TheAgitator.com
Story About Zombies = Terrorism
Friday, October 17th, 2008High school kid’s zombie story leads to felony terrorism charge, community bed-wetting:
A George Rogers Clark High School junior arrested Tuesday for making terrorist threats told LEX 18 News Thursday that the “writings” that got him arrested are being taken out of context.
Winchester police say William Poole, 18, was taken into custody Tuesday morning. Investigators say they discovered materials at Poole’s home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police.
Poole told LEX 18 that the whole incident is a big misunderstanding. He claims that what his grandparents found in his journal and turned into police was a short story he wrote for English class.
“My story is based on fiction,” said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. “It’s a fake story. I made it up. I’ve been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies.”
Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.
[...]
On Thursday, a judge raised Poole’s bond from one to five thousand dollars after prosecutors requested it, citing the seriousness of the charge.
Poole is being held at the Clark County Detention Center.
MORE: Damned Internets. The local article above had no date, but it turns out this all happened back in 2005. The charges were eventually dropped yet, weirdly, Poole still got two years of probation. Sorry for ginning up your ire about an old story.
The debate about how accurately art reflects reality — and, by extension, how much we can understand of people’s psychologies and intentions — is a very complex and long-running one. I am generally on the side that says you have to give the benefit of the doubt to freedom, because to do otherwise inhibits artistic expression and free inquiry.
This, however, doesn’t even seem to be borderline. Unless we are missing substantial facts, even if the kid did write something serious, it was in his own personal journal! He wasn’t making copies and distributing them. If a law can actually prosecute a kid for that, I am more disgusted with the laws of this country than I can even possibly express.
score one for the bush administration. protecting America from the terrorists.
Thank you, grandparents! I’m sure the Thought Police would have found out about this on their own, but thanks for the help. There is no doubt in my mind that this town is much safer now that the zombie plot has been exposed.
In case we were wondering, or if before we were on the border, we have now officially crossed over into a society where it is important (worth enormous time and resources) to target and ruin the life of a young person over something that isn’t the least bit harmful to any person, thing or even idea when viewed through the prism of skull-crushing common sense.
Comment #1 is right, there is something just so terrifying about this story that words can’t even express it.
“Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.
So does that mean that simply owning a movie like “Toy Soldiers” about a school taken over by terrorists a felony?
How about Heathers?
Bowling for Columbine?
BTW, I own a great book called the “Zombie Survival Guide” or something like that. In which the author goes into great detail on how to survive a zombie attack: what weapons are the best, how to hide out, how to arrange for supplies etc. He also chronicles “historical attacks.” A few of which involve schools.
We should probably wanr him never to go to Kentucky.
Also, none of us should probably ever go to Kentucky.
How about news stories about Columbine? That seems to fit the description.
Unless and until people quit putting up with this kind of stupid shit, they deserve what they get. That said, if the kid has some kind of legal defense fund, I’ll gladly contribute.
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Chris,
Or the movie “Elephant”.
Nick T,
There’s nothing terrifying at all about it. People elect sheriffs and representatives and they reap what they sow. If the people in this town refused to put up with these shenanigans, they’d cease.
Not to put a damper on this story or otherwise minimize it, but this incident was reported over three years ago, in August, 2005. (Pretty sloppy of the LEX18 web site not to have any dates displayed with the story, but my old high school journalism teacher would have flunked us for the kind of crap produced by “reporters” these days so I’m not really surprised.)
I found what appears to be a decent round up of the story at
http://www.zerointelligence.net/archives/000604.php
Ultimately, all charges were dropped, but he still had to serve 2 years probation.
Reason# 2,486,962 not to live in Kentucky.
Wow, what kind of grandparents turn this into the police? If I found something that really concerned me, I’d take him to a psychologist or something.
Either they are really crappy grandparents, or they know something we don’t.
Charges dropped, that was good, but how do you get probation for a crime you weren’t convicted of? I’m getting a headache.
Does this mean that the writers for the television show, 24, are also terrorists?
maybe they’re upset because his zombies too closely resemble cops?
“This is a bit disturbing to me. No crime was committed. Poole was on parole against charges that did not legally exist. He violated the terms of that parole and received criminal punishment for doing so. Now he is being monitored by a judge for two years for the crime of disobeying a judge while falsely accused by the state. Note that he did not commit any crime when he was originally out on parole, he just didn’t do what the judge told him to do.”
WTF over?
