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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   42401 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 8, 2025

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A federal criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte today, charging Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, with a federal crime in connection with the fatal attack of Iryna Zarutska on the city’s light rail system. Brown is charged with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

Wait, what?

18 USC 1992:

(7)commits an act, including the use of a dangerous weapon, with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury to any person who is on property described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (4);

(4)(B)garage, terminal, structure, track, electromagnetic guideway, supply, or facility used in the operation of, or in support of the operation of, a mass transportation vehicle, and with intent to, or knowing or having reason to know,1 such activity would likely, derail, disable, or wreck a mass transportation vehicle used, operated, or employed by a mass transportation provider;

Huh. TIL. Interesting application of a terrorism law.

and with intent to, or knowing or having reason to know,1 such activity would likely, derail, disable, or wreck a mass transportation vehicle used, operated, or employed by a mass transportation provider;

This makes it sound like it has to be more than just a murder on a transportation system? Although I guess the earlier point says "any person who is on property described". I'm going to take a wild guess and say the defense is going to be about whether the law applies, rather than guilt/innocence.

Yeah, I wondered the same.

ChatGPT didn't turn up any precedent for this usage, and specifically mentions this case. I didn't know it had real-time access now for free-tier freeloaders. Seems like the code is hardly used at all and one case was a guy whose truck got stuck at a construction site. That there's precedent for "willful" only meaning non-accidental could be part of the case too.

I think the law was written to sound as if it was just to cover terrorism but actually covered a lot more. I'm pretty sure the "intent" part of paragraphs (4)A and (4)B does not transfer to paragraph (7).

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