Lake Superior State University student Lucas Gerhard is facing terrorism charges after he posting picture with his new AR-15 on Snapchat with a taunting message for “snowflakes.” Another student objected that she felt threatened by the posting and ultimately the police arrested Gerhard for what was clearly a simple taunting message.
In August 2019, Gerhard posted the picture with the caption: “Takin this bad boy up, this outta make the snowflakes melt, aye? And I mean snowflakes as in snow.” It was a private chat room but someone showed the picture to another student who reportedly had had conflicts with Gerhard in the past. The family says that she was the only complaint. Moreover, guns are allowed on campus.
A former eagle scout, Gerhard found himself under arrest with a $250,000 bond and a 20-year potential sentence. He also has Type 1 Diabetes, requiring glucose levels monitored as well as prescription insulin.
I fail to see the basis for the criminal charge or how any prosecutor could have signed off on the charges. The current provision states
“Sec. 543m. (1) A person is guilty of making a terrorist threat or of making a false report of terrorism if the person does either of the following:
(a) Threatens to commit an act of terrorism and communicates the threat to any other person.
(b) Knowingly makes a false report of an act of terrorism and communicates the false report to any other
person, knowing the report is false.
(2) It is not a defense to a prosecution under this section that the defendant did not have the intent or
capability of committing the act of terrorism.
(3) A person who violates this section is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 20 years or a fine of not more than $20,000.00, or both.”
Michigan lawmakers are discussing changing the law in light of the case with a new bill. The proposal would change the existing bar on a defense challenging the intent of the statement. The proposal states ““The statement would cause a reasonable person to conclude that it was meant to threaten the person who heard the statement, or another person close in physical proximity to the person who hear the statement, with violence or damage to substantial property.”
The greatest problem however is a complete breakdown of discretionary authority by police and prosecutors. Everyone seems to have failed at every stage in recognizing that this was not a criminal case. Notably, it does not appear that the school itself concluded that Gerhard was a threat. More importantly, nothing in the posting clearly states a threat.
What do you think?
The Left are disgraceful. How sad for an entire wing of America to be so against the freedoms guaranteed us by the Constitution. These same people defend real terrorists, like CAIR, and defend illegal aliens…fight to give felons the vote. You can’t make it up…
This is terribly wrong.
— David B Benson
Of course this should not have been a criminal case. The woman weaponized the law to target and harass a gun owner. This is the main complaint about proposed red flag laws.
A reasonable person would assume that the photo of the rifle would “make snowflakes melt”. Melt as in meltdown.
We should not grant extreme Leftists with authority. They abuse it. If an extremist does not like guns, they want to prevent anyone from having guns, and punish peopel who do have them.
I am sorry this has happened to this student.
The message has been that you must hide conservatism or gun ownership. One might have the constitutional right to own a weapon, but you cannot share photos of it, or talk about it, or you will be a target. You can’t speak conservative opinions on social media or you will be unfriended. You can own a MAGA hat, but you can’t wear it or you may be assaulted. You can’t voice conservatism or pro-second-amendment opinions on campus or you will be targeted.
I guess some people are more equal than others.
Well said!
Michigan!
Michigan!
Dumbest state since Alabama!
Clear across this entire land…
Ain’t no place as lame..
As Michigan!
Really? Alabama is the ONLY state that protects its freedoms. We are able to own anything that is called an “arm”. Your ignorance proves that you have been brainwashed by your TV. As a snowflake you would melt knowing I can own an RPG, or even have an anti aircraft gun in my front yard. Prejudice runs rampant among TV Believers.
I encourage you to come to Alabama and melt your snowflake *ss at the end of a citizen owned RPG when you see one. You allowed your state to take your rights away, but ok its Alabama. Brainwashed much?
Have you ever heard of Florida?
First and Second Amendment staulwarts should stand outside the courthouse there and sing this song:
“In 1814 we took a little hike..
Along with General Jackson around the lake of mikimike..
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans..
And fought the ugly British in the town of New Orleans.
We…fired our guns and the British kept acomin…
We firered once more and there wasn’t quite as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began a running.
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico!
The site of the Battle of New Orleans is a National Historic site about 3-4 miles down river from New Orleans along the Chalmette Highway and Mississippi River. There’s also a civil war era cemetery there.
Do as I say, not as I do eh? You are way to cowardly to do anything of the sort, snowflake.
But of course…..
###
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/03/17/law-prof-campus-dorm-closures-will-lead-to-class-action-lawsuits/
Law Prof: Campus Dorm Closures Will Lead to Class Action Lawsuits
George Washington University Law School Professor John Banzhaf made the case this week that colleges and universities could face class-action lawsuits over their decisions to shut down residential halls due to the Wuhan coronavirus.
In an interview with ValueWalk, George Washington Law School Professor John Banzhaf spoke about the potential repercussions for colleges and universities that have closed their doors to students during the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
Banzhaf argues that institutions of higher education are opening themselves up to liability when they tell students that they must leave their residential halls. Some schools, however, may be protected by contract clauses that allow them to shut down residential halls during emergencies
It makes as much sense as the kindergarden little boy who was actually arrested by police for biting a slice of bread into what his teacher thought looked like a hand gun!
It seems like “(b) Knowingly makes a false report of an act of terrorism and communicates the false report to any other” is the pertinent part of the statute.
The Judge must be a snowflake if he thinks that shooting snow is any kind of threat to human life.
I f the Michigan legilture criminializes stupidity we will all be in jail
Where the is China’s mugshot?
This kid hasn’t actually hurt anyone while China is willfully murdering millions of innocent human beings.
_________________________________________________________________________________
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
– Proverb
________
It’s time for “me,” a world of “me’s,” to do something about China, an irresponsible and heinous, rogue, criminal state. It’s time to prosecute and sue China for knowingly and willfully committing criminal and civil crimes against humanity and sovereign nations. It’s one thing for the communists in China to enslave and abuse their own people. It’s another for China to ruthlessly and wantonly murder free people around the world. The communists in China could care less and have absolutely no concern for human life and human freedom. China has been criminally and willfully derelict and negligent in causing multiple mortal global viral pandemics.
Snow flalkes got nothing better to do in school than try for a social promotion
The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats) should next round up Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and everyone with an
“R” after their name. The act may have been impolite and immoral but no crime was committed and no clear intent to commit a crime was demonstrated. Authorities have leapfrogged due process, coherence and rationality. What’s next, a criminal countenance; a cross-eyed gaze? What does a raised middle finger mean? Wasn’t it Kafka who inordinately (perhaps not) feared an out-of-control and arbitrary system of prosecution/persecution? The SCOTUS is on vacation in Marxlandia and has been since “Crazy Abe” Lincoln’s wholly unconstitutional “Reign of Terror.” American freedom and free enterprise through self-reliance: Bad! The People are the Sovereign and government is the subject of that Sovereign. Sovereigns of the past would have never been arbitrarily held to account by their subjects for implied or imagined cowing. The posted photo is “proof” of what exactly – the guy has a bizarre sense of humor? Don Rickles must be Drawn and Quartered. The “government” sends immature, impressionable 19-year-old kids overseas to commit mayhem, maim, kill and be killed, quite literally. The penalty for this “crime” against etiquette should be public humiliation, embarrassment and social ostracization. Bill Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick as proven by preponderant circumstantial evidence and Hillary Clinton conducted a criminal, global pay-for-play scheme, employed illegal servers, willfully mishandled classified information, destroyed electronic evidence as 30,000 e-mails with Bleachbit and hammers and absolutely no prosecution was even considered. The communists can do no wrong.
Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a quasi-legal duel.
The inmates have taken over the asylum.
_________________________________
Ben Franklin, 1787, we gave you “…a republic, if you can keep it.”
Ben Franklin, 2020, we gave you “…a republic, if you can take it back.”
What do you think?
Prosecutorial abuse.
This is a MASS failure – to the extent that the student likely has a section 1983 claim for a civil rights violation.
The fundimental issues has already been decided by the supreme court.
Neither the police nor prosecutors would have qualified immunity.
The wise thing to do would be to walk away from this and beg the student not to sue.
Elonis v. United States
Though a proud leftist, I do agree that anticipatory/preventative legal and police actions against supposed “threats” have gotten very much out of hand. And I sympathize with right-wingers in this matter because I understand how such abuses of power could also be used against the left. In fact, they have been, particularly with regard to surveillance operations and provocation operations against leftist protesters and dissenters.
It seems like one way to put the brakes on these abuses of power would be to require that the person who “felt threatened” undergo a formal psychiatric exam upon making a complaint. While we’re at it, any cop who uses substantial force, and especially deadly force, because he “felt threatened” should also be made to undergo one. In all cases, the results should be public record, and evidence for any future civil suits. Currently, the person who feels “threatened” faces few if any consequences if their feelings are unreasonable.
Or just grasp that “feelings” have nothing to do with the law.
