White Nationalist Coast Guard Officer Won't Be Released From Jail After All

[Soph0571]

Source: Talking Points Memo

A federal judge on Monday overturned another judge’s decision to allow a Coast Guard lieutenant to be released on bail despite being accused of plotting a mass white nationalist attack, according to the Washington Post and BuzzFeed News.


Christopher Paul Hasson is charged with illegal possession of unregistered and unmarked silencers, illegal possession of 17 firearms by an addict of controlled substances, and possession of the opioid Tramadol. Though prosecutors haven’t charged him with terrorism-related offenses, they refer to him in court filings as a “domestic terrorist.”

Hasson was arrested after investigators found a “hit list” of prominent Democrats and journalists, a stockpile of guns and an Internet history full of searches like “please god let there be a race war” and “best n***** killing gun.”

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/white-nationalist-coast-guard-terror-attack-wont-be-released

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Good. It was an outrageous decision in the first court. Still not charged with terrorism offences though?!?!?!

[jberryhill]

1. "Still not charged with terrorism offences though?!"

Because he did not commit any of the acts required to be charged under one of them.

This is the chapter of US criminal law addressing terrorism:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-113B

Let's try the specific offenses on for size:

18 U.S. Code § 2332a. Use of weapons of mass destruction


(a)Offense Against a or Within the United States.—A person who, without lawful authority, uses, threatens, or attempts or conspires to use, a weapon of mass destruction—

(1) against a national of the United States while such national is outside of the United States;
(2) against any person or property within the United States, and
(A) the mail or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce is used in furtherance of the offense;
(B) such property is used in interstate or foreign commerce or in an activity that affects interstate or foreign commerce;
(C) any perpetrator travels in or causes another to travel in interstate or foreign commerce in furtherance of the offense; or
(D) the offense, or the results of the offense, affect interstate or foreign commerce, or, in the case of a threat, attempt, or conspiracy, would have affected interstate or foreign commerce;

(b)Offense by Outside of the United States.—

Any national of the United States who, without lawful authority, uses, or threatens, attempts, or conspires to use, a weapon of mass destruction outside of the United States .....

well no.

18 U.S. Code § 2332b. Acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries

(a) Prohibited Acts.—

(1)Offenses.—Whoever, involving conduct transcending national boundaries and in a circumstance described in subsection (b)—

(A) kills, kidnaps, maims, commits an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, or assaults with a dangerous weapon any person within the United States; or
(B) creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to any other person by destroying or damaging any structure, conveyance, or other real or personal property within the United States or by attempting or conspiring to destroy or damage any structure, conveyance, or other real or personal property within the United States;
in violation of the laws of any State, or the United States, shall be punished as prescribed in subsection (c).

(b) Jurisdictional Bases.—

(1)Circumstances.—The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are—

(A) the mail or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce is used in furtherance of the offense;
(B) the offense obstructs, delays, or affects interstate or foreign commerce, or would have so obstructed, delayed, or affected interstate or foreign commerce if the offense had been consummated;
(C) the victim, or intended victim, is the United States Government, a member of the uniformed services, or any official, officer, employee, or agent of the legislative, executive, or judicial branches, or of any department or agency, of the United States;
(D) the structure, conveyance, or other real or personal property is, in whole or in part, owned, possessed, or leased to the United States, or any department or agency of the United States;
(E) the offense is committed in the territorial sea (including the airspace above and the seabed and subsoil below, and artificial islands and fixed structures erected thereon) of the United States; or
(F) the offense is committed within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

Well, no....

It goes on and on...

§ 2332f. Bombings of places of public use, government facilities, public transportation systems and infrastructure facilities

§ 2332g. Missile systems designed to destroy aircraft

§ 2332h. Radiological dispersal devices

§ 2332i. Acts of nuclear terrorism

§ 2339. Harboring or concealing terrorists

§ 2339A. Providing material support to terrorists

§ 2339B. Providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations

§ 2339C. Prohibitions against the financing of terrorism

§ 2339D. Receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization


It's going to be repeated by every stupid and lazy journalist reporting on this story that "he hasn't been charged with any terrorism offenses" because stupid and lazy journalists do not bother to look up just what the US law defines AS "terrorism offenses" in order to compare those definitions with what he did.

And, incidentally, it is not a crime to want to, say, blow up a building. Until you proceed down the road of an actual attempt to do so, or a conspiracy to do so (in which an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy is committed), then you have not committed a crime by wanting to, planning to, or gathering materials to (unless the gathering of the materials in question is also a crime).

