MemeMachineGo!

The blogosphere was all over the story of the kid arrested as a terrorist for writing a story about zombies taking over his high school.

The cops’ version was that he had been planning to recruit a gang to take over his high school and kill everyone; their version mentioned no zombies.

I was waiting for more information — clearly, someone’s account was wrong.

Now I wonder if maybe both versions are.

Poole claimed his story was about zombies, and had been part of a school report. The testimony seems to indicate these were lies.

Part of it sounds actionable.

Throughout his writings, Poole makes numerous references to a “brotherhood,” such as in an overview, in which Poole wrote, “We will make the brotherhood known throughout the high school.” It continues with a three-part plan: 1) Recruit new soldiers, 2) Get everyone in ranks, and 3) get the numbers to 100.

Caudill testified that at least seven acquaintances of Poole’s reported that Poole had attempted to recruit them into a gang, but that none of them were interested.

In his writings, Poole makes references to four geographic zones. Zone Two refers to Clark County, according to Caudill. The other three zones mentioned in Poole’s journal are Barbourville, South Carolina and New York City.

Caudill also read from a letter sent by an unnamed person who was referred to as a “colonel” in the Barbourville organization, promising to aid Poole with weapons and money. In one passage, Caudill testified the person in Barbourville admitted breaking into homes and said he had thousands of dollars and 50 guns at his disposal.

“You know what I mean, man. We will handle things if you want us to,” the individual wrote Poole, who referred to himself in the journal as “Nappy Boy,” the head of the Clark County organization, according to Caudill.

And part of it doesn’t.

A separate story, titled “War” was described by Caudill as “futuristic,” and referred to a group of people sitting down at a kitchen table, where they plan a takeover of a school, determining how long it will take for police to arrive on the scene. “They will all die together,” Poole wrote.

Another excerpt, read by Caudill, states, “All the boys sit down at the kitchen table and start planning it out. They wrote down how many teachers, students and guards were at the high school. Also, how long it would take police to get there. They wrote down what was needed and how they was going to do it. They agreed right there they they would all die together.”

He continued, “They yelled, ‘kill them,’ and all the soldiers of Zone 2 started shooting. They are dropping every one of them. After five minutes, all the people are laying on the ground dead.”

Something that was clearly written as fiction is being submitted as evidence in his preliminary hearing for second-degree terroristic threatening.

And the rest of it is still an 18-year-old’s journal plus one letter. Was it really a plan? Or just a power fantasy that never would have gone beyond posturing?

How many thousands of kill-the-high-school stories have teenagers written over the past fifty years? (No, I don’t mean me — my fiction featuring sociopaths came much later.)

When does the War on Terrorism become the War on Thoughtcrime?

(And, remember, kids — if you want to write violent fantasies, use strong encryption.)