Thought Police
A crime to be an asshole:
Connecticut police say they arrested a man at a management company after he mentioned the shooting rampage across the state that killed nine people and said he understood the killer’s mindset.
I hope he has a good lawyer.
Via Radley.
August 9th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Ummm, no, that would be Intimidation, or in some states “Making Terrorist Threats”.
Despite the current gun blogger mantra and the typical 8th grade understanding of the world displayed by the Wookies at Reason that “speech is not a crime”, speech can be in crime in dozens of statutes.
Anyone have the CT statute in question?
August 9th, 2010 at 10:11 am
i saw no threat mentioned in the article.
August 9th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Me neither.
“and said he understood the killer’s mindset.” could be anything from a calm statement that you can understand how he go there to an “I’m near there myself, if you know what I mean. So be careful.” Knowing how the press usually deals with these things, they’d have gone to town with this if it was anything even close to the latter.
August 9th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
“i saw no threat mentioned in the article”
So mentioning a brutal mass murder and saying how you could understand the killer is not a threat?
As a matter of law it would depend on how the CT statute defines threat, but as a matter of common sense it is obviously a threat.
August 9th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Understanding that a killer is an active killer with a set of eccentrics for mental gears is not that hard. But in Connecticut expressing comprehension seems to be illegal.
Stranger
August 9th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
So mentioning a brutal mass murder and saying how you could understand the killer is not a threat?</i<
It's simply not a threat. If I say I can understand the mindset of an anti-gunner does that mean I'm anti-gun? If I said I could understand someone who wanted to overthrow the government would you conclude that I, by virtue of that one statement alone, wanted to go out and start shooting folks? Of course not!
Saying "I understand that" does not mean "I support that" or "hey!, I'd do that too!"
August 9th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
That depends on how you say it – which we don’t know from the article. But my first thought is “what did the MSM make up?”
August 9th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
No, it isn’t. Saying “I have the same mindset” would be quite disconcerting, but “Understanding the mindset” != being in that mindset.
August 9th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Presumably there are psychologists who understand the criminal mindset too. Should they be arrested? Hell, why not? Let’s arrest everyone. That way we’ll all be super safe from each other.
August 9th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Understanding mindset /= share mindset.
I can understand a vegetarian’s mindset, but that doesn’t mean I’ll quit eating steaks.