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'Killing Indiscriminately' Facebook Vent Gets Illinois Man Arrested

by Warren Riddle on March 19, 2010 at 07:30 AM

The old "yelling, 'Fire!' in a crowded theater" axiom serves as one of the first, elementary lessons when discussing the constitutional right to free speech. That old standby may need a 21st century update, though, to specifically include "threats on Facebook."

In January, four New Jersey high school students were arrested and charged with creating a false public alarm, making terrorist threats, and conspiracy -- after they openly "joked" about blowing up their school on the social networking site. Proving that ignorance and naivety aren't limited to defiant teens, NBC Bay Area is reporting that a 38-year-old single father has also been arrested over a threatening status update.

After a frustrated Mike Sullivan posted that he was "again ready to start killing indiscriminately," a concerned Facebook friend (yeah, thanks "buddy") alerted authorities, who then charged the angry networker with disorderly conduct. Sullivan, who said he was just "venting," has been released on bond pending an April 19th court date. Hopefully, while he's at home, he'll learn his lesson, and instill a little bit of social networking common sense in his kids. [From: NBC Bay Area and The Chicago Tribune]

Tags: conspiracy, dumbcriminal, facebook, FacebookFaceLoss, freespeech, SocialNetworking

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