Friday, December 09, 2011

Yet More Leniency For Favored Groups - Eastern District of Michigan Edition

It's not only in Britain where certain ethnic groups get nice deals on criminal charges.

The Detroit Free Press: Student who threatened violence at WSU gets probation

A judge ordered probation Friday for an honors student who threatened to shoot up Wayne State University with a machine gun.

Ali Saad's online threat a year ago turned out to be false, but no one knew it at the time. Two people who read it alerted authorities, and Wayne State police and FBI agents launched an investigation.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III called it a "big deal" but agreed with the prosecutor that prison wasn't necessary, despite guidelines that called for a possible term of up to a year.

"Your conduct stemmed from anger and narcotics or substance abuse," the judge told Saad. "If you slip into drug use or impulsive behavior, you're going to be here again and on your way to jail."

Saad wrote online that he was planning to take an AK47 to Wayne State's General Lectures building and kill more than the 32 people who died at Virginia Tech University in 2007, according to the FBI. Authorities said he pledged to set up a Web cam to record it and wrote, "Be sure to tune in."

Saad, 20, apologized in court. He also got a significant break: Authorities found images of child pornography on his computer but didn't pursue charges.

Such a deal, especially given the trouble posed by those who are threatening violence at Universities and his threat to cause more deaths than the Virginia Tech shooting, not to mention the ludicrous pass on charges for possession of child pornography.

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