Brooklyn subway attack suspect ordered held without bail

[brooklynite]

Source: Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The man charged with opening fire on subway riders on a train in Brooklyn was ordered held without bail Thursday at his first court appearance, where prosecutors told a judge he terrified all of New York City.

Brought into a Brooklyn federal court without handcuffs, a subdued Frank James, 62, softly answered standard questions about whether he understood the charges and the purpose of the brief hearing. His lawyer later asked the public not to prejudge him.

James was arrested in Manhattan after calling a police tip line to say where he was Wednesday, a day after the nightmarish rush-hour attack left 10 people with gunshot wounds and countless others fearing for their safety on the nation’s busiest subway system.

Authorities say he unleashed smoke bombs and dozens of bullets, in a train full of morning commuters. He’s charged with a federal terrorism offense that applies to attacks on mass transit systems — authorities say there’s currently no evidence linking him to terror organizations and are still trying to derive a motive.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trending-news-new-york-manhattan-brooklyn-shootings-de74d0cc22f4958e8be1f1776e35948d

[a kennedy]

1. He's in need of mental health.....not dismissing the horrible action, but he is not a terrorist.....

[Warpy]

4. He's a terrorist in serious need of mental health care

FTFY

[a kennedy]

7. Oh really a terrorist??? Seriously?? So what country is he fighting for???

HE NEEDS MENTAL HELP.

[oldsoftie]

11. So I guess Tim McVeigh wasn't a terrorist. He wasn't fighting for another country

But he sure terrorized this one

[markpkessinger]

23. McVeigh had a political agenda . . .

. . . The NY Post published one of this guy's YouTube videos (link below(. His thoughts are such a jumbled mess it's pretty hard to categorize them as "political" (or as anything else for that matter). The guy is clearly just really deeply disturbed. Calling this "terrorism" risks depriving that word of any meaning at all!

https://players.brightcove.net/4137224153001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6303837186001

[oldsoftie]

27. I'm pretty sure everyone there was terrorized.

And "mental illness' is an easy crutch for a lot of these people. I can post crazy videos before doing something terrible.
We see it all the time with death penalty cases; last ditch attempts to stop it by saying they're "mentally ill'

[cstanleytech]

12. "HE NEEDS MENTAL HELP." We all need that to some extent as we all have issues.

The real question is does his issue cause him to be unaware of what he was doing and that is going to be a high hurdle to get over.
After all his use of the smoke bombs clearly demonstrate that it was planned so its unlikely that he is mentally impaired as far as his intelligence goes.
He is also clearly aware of his surroundings as evidenced by his ability to get to the subway as well as the ability to target and kill all those innocent people so it will be hard to argue he was not aware of that.
But either way its going to take a well trained professional to determine if he is fit to be put on trial.

[a kennedy]

18. HE CALLED THE TIP LINE TO SAY HEY, HERE I AM.......why did he do that??

Oh, that’s right he wanted the limelight, HE NEEDS MENTAL HELP.

[PoliticAverse]

21. I would venture to say most terrorists could use mental help. n/t

[IronLionZion]

28. All terrorists want the limelight

They always call it in and want credit. US terrorism laws don't require someone to be brown or foreign or of stable mental health.

[ripcord]

31. This shows he knows what he did was wrong and caused harm

You can be mentally ill and still be convicted as long as the knew what they were doing would cause harm to others.

[BradAllison]

16. So now you're using the Bush era standard for terrorism?

Those people running sure seemed terrorized, and he successfully jammed up Brooklyn for hours Tuesday.

[Warpy]

17. Terrorists don't have to fight for a country

Some of them just want to see the world burn. Ask the survivors of any mass shooting since the GQP deregulated gunz.

We don't know what imaginary grudge this guy had or where he got it from. We just know he shot up a bunch of strangers on a subway to sow, dare I say it? TERROR.

