Are you okay with it having taking nearly 5 months already for them to determine that it was made in sarcastic response to someone who suggested he was mentally unhinged, and that he had no weapons and no other evidence of a plan to actually eat the still beating hearts of his enemies? It's not the arrest that's the problem, it's the months of imprisonment over a single statement with no other evidence.
Ravenpoe has already explicitly stated - twice - that he sees the jail system as a separate issue, but is fine with the *original arrest*. Strawmanning someone who thinks 5 months is fine and dandy is a b it useless, since so far, there's no-one here defending that position.
Maybe it will come to light that he's been examined by the state's psychologist and shown to be a threat, but nothing I've read suggests this is anything more than an overreaction by the authorities. An arrest was not unwarranted, however a premature arrest, followed by months of imprisonment that were backed up by no further evidence? That's a horrific miscarriage of justice.
Tress Context has to be considered as well. It's okay to yell "Fire!" in a theater if you're part of the performance. If someone in the audience thinks it's not part of the act, that doesn't negate the fact that the person was not trying to suggest that there was a real fire.
Err, I'm not so sure about the US, but in Belgium, yes, that's very much still illegal, unless it's lcearly done from the stage. Someone who's playing along and shouts "Fire" from the seats as part of the performance
is illegal, as it can cause a false panic and trampling/suffocation from pressure are very real, and very deadly, things.
Consider if I had another one of my bad days, and angered someone enough that they said "Oh look. Pez has gone full white knight again. He's about to start persecuting anyone who looks funny at a cosplayer." and I replied "Oh, yeah, I'm totally going to turn this into a real crusade. I'll storm the nearest convention and torture the first guy I see who leers at a woman. I'll string him up by his thumbs and put hot irons to his feet until he recants of his misogyny. JK LOL" A sarcastic, hyperbolic response to someone accusing me of being overly-zealous is not a credible threat. Someone mocking the trash talk someone else threw at them after a League of Legends game is not a credible threat when there's no other evidence.
It all depends, and up to a certain point, things like "clearly hyperbolic" are a judgement call. Poe's Law is very much real.
For example, I honestly can't tell whether Chad Sexington's "just somewhat blue, and feels the need to vent in hopes of finding some comfort" or "suicidal and cirling the drain, we need an intervention today b ecause he might've slit his wrists tomorrow". I
could just ignore him and hope for the best, I guess, and he
probably won't kill himself. Making sure he has a few other forumites to talk to, offering a listening ear, whatever, might be the better course of action, though.
As you said, things are context sensitive. A few months or years ago, someone claiming they'd go to a Batman movie and shoot everyone who supports that evil black vigilante, would've been "hyperbolic and over the top". Now, he'd get a visit from his friendly neighbourhood SWAT-team.[DOUBLEPOST=1372921909][/DOUBLEPOST]
How is it a separate issue?
"Arresting someone who's made a potential terrorist threat or intention to kill is good"
"Keeping someone in jail for 5 months on charges which should've been able to be cleared up in 2 days is bad"
I don't see why/how you'd want to lump them together.
If you're asking the question "Do you think someone should be able to be arrested for posting on line that he's going to kill someone?", you'll get mostly Yes. If you're asking the question "Do you think someone who makes a joking reference to death on line should be incarcerated for over 5 months and be violently assaulted in jail a few times?" you'll get a different answer.
Similar: "Should people who use drugs be penalized?" > Sure, why not. "Should people who are caught smoking a joint have their left hand cut off?" > Errr, no, prefferably not.
"Should there be a reaction to protect the public?" is a different matter entirely from "Was this an appropriate reaction?".
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