill of Rights in the first place.
.