Small towns do stupid things the world over. It's like a universal constant. And for better or worse, in the U.S. there is relatively little high-level supervision of how small towns police themselves.
Holding this kid for what he said is clearly unconstitutional. I think every federal court in the country would hold likewise. But a police department in a small town where residents are scared to death of another Columbine or Sandy Hook? They don't care about the first amendment, and they never have. Small towns have never been a place where you could just say whatever you wanted. They've never had that mentality. It's just much more visible now that everything is on the internet.
In my misspent youth I very nearly ran afoul of zero-tolerance policies at school, in a somewhat small suburban town. This is a bullshit case, but par for the course.
Yeah, I live in San Antonio and go to New Braunfels pretty often. I wouldn't call it a small town.
The whole thing seems absurd. His statement is obviously making fun of the person calling him insane, not a threat. It's pretty bad when you have to be so careful with what you say, because it can be considered "terroristic". Who get's to make that determination and how long do you get to sit in jail for until it's decided regarding a crime that wasn't committed?
Statements don't lose 1st amendment protection because they're "terroristic." The benchmark for that has always been "true threat." That's the law.
As for the New Braunfel's government's treatment of the kid: what the law is and what it's smart to say have always been two separate things. I'm willing to test the boundaries of the 1st amendment in say New York or Chicago. Maybe Austin or Dallas. Not so much 30 miles outside of San Antonio. This has always been the reality of places where the police don't have much better to do, and where things like this don't invoke national scrutiny.
