morons.org – Kentucky Student Charged with Felony Thoughtcrime — I’m going to continue to follow up on this story until the facts are revealed. We’re getting no details or reporting whatsoever.
Police insist that the nature of the fictional zombie-attack story still makes it a felony. Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill said, “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky.”
It sounds like they take threats of zombie attacks very seriously in Kentucky. Our research into documentation of zombie attacks, however, indicates relatively few instances of zombie attacks, real or imagined, in that state.
Poole’s bond has been set at $5,000 due to the “seriousness” of the charge of felony threatening of zombie attack.
This thoughtcrime case reminds us of earlier cases including an Atlanta student expelled from school over a fiction in her diary and a Canadian student charged over a fictional story who later had the charges against him dropped.
It gets worse than this as the national media has dropped the ball on this thought police story. All that has appeared is an AP story that does nothing more than parrot the police claim that Poole was recruiting a gang to take over the school. Yeah, right. For what purpose?
That said this post shows up on the ZeroIntelligence Blog:
That’s my school. Consider this if you’re wondering about the boy’s creditbility: his initial story was that it was a short story for vocational school (yeah, the place where you learn carpentry and welding, not creative writing). Then it switched to an English assignment. Funny thing is, he doesn’t have an English class this semester. He’s also been involved in a number of fights and assaults on campus. His sister is even worried because she read what he wrote and she says it’s no zombie story. He had the sites of the cameras on campus mapped out and had timed out how quickly the police could arrive on campus. Heretofore, his grandparents have done everything they could to keep him out of jail.
I sent an email to the poster to get more details.
Don’t laugh. I think I just saw one of these zombies for real here in Pennsylvania, near the Pittsburgh Airport. I’ve heard reports that these are different than the Kentucky zombies, but they still love chicken. The thing I saw looked like Rush Limbaugh, but he was fatter and had a double chin and was carrying a bucket of chicken and a Big Gulp. He disappeared into a wooded area. I’m really thinking I should be calling 911. If these things are dead, how do you kill them again? Somebody said if you kill the brain, you kill the ghoul. There are reported sightings up in Youngstown too!
Wow, so I guess we should go and arrest Steven King immediately.
Of course anything written by Tom Clancy should be considered a terrorist threat.
This has gotten so far out of control as to be silly
You people seem to be taking the kid’s words over the police and his own family’s words. He *SAYS* it’s a story about zombies.
John wrote: “I’m going to continue to follow up on this story until the facts are revealed.”
I have an idea, you’re a journalist. You’re always complaining that other journalists aren’t doing their job. Don’t merely follow up on this story. Why don’t YOU do us a favor and actually investigate this case. Get a copy of what he wrote and post it here so we can read it. Talk to the kid. Talk to the grandparents. Do your own investigation!
notgunnasay: The kids gave his side. And the police never refuted it. They merely stated that any violent story involving a school is a felony. If I were Robert Rodriguez, director of “The Faculty” I’d stay away from Kentucky for a while.
dude, if i was a teenager in highschool right now… id be soooo screwed…. you know how many “terroristic” short storys i wrote fer english and extra credit? (yea thats how i passed almost all my classes handing in bullshit storys)
id be rotting in jail as we speak… i always used to use my teachers and classmates in my writings. i side with the kid no matter what! fuck this commie bullshit, its a STORY, these ass holes need to grow the hell up. i hate what our countrys come to… a bunch of nitwits ruining everythign for everyone….
notgunnasay: I’ve read his stories. They were fictional, post-apocalyptic zombie stories. The school encounter in question? There wasn’t even violence involved, he was simply hiding in a high school from the zombies outside.
The ironic part? He didn’t even mention the name of the high school, nor even describe it heavily. He also named no names through the entire story.
This is such bull.
How about an article from the Student Press Law Center? It verifies som eof what I’ve been saying — and confronts both POole’s claims and the one made by Autolycus.
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=973&year=
Ky. high school student jailed for making “terroristic threats” in writing
Student says he was arrested for fictional short story about zombies
© 2005 Student Press Law Center
March 4, 2005
KENTUCKY – A high school junior was arrested, jailed and charged with a felony Feb. 22 for making terrorist threats in writings found at his home, Winchester County police said.
George Rogers Clark High School student William Poole, 18, was arrested and detained after his grandparents found materials he authored and called police, said Clark High principal John Atkins.
According to a Web report from a TV station in Lexington, Poole said the material his grandparents found was a short story meant for his English class.
“My story is based on fiction,” Poole told Lex18.com. “It’s a fake story. I made it up. I’ve been working on one of my short stories, [and] the story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school overran by zombies.”
Atkins disputed Poole’s account.
“The boy’s version was that he was writing a story about zombies and it was for a portfolio entry that was going to be turned in at school,” Atkins said. “The teachers aren’t aware of any kind of project like that. The word ‘zombies’ was not mentioned in the writings.”
Atkins said investigators and school officials were concerned because they perceived “a direct threat” to Clark High School in the writings, although the school was never mentioned.
“It did not mention [Clark High School or school officials] specifically but it did mention ‘the high school,’ and how many teachers were there and how long it would take the police to arrive once they received an emergency call,” Atkins said. “It implied very strongly that it was referring to this school.”
Atkins said law enforcement agents showed him the writings, which resembled “notes and a plan. … It sounded to be kind of an advertisement or recruiting to meet a goal, and a goal was stated which was very negative about the school.”
Poole said he was not threatening anyone, according to Lex18.com.
“It didn’t mention nobody who lives in Clark County, didn’t mention [Clark High School], didn’t mention no principal or cops, nothing,” Poole said.
Under Kentucky law, a person is guilty of terroristic threatening in the second degree when they threaten to “commit any act likely to result in death or serious physical injury” to students, teachers or employees of a school.
“A threat directed at a person or persons or at a school does not need to identify a specific person or persons or school in order for a violation of this section to occur,” the law reads.
Poole has been detained in the Clark County detention center since he was arrested. A court hearing is scheduled for next week, Atkins said.
–By Campbell Roth
That’s very odd. I’ll concede at this point if that’s true, the version of the story I have read had all that removed, if it was in there.
Personally, as a great fan of creative writing, I have to say that, first of all, I also use double negatives when I speak, but the have yet to appear in my writings.
Second of all, the fact that he was writing something, doesn’t mean that it was good. It is perfectly plausible that the police have mistaken a badly carried out zombie story for a threat.
Thirdly, If I were going to write a zombie story, I would include how much time it would take the police to get there. It adds a nice diminsion to the story! The more plausible your fiction, the better!!
This is not to say that either party is right, but I think that the reasons for arrest that the police are giving is ludicrus. If they difine stories like that as “terroristic” they’re going to have me in jail pretty soon! I’m a huge fan of disaster fiction!