Here are the facts of the case:
A man named Bohamed Batta said he had been in New York with a gun last week, but was having “spiritual struggles” and was not “100 percent in sync with God” so he did not shoot anyone.
Bohamed had a history of targeting Times Square buildings where people who disobeyed his religious beliefs could be found. Court documents said he was arrested in 2007 outside a Times Square building, telling officers that everyone in the building deserved to be executed and that police were failing in their jobs by not carrying out the executions. Bohamed received a disorderly conduct citation, according to court records.
He told authorities he bought the .38 caliber gun in the New York area about two years after his arrest “to help end people who disobeyed his religious beliefs.”
A police Sargent looked around Bohamed’s motel room and saw a box that contained several documents, including a map of the U.S. with dots in each state and the handwritten words “some centers were people disobey my religious beliefs.”
Also written on the map was “The Prophet [PBUH] says Hell awaits any person disobeying my religious beliefs.”
In an interview with detectives, Bohamed said he arrived in New York City from New Jersey about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, and after checking in and bathing, drove by Times Square to see if anyone was there.
He said that on Thursday he intended to find out who the people disobeying his religious beliefs were and “do what I feel police officers fail to do.”
Asked what that was he said, “Take a gun, drop the people.”
Fortunately, because an accidental discharge of his gun, Bohamed was caught before he can carry out his plan, and federal prosecutors swooped in to the rescue.
The Feds charged Bohamed with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for allegedly attempting to kill people who disobey his religious beliefs and, obviously, with acts of terrorism.
Oh, wait a minute. That's not at all what happened.
The man's name is not Bohamed Batta, but rather Ralph W. Lang. He is a Christian, not a Muslim, and his assassination targets were people who disobeyed his religious beliefs at Planned Parenthood centers in Madison and Milwaukee, not New York City.
Most important, since the segment of people who disobeyed his religious beliefs marked for assassination by Lang was just medical personnel who assist pregnant patients with a safe, effective, and legal medical procedure, federal prosecutors only charged Lang with...wait for it...a misdemeanor:
[A] criminal complaint filed Thursday by federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Madison that charged Lang with a misdemeanor, attempting to injure, intimidate and interfere with people providing reproductive health services.
Clearly, Lang's stated intent to use deadly force and violence against Ob/Gyns to intimidate or coerce a segment of the civilian population in furtherance of his social objectives does not fit the Code of Federal Regulation's definition of, you know, terrorism:
Definitions
There is no single, universally accepted, definition of terrorism. Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).
The FBI further describes terrorism as either domestic or international, depending on the origin, base, and objectives of the terrorist organization. For the purpose of this report, the FBI will use the following definitions:
* Domestic terrorism is the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States or Puerto Rico without foreign direction committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.
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