[IronLionZion]

19. US Code: Federal crime of terrorism

https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?def_id=18-USC-763651625-782330727

It covers attacks on mass transit systems. And he posted plenty of political grievance videos online.

[PoliticAverse]

20. A terrorist doesn't have to be fighting for a country but just for a "cause". n/t

[markpkessinger]

24. Based on his YouTube video, it's hard to identify any particular "cause" . . .

. . . His thoughts are such a jumbled, rambling mess it's hard to even categorize them as political. Here's a link: https://players.brightcove.net/4137224153001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6303837186001

[markpkessinger]

5. I agree . . .

. . . And by charging this guy with federal terrorism charges, we are rendering the word 'terrorism' absolutely meaningless!

[a kennedy]

8. Thank you.....

[cstanleytech]

13. Are the Jan 6 people guilty of terrorism? I think so because their goal was to try and force their

political choices on us and if this guy did what he did for political reasons to get something changed in this country then he is a terrorist.
Unless of course the court finds him to be clinically insane and unable to be put on trial.

[markpkessinger]

22. The NY Post published part of one of the guy's YouTube videos . . .

. . . His "grievances" are so convoluted that it's pretty hard to categorize them as political (or anything else for that matter). The guy is clearly mentally disturbed. Here's a link to the video: https://players.brightcove.net/4137224153001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6303837186001

[cstanleytech]

26. One could argue just as well that a number of the Jan 6th assholes are insane going by

some of the videos they have posted beforehand.
But that aside its going to take an expert to interview him to determine if he is insane or just an asshole that decided to murder all those people.
After that he needs to either be put on trial or confined to a high security mental facility for the rest of his life.

[ck4829]

29. And that's a bad thing, why?

I remember an era in the early-to-mid 2000s, the government used the word 'terrorism' to curtail civil liberties, rights of the accused, privacy, checks on government power, etc.

I remember how the word became stained with racism, that when a minority did a crime, it was terrorism or even Muslims who did nothing illegal could be accused of it, heck, you can go on Rep. Ilhan Omar's twitter feed today, go to any tweet by her, go to the comments, and you will see like 20 people calling her a terrorist when she's done no terrorist activities. But when a guy who looks like the average Republican voter shoots up a school, church, or movie theater while citing "white genocide", "cultural marxism", or that he's a "nice guy", it gets labeled "MeNtAl IlLnEsS"? That doesn't render the word 'terrorism' absolutely meaningless?

Maybe it needs to be rendered meaningless if it's going to have such a racial and majority/minority disparity definition linked to it.

[JohnSJ]

2. I am glad the DA agreed

[nycbos]

3. It's a federal case

[JohnSJ]

10. Thanks

[ShazzieB]

6. Am I reading this right?

James was arrested in Manhattan after calling a police tip line to say where he was Wednesday, a day after the nigghtmarish rush-hour attack left 10 people with gunshot wounds and countless others fearing for their safety on the nation’s busiest subway system.

So he was the one who called the tip line! I read that he might have been the caller, but I didn't know it had been confirmed. That's an interesting twist.

I'm just incredibly glad he's in custody, and that it happened as fast as it did.

[a kennedy]

9. Yes, he called the tip line and said I've been seeing my picture all over and I'm the one you're

looking for, I’ll be at McDonalds, or something like that.

[markpkessinger]

25. But that didn't stop the NYPD from patting themselves on the back n/t

[brooklynite]

14. OH....THAT explains it......

I biked past the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse this morning and it was packed with TV trucks.

[Stuart G]

15. Yes, There is ..".Always More".Why did he call on himself?.I don't know..in time, we will know..

[bucolic_frolic]

30. He didn't do this for his love of humanity, he had some lower purpose

So many bent on the destruction of society. They may not appear to be connected, but the anger, the objectives, the hatred ... the incidents and materiel ... seem connected in ore than small ways ... Question is when will civilized society pull together and do whatever it takes because they've had enough of it already?