Submitted in comments by Harold
BY PETE WILLIAMS
FBI agents arrested an Akron, Ohio man Thursday, accusing him of using social media to encourage attacks on members of the US military.
Terrence J. McNeil, 25, is charged with soliciting others to commit violent crimes. No terrorism charges were filed.
Prosecutors say he used his Tumblr account in September to re-post material from the ISIS terror group, also known as ISIL. It included several dozen photographs, names, and addresses of purported members of the U.S. military.
The ISIS message ended: “Kill them wherever you find them.”
McNeil appeared briefly in federal court, where a judge formally advised him of the charges and ordered him held until a detention hearing next week.
A lawyer appointed to represent him had no comment.
Court documents said he declared his support for ISIS in June but had expressed his hopes for violence in the U.S. for well over a year.
Investigators said he used the name “Terrence Broadway” on Facebook in May 2014 and wrote, “I can’t wait for another 9/11, Boston bombing, or Sandy Hook,” referring to the deadly 2012 school shooting in Connecticut.
A few days later, he posted, “Somebody should park a car bomb in front of a church, school, or mall,” prosecutors said.
“Terrence McNeil solicited the murder of members of our military by disseminating ISIL’s violent rhetoric, circulating detailed US military personnel information, and explicitly calling for the killing of American service members in their homes and communities,” said John Carlin, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
A Justice Department official said government lawyers concluded that the social media postings about military personnel were not protected as free speech, because they constituted an incitement to violence.
No information was available on the number of followers of McNeil’s Tumblr account, and there was no indication than anyone took any action based on his posting.
Harold writes:
For a crazy person there is much difference between the words rise up and do something or kill them all. A mind that twisted can be exercised to perform what the speaker may not be capable of doing themselves, so they play to people that have the hatred and excite it to perform.
This article about McNeil’s social media “kill them all” message, which is as deadly to soldiers as “stand up” is to police authority has similar parallels. Someone innocent, who is nothing more than “guilty of performing their job” is going to pay a price that either of these speakers could generate using words designed to incite violence.
The only difference I can see if that Tarantino is most likely is a major Obama/DNC contributor. So, Free Pass. McNeil just common grease in the political wheel of opportune photo op time. Bummer, Go to Jail
More information here.
Does “soliciting others to commit violent crimes” have the same weight and penalties in the law as “soliciting others to commit terrorist acts” has? In other words is this just a PC way to talk about applying the law or are there different laws covering each type of act?
Jack?
Tina, to formulate an idea to commit a crime is still legal until an overt act is done. By that, you have to make a move to actually accomplish the crime, like say we should rob a bank and then you actually go to the bank and case it. You have to be acting in conjunction with 2 or more persons. This is then called a conspiracy to commit bank robbery. It’s serious, but not as bad as the actual robbery.
Thanks Jack. But I’m still confused.
They arrested this guy and charged him with “soliciting others to commit violent crimes.” Are the penalties for “violent crimes” as stiff as those for “terrorist acts?”
No they are not. In my thinking he is being way undercharged. There ought to be a charge of treason brought on this guy, then a quick trial and then a firing squad.
Who needs people like him living here or anywhere for that matter? Shoot em.