Kentucky Man Arrested for 'Terroristic Threatening' After Posting Thrash Metal Lyrics to Facebook

Another day, another idiotic freak out over a harmless Facebook post. The latest incident centers on 31-year-old James Evans of Kentucky, who had the temerity to share the lyrics from a song called "Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)" by the thrash metal band Exodus. Here are the lyrics in question:

Student bodies lying dead in the halls, a blood splattered treatise of hate. Class dismissed is my hypothesis, gun fire ends in debate.

Via local outlet 14News.com, here's what happened next:

Mike Drake, the Muhlenberg County school resource officer, says multiple agencies received calls concerned about the post.

So Evans was arrested for terroristic threatening.

The warrant says Evans was arrested because, "he threatened to kill students and or staff at school."

James' sister, Ashelynn, says while she doesn't agree with the song lyrics, she doesn't think her brother should have been arrested.

"Whenever we found out that he actually got arrested for lyrics, we were all shocked," said Ashelynn. "We couldn't believe that you could do that or get in trouble for that. I don't personally agree with the band or the music but I agree that you should have the choice to listen to it if you want to."

At music site Brooklyn Vegan, Exodus guitarist Gary Holt had this response:

"The idea that an individual in this great country of ours could be arrested for simply posting lyrics to a song is something I never believed could happen in a free society," states EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt. "James Evans was simply posting lyrics to a band he likes on Facebook, and he was locked up for it. The song 'Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)' was written as a view through the eyes of a madman and in no way endorses that kind of fucked up behavior. It was the Virginia Tech massacre perpetrated by Seung-Hui Cho that was the subject and inspiration to write the song, one in which we put the brakes on playing it live after the Sandy Hook shooting, as we did not want to seem insensitive."

Gary continues, "As some of us in EXODUS are parents, of course these things hit close to home, it's every parent's worst fear. These moments are the stuff of nightmares, and life, as well as music, isn't always pretty. But when we start to overreact to things like lyrics by any band, including EXODUS, and start arresting people, we are caving in to paranoia and are well on our way to becoming an Orwellian society."

Comments

[sarcasmic]

On our way? Dude, we're there.

[Warty]

Oh, Exodus. The band that everyone kind of liked, no one really listened to, and somehow kept making records.

[Mint Berry Crunch]

"That band Kirk used to be in, before he joined Metallica."

[TonyT]

Today's re-formed Exodus (particularly Exhibit A and Exhibit B) are not like your grandfather's Exodus.

[nipplemancer]

Gary Holt has been filling in for our dear departed brother Jeff Hanneman, so there's that.

[Rhywun]

I'm surprised Gary Holt managed to fit in a reply before being disappeared by a SWAT team.

[Zeb]

Uh, shouldn't there be some sort of threat before you charge someone with threatening? I don't see any threat in those lyrics. And even if it were, they could spend 5 minutes looking into whether the threat is at all credible, or just copied from some band's lyrics.

[Hugh Akston]

Yeah but that's five minutes you could be using to lock and load and start your surplus-issue APC.

[hamilton]

There was a threat - a Terroristic threats.

TERRORISTIC.

As in TERRORISM!!!11!1!one!

That means the rules are different. Enough of you and your September 10th mentality.

[Almanian!]

nice

I esp like the Sept 10 reference

solid!

[Andrew S.]

+0.8181818181(etc.)

[perlhaqr]

Heh.

[Brendan]

Indeed. I know that asking who is target of the threat is equivalent to asking who is the victim of the alleged crime.

If I post a "threat" against a school without actually naming a school, is the threat against the school nearest my house, the nearest high school, a school in the next county over, etc?

[Almanian!]

Since we don't know, we'd better dump the entire district.

Plus the next districts up to two districts over. Just to be sure.

For the children...

[Invisible Finger]

If we got rid of schools, we could no longer threaten them.

[sarcasmic]

Doesn't matter. We're talking about school here. Threats don't have to be credible or even believable. Make a threat with regards to a school, and you're going to jail.

Kinda like domestic violence. Once the cops are called and the allegations are made, someone is going to jail. Doesn't matter if the allegations are credible or even believable, someone is going to jail.

Zero tolerance means zero judgement and zero common sense.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

This sort of PC madness is a real toxic waltz.

[OrangeCouch]

"You're jumping up and down like a psycho circus clown"

😉

[Anomalous]

Let the bodies hit the floor!

[Zeb]

Terrorist!!

[Brendan]

How did they know which school he was talking about?

[Loki]

"The idea that an individual in this great country of ours could be arrested for simply posting lyrics to a song is something I never believed could happen in a free society," states EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt.

It doesn't happen in a free society. What does that say about "this great country of ours?"

[Juice]

Who the hell reported this kid to the cops? Pathetic.

[The Late P Brooks]

school resource officer

Call these motherfuckers what they really are: warders, jailers, prison guards.

[JW]

Mall cop.

[JW]

I must be missing something here. Neither the post nor the linked article addresses it: What was Evans relationship to the school? Did he post on the school's page or was this on his own?

If it was on his own FB page, how did Mike Drake, the Muhlenberg County school resource officer, deduce that it was about his school or schools? Did Evans live by a school or in the same county? Did he name a school in the FB posting? Is there any connection at all, other the one concocted out of thin fucking air by Drake?

What this sounds like is Drake is David Berkowitz and Evans is the dog talking to him.

[Mongo]

The talking dog was the only good part of that boring Summer of Sam film by Spike Lee.

[Bardas Phocas]

"Are you threatening me?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKP-bVViPX8

[The Late P Brooks]

"Listen. I think we all can agree the song sucks, but if you're going to arrest somebody for it, shouldn't you arrest whoever wrote it?"

[Mainer2]

A few years ago, two .22LR cartridges were found in the high school in Kittery Maine and everyone went apeshit..lock down, evacuate. And everyone was fine with it, and that's when I knew we are doomed.

[Iron Sun 254]

Today people would go apeshit because someone was able to find a supply of .22LR ammo.

[cudmaster]

In a post September 11th post Columbine world we don't have time to mess around with freedom of expression. We need to use proven tactics!

...you know who didn't have problems with terrorists!? The Taliban.

Why not? Clearly their strict laws against music had something to do with it.

[MegaloMonocle]

I love the word "terroristic".

The "istic" suffix usually means, more or less, "kinda, but not really".

So he was arrested for making a kinda, but not really threat of terrorism.

Land of the Free! Woot!

[Invisible Finger]

The suffix is "-ic", it is appended to "terrorist"

So Terrorist-ic equivalent to:

Terrorist-y
Terrorist-ish
Terrorist-like

One sounds more attorney-ish, the rest sound high-school mockery-like.

Thus the entire reason the "ic" suffix is used. We need high school smart asses to start using the "ic" suffix more so the authoritarians will have to find yet another way to butcher the language.

[Invisible Finger]

James' sister, Ashelynn, says while she doesn't agree with the song lyrics,

The lyrics don't state an opinion, they state facts. You can't disagree with facts.

[bostonaod]

Whenever somebody tries to derp-splain that "no, but don't you see, taxes pay for society!", don't forget that this is the society they are talking about.

[ReeceExaminer]

"The idea that an individual in this great country of ours could be arrested for simply posting lyrics to a song is something I never believed could happen in a free society,"
This is not a free society. A free society is an anarchist society.

[bhavinder]

http://www.arrowseason3.com