Man Arrested For Facebook Post: Free Speech Or Terrorist Threat?
A man arrested for a Facebook post two weeks ago says he was only sharing song lyrics, but several people reported that the lyrics appeared to be a threat. Now the band behind the song is responding to the controversy, and the man behind the Facebook post was released after eight days in jail, but the ordeal isn’t over for him.
According to 14 News, James Evans frequently posts lyrics and music videos on Facebook, but in late August, the lyrics he chose to post apparently shocked and horrified some viewers, leading to Evans being arrested.
The song is performed by Exodus, and the title is Class Dismissed: A Hate Primer. It’s intended to show a glimpse of a madman’s views, according to the band, and it must’ve have looked like exactly that to those who saw it on Evans’ Facebook page and didn’t recognize it.
The post was the chorus of the song.
Student bodies lying dead in the halls
A blood splattered treatise of hate
Class dismissed is my hypothesis
Gun fire ends the debate
All I ever wanted was a little affection
But no one ever gave it to me
My hate primer’s the result of my rejection
You’ll die for it, and I’ll die for thee
On their own Facebook page, the band said that they don’t condone terrorism or threats, but decried this incident as a First Amendment violation.
After spending over a week in jail, James Evans was finally released today after a preliminary hearing, 14 News reports.
However, the case is not at an end. It’s merely been deferred. Evans will return to court in six months and will have to undergo a mental evaluation in the meantime.
Evans is hardly the first person to be arrested over a Facebook post: here at Inquisitr we’ve reported on the man who was arrested for threats in a post after George Zimmerman’s ‘not guilty’ verdict, and several cases in which a Facebook post alerted authorities to some crime, such as animal abuse or the location of a parole violator.
However, according to Rolling Stone, a Grand Jury refused to indict in a similar case last year, when a teenager was arrested for posting rap lyrics that resembled a bomb threat.
In that case, civil liberties advocates spoke out, saying that such an arrest makes no one safer and is no excuse for limiting rights.
There is no word at this time on whether the man arrested for a Facebook post will attempt to fight the ruling.
[Photo Credit: Exodus Facebook]
