In light of recent efforts to eliminate threats of terrorism, and in the war against senseless gun violence, law enforcement authorities are sitting back and waiting for people to tell on themselves or allowing the general public to bring threatening posts to their attention. Either way, the offending parties can only point the finger at themselves when they are punished for their poor judgment on social media.
Most recently, two individuals did themselves in by going a bit overboard on social media and their desire to carry out mass shootings. Shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday, Kayla-Simone McKelvey of Union, New Jersey stated “I will kill every black male and female at Kean University” by way of floating a few tweets in the twittersphere. McKelvey even went as far to post the threat from the handle @keanuagainstblk which promotes hatred against African-Americans. This raised eyebrows throughout the student body who alerted Kean University officials about the activity on the account. As a result, action was taken against Mckelvey in the form of being charged with third-degree creating a false public alarm and the suspension of the hatred-based twitter account.
On the other hand, over the Thanksgiving weekend, Jabari Dean of Chicago, Illinois got caught up by blasting his plans to shoot “16 white males” at the University of Chicago on the popular website, worldstarhiphop.com. Although the United States Attorney’s office declared that the threat was empty threat since he did not have the resources to carry out the threat, Dean still managed to receive the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) although he attempted to delete the messages shortly thereafter. But by then, the damage was done, the post was reported to the authorities, and the FBI apprehended him and began their investigation on the matter at the federal courthouses.
So as a word to the wise, if you like to remain out of police or FBI custody, everyone should take the advice that their mother gave them at some point: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.” Whether posts are made on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or on any other social media platform, for shock value or as a joke, users might want to consider if more likes and attention is worth law enforcement knocking at your door.
Clinton is an Attorney in the Intellectual Property and Entertainment fields whose interests are peaked by way of the realms of law, sports, culture, lifestyle, the arts, and humane interests. Follow him at:
Twitter – @ClintonJEsq
