“The District Attorney’s Office, however, didn’t see the humor in Mr. Barry’s stunt and filed terrorist-related charges against him.”

Good for him!

Hmm…17 y/o Jason Barry; lives in Staten Island. Sounds ominous. I’d ship him to Guantanamo…after water-boarding.

Sadly, the definition of ‘measured response’ has changed, and some things are simply out of bounds as humour. Still…

When I was in High School, David Ogden Stiers spoke to my English Class. What most people don’t know is that in the early ‘70s he was a stage actor and part of a group that did a lot of political humour. Because of this he got on Nixon’s ‘Enemies List’. He said that the lesson he learned from that was to always be afraid of government without a sense of humour. When leaders get to be so paranoid that they lose perspective they get dangerous.

This kid should be punished with a Dope Slap and made to pay back the cost of wasting the Police’s time. But to charge him with “making a terrorist threat”? That’s just a DA running for office.

I’d dope slap the DA as well for wasting taxpayers’ money, if it turns out there is nothing more to this than a puerile prank. A background check, a psych evaluation and some interviews with contacts might be in order before filing charges, but I’m no DA.

If the shop was not closed because of the message, then the child did not cause much terror.

This kid should be punished with a Dope Slap

I say sentence him to 100 hours community service…

...as a Microsoft Store employee.

Problem solved. :>

As someone who works in retail and has to deal on a daily basis with kids like this, I hope they throw the book at him—Misdemeanor, suspended sentence and parole/community service, or whatever is appropriate, but definitely take him through the system and scare the crap out of him.  It’s not about real terror or not in this case; it’s about the law and someone learning sometimes jokes aren’t jokes.

When you harass a person, it’s usually a misdemeanor.

When you harass Crappe and other bloated companies, you’re a terrorist.

It’s all about how much the company is bribing politicians I suppose.

Let’s not make excuses for the kid. These days we can’t be too careful.

Consider this (from New York Times):
“As many as eight Army officers could face discipline for failing to do anything when the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood rampage displayed erratic behavior early in his military career, two officials familiar with the case said.”

Let’s not make excuses for the kid. These days we can’t be too careful.

That’s where we differ.
Yes you can be too careful. Careful is prudent concern. This is either rampant paranoia or political posturing. Neither of these are good for the kid or for society as a whole.

When the officials fly off the handle and keep making mountains out of molehills like this, it causes people to not believe or trust their government. The ‘Cry Wolf’ condition. You end up with a significant part of the population believing the CIA blew up the trade centre.

Not making excuses for the kid. He did something stupid and should face the consequences. However what he did was an asinine prank and it should be treated as such.

A background check, a psych evaluation and some interviews with contacts might be in order before filing charges, but I’m no DA.

As I understand it, the only way the DA could get a psych evaluation would be to arrest the kid and charge him. Otherwise, there is no basis for the evaluation. They can’t even give him a “slap on the wrist” without charging him and convicting him.