December 24, 201
NewsRescue- Under the HR 1955 titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, United States citizens can be arrested for their thoughts. This Bill which vaguely defines the thought processes implicated, clearly enables the arrest and sentencing of civilians in the United States for any thought, deemed as criminal by the government.
`(3) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM- The term `homegrown terrorism’ means the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.
See: NewsRescue– House Passes Thought-Crime Prevention Bill
An aspiring Nigerian rapper, Tosin Oduwole is the latest victim of this United States law that undermines fundamental human rights. Worse then impinging on his freedom of speech, this civilian student was arrested and sentenced for his thoughts, which were not even propagated, but simply written on a paper and crushed up in his car.
Tosin is a rapper who constructs scenes and imaginary settings to open up his mind to develop rap lyrics. The ‘incriminating’ evidence found in his car, which was abandoned in college and towed away by the police who were already investigating him for observing his fundamental second amendment rights, ‘the right to bear arms’, by legally purchasing automatic fire arms, contained a message demanding payment to a PayPal account, threatening “if this account doesn’t reach $50,000 in the next 7 days then a murderous rampage similar to the VT shooting will occur at another highly populated university. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!”
“This is Not a Joke’, is a slogan he uses on his online music promotion campaigns. It stems from a typical common Nigerian slang, ‘No be Joke’.
Tosin Oduwole was attending the Illinois school’s 13,000-student Edwardsville campus, northeast of St. Louis, when campus police found a piece of paper in his abandoned car, which they had impounded and was out of gas.
According to Free-speech advocates:
At the time that Johnson’s lyrics were merely artistic expressions and not a credible threat, much as Oduwole’s attorneys have insisted. On Tuesday, a free-speech scholar questioned whether Oduwole’s writings constituted a true threat, given their apparent absence of a clear target.
“I’m a little puzzled by (Oduwole’s being prosecuted), actually,” said David Hudson Jr., a lawyer and scholar with the First Amendment Center, a Nashville, Tenn.-based free speech education organization that’s part of the Freedom Forum. “I think prosecutors have a tough little road there, though maybe there are some other factors I’m not aware of.” source
At the time that Johnson’s lyrics were merely artistic expressions and not a credible threat, much as Oduwole’s attorneys have insisted. On Tuesday, a free-speech scholar questioned whether Oduwole’s writings constituted a true threat, given their apparent absence of a clear target.
“I’m a little puzzled by (Oduwole’s being prosecuted), actually,” said David Hudson Jr., a lawyer and scholar with the First Amendment Center, a Nashville, Tenn.-based free speech education organization that’s part of the Freedom Forum. “I think prosecutors have a tough little road there, though maybe there are some other factors I’m not aware of.” source
Free Oduwole Movement
Nigerians and other free speech advocates are organizing protests to demand justice for Mr Oduwole. This precedent is extremely dangerous, and the risk to citizens of the United States who are now denied the fundamental human right of freedom of not only thought but even speech is of mountainous proportion.