In informant cases, for example, you'll notice that people don't get arrested until they pick up the dummy bomb or whatever, with the intent to deliver it to the target.

[htuttle]

3. There's a lot more discretion available to prosecutors than that

My own stepson, back when he was in the throes of alcoholism, was once charged with 'making terroristic threats' against a police officer when he allegedly exclaimed, "I'm going to kill you!" at the cop after his head was slammed into the roof of the cop car on the way into the back seat.

It was eventually dropped in place of a more typical drunk and disorderly charge (this was like 15 years ago, when 9/11 wasn't that far away), but I don't see any reason why prosecutors couldn't have used a similar type of charge against this guy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroristic_threat

The courts have held that "a threat need not take any particular form or be expressed in any particular words, and may be made by innuendo or suggestion, and that the words uttered will not be considered in a vacuum but rather in light of all the circumstances."[4] A number of courts have upheld convictions under a state criminal terroristic threat statute on the basis of a single or solitary threat,[5] a conditional threat,[6] or a threat that some third person will take action.[7] In several states, courts have held that a "threatener's present inability to carry out his or her threats does not in itself remove the threats from the purview of terroristic threat or terroristic threatening statutes."[8]

From the US Penal Code:

18 U.S.C. § 2332b(c)(1)(g) makes it a class C felony, punishable by 10 years imprisonment, for someone to willfully threaten to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily harm; the threat is made with the specific intent that it be taken as a threat; the threat is so unequivocal, unconditional, and specific as to convey a gravity of purpose and immediate prospect of execution; the threat actually causes fear in the victim; and the fear is reasonable.[24]

[jberryhill]

4. Making terroristic threats

Is not a terrorism crime. That’s a form of assault which has been in a lot of state codes for a long time.

In any event, this guy wasn’t doing that either. To whom did he issue any threats of anything?

[Hortensis]

7. It's very possible that he hasn't been charged because a

body of evidence adequate to secure conviction hasn't been gathered to this point.

I've noticed a dismaying tendency to assume we know everything experts closely involved in situations do and wonder how much of that is the RW's inimical poison seeping through society.
Fascistic agents are not just pushing hostility to and rejection of intellectualism and truth, but of expertise in all fields because that also reveals their lies.

In any case, as a working rule, we should assume going in that we do not know a great deal of the pertinent and often critical information that the people involved do.

[ck4829]

8. That's missing a huge chunk of the picture though

The corrupt and fascist executive branch and Senate and their backers in the "alt-right" today traffics in psychological manipulation, they'll want you to reject truth that is not line with their "version" of it. They're more than OK with pseudo-science like "racial science", conversion therapy, heartbeat bills, using credit history as a barrier to entry for jobs, and more. If they could bring back phrenology, they would.

At a certain point, we got to trust ourselves too. That's another thing of psychological manipulation and the gaslighting I keep seeing mentioned, it's all to make us not trust ourselves.

I'm trained as a sociologist, I have spent over a decade learning about double standards, disparities, social stratification, pseudoscience, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, stigma, the effects and 'functions' of poverty, etc. I've trained myself as an activist, I've also spent over a decade learning how to dismantle far right groups and how to deplatform people and organizations with right wing terrorist tendencies, with a lot of that learning "on the field".

I trust myself. I am going to keep applying what I've learned to the world and now... now I am finding out and learning more ways to apply all the lessons I've learned over the years.

[Hortensis]

9. Well, of course you don't trust the fascistic elements

that have taken over much of the right. Fascism always involves massive corruption and cannot come to power without massive deception.

But much of that deception involves teaching everyone to regard experts with deep suspicion and distrust. Better to stay away from them altogether lest they warp your thinking.

And remember, there can be no such thing as what we think of as "common sense" without truthful information to apply it to. Without, it's just guesses and imaginings, usually wishful at that.

[Evolve Dammit]

2. Totally blows my mind that this WHITE military asshole is not charged. No faith anymore.

[Initech]

10. When in doubt, consult the chart!

[patphil]

5. There are no white nationalists in the United States

Only white supremacists.

[ck4829]

6. Nobody 'is' a white supremacist though

They ARE but "aren't"

This creep is the kind of guy who publicly says "I'm not racist but... (followed by something incredibly racist)"

[jmowreader]

11. Next question

Why is a known "addict of controlled substances" still in the Coast Guard? Especially since this one is an officer?