Personally, I welcome the new mass hysteria that there is a terrorist behind every bush. I was getting really sick of the “child molester behind every bush” hysteria.
Isn’t this story from 2005 ?!?!? Damn Radley, I come here to get the news.
Me guesses that Stephen “Richard Bachman” King should be in prison for writing “Rage”.
If they thought he was actually a threat, why only a $5,000 bond?
The problem with zombies is real. Congress must act before a zombie attack[Video] happens again in Memphis. This treat must not be taken lightly. We must exhaust all resources of the federal, state and local governments until American children are safe at night.
Substitute “threat” for “treat” in that last comment. My mind must be on Halloween already, Freudian slip.
[...] Radley Balko links to a story about a high school student, William Poole, being arrested for, as the Poole says, writing a story about zombies. Yes, zombies. A good round-up of the story can be found here. [...]
anyone catch that the prosecutors dropped the charges to a misdemeanor “attempt to commit terroristic threatening’?????
horrific. absolutely horrific. who the hell is running the prosecutors office in that area? i dont’ care that it was 2005 now, this is just sick.
And the schools won’t allow you to bring a shotgun to defend yourself against the Zombie menace. Where is the NRA when you need em?
He got probation since he violated his first terms of probation. It is still kind of creepy in that his first probation was for a crime that didn’t exist, basically the legal system using a technicallity to its benefit.
That is why I discount the claims that Poole was trying to recruit other schoolmates for this supposed “gang”. If there was evidence of that then why not charge him with some sort of conspiracy charge which would have multiple witnesses?
I can somewhat understand reading some of that and then taking a closer look at Poole. Maybe even searching his house and places he is known to frequent to look for weapons, but simply arresting him and charging him on little more than writings in the past tense in a personal journal? Very stupid.
i don’t understand how all charges can be dropped, because he wasn’t even indicted for a real crime, yet he is still forced to be on probation. how can that be legal? so he is innocent of a crime that doesn’t exist, but they’re gonna throw him on probation and make him pee in a cup for a couple years just to be sure. how efd up is that?
#29, I would simply refuse to sign anywhere and to go along with it. Let them throw you into prison for no crime, then proceed to destroy the lives of those responsible for perpetrating this fascism on you.
While on bail, he violated the terms of the bail by going onto the grounds of a school with a friend to pick up the friend’s younger sibling. That is the crime he is (or was- it’s been more than 2 years) on probation for.
It’s still stupid, but not quite as incomprehensible as originally thought. Moral: when on bail, even for a non-crime, keep your nose clean.
I hate local news sites for TV stations. They all seem to use the same damned content system and a lot of them never have dates on articles…
Why are all the blogs recycling this years-old story today? It seems to have come back from the dead like a … zombie.
It may be an old (2005) story, but as Alphonse Kerr said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
BTW, the actor Wil Wheaton (STAND BY ME, STAR TREK: TNG) wrote a short short about zombies when he was 12. Imagine what fun he’d be having with the judicial system if he’d written it today!
Worst thing here is that it was a story about ZOMBIES, and yet it went as far as it did.
Now If he was to write a story about some kids killing an HONEST COP/GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL everyone would have known it to be fiction right from the start, and none of us would have heard of this.
The grandparents’ sentence? Serving out the rest of their natural lives without the comfort and companionship of their progeny.
OK, JCoke, explain to me what the %$#^ this story has to do with the Bush admin?
My memory is that laws about “Terroristic Threats” were put in place to trip up White Supremacist groups like the KKK, when it proved too hard for the BATF and the FBI to actually catch them DOING anything. That dates back to the 1980’s. The rest of this is clearly an outgrowth of the post-Columbine hysteria.
The “Terroristic Threat” laws were the beginnings of the stupid “Hate Crimes” laws that somehow never apply to Leftwing jerks shooting their mouths off. Post-Columbine hysteria totally ignored that in-school violence had been trending down for decades, and that Columbine was so bad because the local police frankly dropped the ball. Lots to criticize in both, but where does Bush (of whom I’m no great fan) come in?
I would be doing life plus 50 at this point. I’ve been writing crazy things for years - my last book even has a zombie story - http://www.undertakerpress.com . We need another revolution in this country.
Bill, we have a revolution every 4-8 years …. but like most revolutions we seem to replace one lot of authoritarian swine with another.
@ #2 JCoke: Do you think this nonsense will let up when The Saviour takes over in January?