Authorities are leaning
more toward zero tolerance of teenagers who fling around online threats about
acts of violence or terrorism. As a result, what might have once merited a slap
on the wrist may today result in criminal charges.
The case of teenager
Cameron Dambrosio might serve as an object lesson to young people everywhere
about minding what you say online unless you are prepared to be arrested for
terrorism.
The Methuen, Mass., high
school student was arrested last week after posting online videos that show him
rapping an original song that police say contained “disturbing verbiage” and
reportedly mentioned the White House and the Boston Marathon bombing. He is
charged with communicating terrorist threats, a state felony, and faces a
potential 20 years in prison. Bail is set at $1 million.
Whether the arrest
proves to be a victory in America's fight against domestic terrorism or whether
Cameron made an unfortunate artistic choice in the aftermath of the Boston
bombing will become clear as the wheels of justice advance.
What is apparent
now, however, is that law enforcement agencies are tightening their focus on
the social media behavior of US teenagers – not just because young people often
fit the profile of those who are vulnerable to radicalization, but also because
the public appears to be more accepting of monitoring and surveillance aimed at
preventing attacks, even at the risk of government overreach.
RECOMMENDED: Quiz: How
much do you know about terrorism?
“When I was young,
calling a bomb threat to your high school because you didn’t want to go to
school that day was treated with a slap on the wrist. Try that nowadays and
you’re going to prison, no question about it. They are taking it more seriously
now,” says Rob D'Ovidio, a criminal justice professor at Drexel University in
Philadelphia who specializes in high-tech crime.
Teenagers are generally
blissfully unaware that law enforcement agencies are creating cyber units to
track and investigate developing ways that criminals, or would-be criminals,
research, socialize, and plot nefarious actions, from child molestation to
domestic terrorism. The Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, fit this profile: Each maintained a YouTubepage and Twitter
feed that promoted the teachings of a radical Muslim cleric. alongside
innocuous postings about music and sports. For law enforcement officials,
filtering what does and does not constitute a threat is a delicate balancing
act that, since the April 15 bombing, may be tilting to the side of additional
caution over individuals' free speech.
“The danger of this in
light of the tragedy in Boston is that law enforcement is being so risk-averse
they are in danger of crossing that line and going after what courts would
ultimately deem as free speech,” Mr. D'Ovidio says.
Want your top political
issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.
Three people were killed
and at least 260 injured in the two bomb blasts near the Boston Marathon finish
line on April 15. Since then, questions have been raised about how authorities
missed signals, especially after alerts from Russian intelligence, that one of
the bombing suspects had become radicalized.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, killed after a
gunfight with police, had been under surveillance byRussia for six months when
he traveled there in 2011 and 2012, besides his activity on social media.
“The bottom line is that
the public wants to know, after the fact, why [an attack] was not stopped.…
Most Americans are prepared to maintain a sophisticated watch on this without
[government] overreach, but most Americans also feel if these things can be
stopped before they begin, they want to see that happen,” says Michael
Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland Center for Health
and Homeland Security.
Some authorities say
that zooming in on unu
sual behavior online fits squarely with how police have
conducted random searches on the street.
“The greatest mystery in
life is the human mind. We don’t know what other people do until it becomes
known. Our job is to figure it out, but we need indicators to know something’s
not right,” says Sgt. Ed Mullins of the New York Police Department, who is also
president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the city’s second-largest
police union.
Using a zero tolerance
approach to track domestic terrorists online is the only reasonable way to
analyze online threats these days, especially after the Boston Marathon bombing
and news that the suspects had subsequently planned to target Times Square in
Manhattan, Mullins says. The way law enforcement agencies approach online
activity that appears sinister is this: “If you’re not a terrorist, if you’re
not a threat, prove it," he says.
“This is the price you
pay to live in free society right now. It’s just the way it is,” Mullins adds.
That method can result
in arrests of teenagers whose online activity may be more aptly characterized
as stupid pranks.
In February, Jessica Winslow
and Ti'jeanae Harris, two high school girls in Rapids Parish, La., were
arrested and charged with 10 counts of terrorism each after they allegedly
e-mailed threats to students and faculty “to see if they could get away with
it,” detectives told a local television news station. “We take every threat in
our schools as a credible threat, and I am happy to say we have made these
arrests,” Sheriff William Earl Hilton told reporters.
( Ti'jeanae Harris )
In January, Alex David
Rosario, a high school student in Armada Village, Mich., was charged with
domestic terrorism after he allegedly threatened to shoot fellow employees at
the Subway shop where he worked. He told police it was a joke. “We feel
threatening to kill somebody is not a joke. It doesn’t appear the prosecutor
takes it as a joke either and the judge certainly doesn’t,” said Armada Police
Chief Howard Smith.
( Alex David
Rosario )
Then there is the case
of Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, a Chicago-area teenager arrested last year after
trying to join, over the Internet, a Syrian militant group linked to Al Qaeda.
Last week, a federal judge allowed Mr. Tounisi home confinement while awaiting
trial.
(Abdella Ahmad Tounisi)
Militant and hate groups
are known to use the Internet to lure teenagers “to gain their sympathy”
through video games, music, or rhetoric that plays to themes of alienation,
D'Ovidio says. Connecting with terrorists would have been impossible in the
past, but today, as is alleged in the Tounisi case, anyone with a grudge or
curiosity, or both, and an Internet connection can open that dialogue.
Foolishly, the teens perceive that they are operating anonymously and within a
safe environment, D'Ovidio says.
“We know these groups
are catering and looking for these individuals," he says. "They
create the right environment for experimentation for kids who may have a
proclivity of being disgruntled toward the US government.”
Easy access to online
media, plus the urge to rebel, is a combustible mix that should make parents
vigilant, cautions Stephen Balkam, chief executive officer of the Family Online
Safety Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington that wants teenagers
to be better informed about the outcomes of what they post, tweet, or upload
online.
“Every generation of
teenagers has figured out a way of rebelling against their parents, or giving
it back to ‘the man.’ What I think is unprecedented is the very ‘man’ and the
system they want to rebel against can track them and find their digital
footprints online,” Mr. Balkam says. “In a sense, it’s good that we can catch
kids who are getting radicalized sooner than later, but by the same token, it’s
a challenge for kids to grow and develop, which is their job as a teenager, if
they are being scrutinized too much.”
SCRIPTURES
JOB 18:5Yea, the light
of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
6The light shall be dark
in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
7The steps of his
strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
8For he is cast into a
net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
9The gin shall take him
by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
10The snare is laid for
him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
11Terrors shall make him
afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
12His strength shall be
hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
13It shall devour the
strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
14His confidence shall
be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15It shall dwell in his
tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his
habitation.
16His roots shall be
dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
17His remembrance shall
perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18He shall be driven
from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
---------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment