Posted on 09/27/2012 5:57:58 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Police arrested Michael D. Turley Monday after he allegedly dressed his teenage relative in a sheet, armed him with a fake rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and sent him to create a terrorist hoax to prompt police response...
Police have been waiting since July 28 to make an arrest because Holmes said they needed more evidence of Turley’s intent.
They got that evidence last week when Turley posted his film on YouTube, in which he clearly states that he is, “about to mimic a modern day terrorist brandishing an intimidating weapon.” That gave police what they needed to make an arrest.
In the film, Turley references both the movie theater massacre in Colorado and Columbine and says that in light of those events, he wanted to test the response time of Phoenix police.
(Excerpt) Read more at azfamily.com ...
Anyone ever seen a tv station do something at an airport...to see if the TSA is doing its job by putting a weapon in luggage? Undercover "journalists" do this all the time. Never have heard of them being arrested.
The only “scary” thing about the whole story is, that nobody packin’ DID shoot him.
On second thought... why didn’t any of the busy patriots carrying cell phones bother to drop a dime?
Something most people miss in this story is that they have both been charged with a severe WoT law, a major federal felony with a 5 year penalty (20 years if injury results) and civil fines to pay for all emergency responses caused by the hoax.
Have you ever heard of a crime called “Knowingly giving a false impression of a terrorist act”? You probably haven’t, because it was only put on the books in 2004.
It is found Title VI, section 8, in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. “Stop Terrorist and Military Hoaxes Act of 2004”. It was put in this “must pass” bill by Orrin Hatch, because congress would not pass it as a stand alone law.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Reform_and_Terrorism_Prevention_Act
In any event, this man and boy (if charged as an adult) are now both facing 5 years in a federal penitentiary. Pretty stiff penalty for just a hoax, huh?
They are probably the first test case of this law, and if they are convicted, we have a serious problem on our hands, because this is, in effect, like a “hate crime” law.
That is, what is called a “hoax” does not require an “intent to hoax”, but is based on what other people think is a hoax, because they were unaware that what you were doing was not for real.
So what if an adult, for example, was dressed like an Arab and carrying a legal AK-47 rifle slung across his back? Is he committing a hoax, even though everything he is doing is legal, because someone else thought he looked like a terrorist doing some terrorist thing?
Were these bozos muslim the authorities would be apologizing profusely and CAIR would be baying at the Moon.
It all comes down to the intent of the person pulling the stunt, which is why they needed the video evidence, to get the suspect saying in his own words why he was doing it. If he said he was doing it as part of some journalistic endeavor, or as a political statement, then they probably couldn’t charge him with anything, due to the Constitutional protections. If his statements instead show he was doing it to cause mischief, then they have a case.
The kid was lucky, and the Dad is an idiot. His effort to highlight police response time was madness defined, but it boggles my mind that it took 15 minutes for one cop to show up. After nine calls to 911 about someone running around with an rpg in a major city? Ouch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.