I “feel” that the left threatens me – can we just lock them all up.
This is constitutionally protected free speech.
END OF STORY
biologist sounds smart. yes you better believe that the ARA is infiltrated with grassers, snitches, informants, provocateurs, and informants. because it is.
these are the kind of people who think they have transactional immunity from the sorts of prosecutions other people will endure for a tenth of the wrongdoing. they stick out like a sore thumb if you know what to look for. most people don’t.
HIPPA means it will not be public record. If you want it to be, then you have to give up medical privacy for all. Otherwise, some peopel cannot have more rights than others.
I don’t give a fat rat’s ass what the ‘snowflake” feels. I want to know what
the she thinks. Those who irrationally think, express feelings.
Its not “right wing” to follow our laws, but TV believers have been brainwashed to think that.
“‘Let white people die’ prof triples down: Whiteness is ‘mental and physical terrorism’”
https://www.thecollegefix.com/let-white-people-die-prof-triples-down-whiteness-is-mental-and-physical-terrorism/
basically that professor is calling for race war.
which is really stupid on his part because he’s outnumbered. in such a conflict, your skin is your uniform. let’s hope it doesnt come to that; but they want to pour gas on the fire!
https://www.thecollegefix.com/college-student-charged-with-faking-hate-crime-against-herself/
this happens often that a “hate crime” is actually a hoax.
but understand that they are ratcheting it all up to civil war. a faked hate crime is essentially a psyop.
the Democrat party leadership has unleashed a lot of these animal spirits, and they either quell them or take the medicine to resolve the cancer when it comes to the surface. they should wise up.
Again, Trinity’s board could fix this problem. They simply refuse to do anything about it.
I don’t understand why some people cannot seem to get along with others. It’s very easy, mutual respect.
The professor here must have a deep wound going way back in time to his childhood, I’m guessing.
But you cannot control your race, you are born whatever you are born, and no one is making that decision for you.
White is a race, how you choose to treat others is a choice. Individualistic in nature.
Association is a choice as well. Someone may have tendencies to discriminate prior to or contemporaneous with or subsequent thereafter…depending on persuasion techniques and the ability to be persuaded by others.
Life is random, we all make choices.
I think we’re seeing an increasing number of prosecutors who willingly and knowingly violate civil rights in effort to meet unqualified standards or criteria required of today’s politicos by the progressively-minded, politically-correct subculture. And in so doing wantonly jeopardizing community treasure, the “hard-earned” dollars extorted of resident citizenry. So I actually see such actions as unethical to the point of “corrupt,” on multiple levels.
Obviously one should only be jailed for acts, not words or expressions, let alone the enigmatic threat. This does not mean though that such socially incongruous statements or expressions do not invite scrutiny; in light of our seemingly endless ability to produce blood-lustful beings, I would think they most certainly do – this isn’t a guy posing in the snowflaked White Mountains with a bear carcass, ok? So I think there is also the matter of policing; in an effort to eliminate the seemingly prejudicial, we’ve stripped law enforcement of effort and ability to “police,” which in itself invites increased victimization.
There is a flip side to this too and that is the need to censure those whom parenting has failed, although I don’t know how effective a judicial smack-down of eighty-three days in solitary will be; “solitary” because this young man perfectly fits the MO of those tactless social-disconnects with natural predilection for security typically only afforded in jail settings through protective custody. The point is there are two sides to this and it appears none are quite certain of just response, let alone the politically-minded legislator. Which is the point where we once again begin to think about the need to inject the “intelligence” seriously lacking in virtually all local governance.
well betudollar that people are caged for words all the time. attempt, conspiracy, etc. the goalposts for the state keep on getting moved all the time
but these facts are not even close to properly chargeable. the prosecutor should be fired, or removed, or disciplined. the judge will need to bring justice to this situation,. let’s watch and see.
these laws against “Terroristic threats” — sometimes that’s what they’re called, titles vary; but they are stupid because a person who really intends to do harm, and is good at it? they don’t threaten.
they don’t telegraph the punch
they run silent and run deep
Not a direct threat, perhaps . . . but apparently that’s not necessary in today’s ‘ snow ‘- storm eh? It seems there are large numbers of folks who personally feel mortally threatened at the mere hint of violence such as an image of a popular weapon for mass killings? OTOH, the student in the photo doesn’t convey any sense of being the friendly, warm and fuzzy type . . . .
whatever he was before, now he will be acculturated in jail to real racism, and real violence.
the system just made an enemy for life
very stupid, system!