Trump's messaging hurts and kills - Again

[Thekri]

The pragmatist in me says: Why the fuck wasn't it already a federal crime?
The dirty leftist in me says: This'll make for some good headlines when Mitch refuses to even hear the bill because he's a partisan tool.

Because the headline of the bill is usually written as something incredibly non-controversial so they can beat someone over the head with it when they don't vote for it. Bill naming practices are sleazy as shit.

What this bill does is that it adds terrorism in the United States to 18 Code 2332, which is exclusively foreign terrorism, with the entire purpose of the code being to establish jurisdiction in international court over killings of US citizens abroad. Everything in the bill is already illegal elsewhere, it just adds terrorism to the list of charges that can be filed separately. However the definition is so broad that I am not sure this is actually useful. According to this bill, any murder that can be construed to be political in nature or "the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population" can be charged with terrorism.

My problem with this bill is that it seems much more like political posturing then any sort of useful or effective bill. Everything contained in it is already illegal, and I don't think any prosecutor is going to be interested in fighting to prove the intent of the attacker. It opens up a glaring loophole in prosecution, where someone like Dylan Roof could easily get off these charges if the defense argued the intent was not to coerce a civilian population. He would still get convicted for murder, but the reasonable doubt requirement makes intent based crimes very, very hard to prosecute.

But yes, the main intent is to bludgeon any political adversaries that point out the very real issues of this bill, and frame them as supporting terrorism if they don't vote for it.

[SirBeef]

That is absolutely hilarious coming from you. As @Sormine already asked, do you really think anybody here takes you seriously? You keep up this facade like you are fooling anybody..

No he doesn't. He is purposefully dishonest to illicit responses. More reason to just put him on ignore and not give him any power.

[Xyonai]

Because the headline of the bill is usually written as something incredibly non-controversial so they can beat someone over the head with it when they don't vote for it. Bill naming practices are sleazy as shit.

What this bill does is that it adds terrorism in the United States to 18 Code 2332, which is exclusively foreign terrorism, with the entire purpose of the code being to establish jurisdiction in international court over killings of US citizens abroad. Everything in the bill is already illegal elsewhere, it just adds terrorism to the list of charges that can be filed separately. However the definition is so broad that I am not sure this is actually useful. According to this bill, any murder that can be construed to be political in nature or "the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population" can be charged with terrorism.

My problem with this bill is that it seems much more like political posturing then any sort of useful or effective bill. Everything contained in it is already illegal, and I don't think any prosecutor is going to be interested in fighting to prove the intent of the attacker. It opens up a glaring loophole in prosecution, where someone like Dylan Roof could easily get off these charges if the defense argued the intent was not to coerce a civilian population. He would still get convicted for murder, but the reasonable doubt requirement makes intent based crimes very, very hard to prosecute.

But yes, the main intent is to bludgeon any political adversaries that point out the very real issues of this bill, and frame them as supporting terrorism if they don't vote for it.

Thank you for clarifying all this, actually. I'll admit I didn't take the time to actually consider the broader scope of what was being proposed and that's not something I'd wanna hand off to this or any administration with an Ax to grind against political opponents.

[Thekri]

Thank you for clarifying all this, actually. I'll admit I didn't take the time to actually consider the broader scope of what was being proposed and that's not something I'd wanna hand off to this or any administration with an Ax to grind against political opponents.

Exactly. More specifically article 2332 requires the Attorney General to provide a specific written approval for any case prosecuted this way, and this bill preserves that requirement explicitly. Imagine this current justice department using it to slap terrorism charges on any remotely left wing connected murder, while ignoring cases like the El Paso shooter. This can backfire hard on the democrats by handing republicans stastics like "70 liberal aligned terrorism charges in 2020 with 0 conservative aligned charges" never mind that none of the charges stuck, it would be Barr that gets to choose who gets the terrorism label.

I don't like this bill, at all.