A 20-year-old with a weapons cache that included four AK-47s was arrested after threatening over the Internet to undertake a Virginia Tech-style massacre, authorities said Thursday.
Oregon authorities learned of a March 25 Internet message allegedly posted by Calin Chi Wong in which he threatened to re-enact the Virginia Tech killings. Two days later, Homestead Police searched the home Wong shares with his parents and found the weapons in stacked on shelves in plain view, Detective Antonio Aquino said.
Plain view, huh? Wonder what Mumzy and Pops had said to their boy to that point in time ...
Wong had 13 firearms in all, more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition, some that could pierce armor, and 100 rounds in a feeding clip with bullets "meant to take down aircraft or military machinery," Aquino said. He had hidden two AK-47s in his parents' closet, and his parents said the guns did not belong to them.
Didn't know anything about them, either ...
Wong was charged with making written threats to kill or do bodily injury via the computer and bonded out for $7,500. Additional charges are pending.
Homestead Police first noticed Wong when he went to the department in February to complain he had been robbed of $800 over the Internet after he ordered a gun online using his father's PayPal account. He told authorities he had called the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and other agencies about the issue. Aquino said Wong finally reached a boiling point when he posted the message saying he would re-enact the Virginia Tech massacre, in which student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people last year before turning the gun on himself.
"After speaking to him and seeing his frustration, I believe that he had the potential to carry out some kind of threat," Aquino said.
Wong felt isolated and cut off, authorities noted, saying he had been buying and selling guns for about two years and word was now getting around about Wong's age. Dealers stopped selling to him, and he was being banned from certain gun-sale Web sites.
So everyone knew there was something wrong about him, but given privacy laws, etc., no one's allowed to talk to anyone else ...
"I'm soon to the point to re-enact the whole event," Wong wrote under the name "thehumanabc," referring to the shootings last April at Virginia Tech. "This may not seem like a threat to you, but I'm sure others don't want to see it occur again. It should be a wake up call for All haters out there," according to an arrest report.
Aquino said Wong told police that making the threat made him feel good because after "he had thousands of people on the Internet paying attention to him." But Wong also said he was just upset and frustrated and never actually planned a killing spree.
Sure kid, not until the day you get upset and no one's paying attention to you anymore ...
But authorities also found a school book bag lined with bulletproof vests inside Wong's home, as well as two handguns.
Wong is not in college, Aquino said. He graduated from an Oregon high school and attended a college for a year before moving in with his parents in Florida, authorities said.
You have to wonder if he has a big, red 'L' on his forehead ...
Wong said the weapons were an investment. "He says it's a lucrative business," Aquino said. "He said if Hillary Clinton wins she'll put a ban on assault rifles, and these assault rifles will be worth more in value." Only if you are in a position to sell it, that is.
#3
The choreography was a bit dull, but suited to the abilities of the participants, some of whom were struggling to keep up. It looks like healthful physical and mental exercise to me, especially when compared to other group activities like gangs fighting or prison riots. Perhaps it makes a bigger political statement there than here.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Lawmakers from California to Kentucky are trying to save money with a drastic and potentially dangerous budget-cutting proposal: releasing tens of thousands of convicts from prison, including drug addicts, thieves and even violent criminals. Officials acknowledge that the idea carries risks, but they say they have no choice because of huge budget gaps brought on by the slumping economy.
"If we don't find a way to better manage the population at the state prison, we will be forced to spend money to expand the state's prison system money we don't have," said Jeff Neal, a spokesman for Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri.
At least eight states are considering freeing inmates or sending some convicts to rehabilitation programs instead of prison, according to an Associated Press analysis of legislative proposals. If adopted, the early release programs could save an estimated $450 million in California and Kentucky alone.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Idiocy. On one hand, Arpaio tent cities out in the boondocks are very cheap to build and operate, and prisoners there can be set to improve rural areas.
Importantly, this is not a punishment, but a reward, fresh air and sunshine. Even international law is clear that it is neither cruel or unusual punishment.
Not only can it half the brick prison population, which greatly improves conditions for prisoners and guards. The troublemakers, the sick, and those with family or who need to appear in court remain in the brick prisons.
As a practical matter, prisoners can improve infrastructure on Indian Reservations, they can reforest, care for overflow animals from animal shelters, even improve marginal land to make it suitable for agriculture and grow their own food.
#2
A plan in Mississippi would offer early parole for people convicted of selling marijuana or prescription drugs. New Jersey, South Carolina and Vermont are considering funneling drug-addicted offenders into treatment, which is cheaper than prison.
#3
I think a lot of those convicted of pot related crimes could be released with minimal threat to society (assuming other crimes weren't on their jacket).
I would also think that a few roadwork gangs (volunteer and we'll cut your sentence a tad) might help fix up some of the roads and paint over some of the graffitti.
I would also think that in maximum security they should pretty much put everyone in solitary so they don't have to be guarded as much and can't kill and rape each other, and break up the gangs. This would eliminate the need for many guards. I know I'd rather be in solitary than general population.
A program so that in your last year you do the laundry or other job program to learn a skill and reacclimate you somewhat might also be helpful. Heck, the states could hire prisoners to do some custodial jobs and help acclimate them into civilian life (and watch them) if they really cared and thought long term.
*Oh, and along with roadwork the work gangs could pick crops and build long border walls, if you know what I mean.
#5
According to the U.S. Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org), incarcerated convicted illegal aliens make up 29 percent of federal, state and local prisons at a cost of more than $1.6 billion annually. I'm just sayin...
#10
all part of a long term plot to justify raising taxes for more prisons: let the bastards out and after enough time passes whereby the crime rate soars and the surviving population hollers loud enough, the politicians will 'suggest' that in order to restore law and order they need more bucks to fund the increased prison requirements.
and this after more than one instance of a homeowner dispatching some miscreant with a 12 gauge.....
#11
incarcerated convicted illegal aliens make up 29 percent of federal, state and local prisons at a cost of more than $1.6 billion annually.
ICE has been increasingly effective at finding and tracking those, so that they're deported as soon as they finish their sentences. The problem is the numbers in for serious crimes and long sentences.
#12
Get rid of the "war on drugs" for something more sane and you can save billions. This isn't BS it's a fact. We have way to many people locked up in prison for mental health problems, do away with that as well.
The Prison industrial complex is a reality and we need to get it under control. Think about it.
#13
The folks that say to give up on the war on drugs tend to be the folks that said FARC is just a local revolutionary group and Columbia should just surrender. There are not many involved in drugs, either seller or user, that have their head screwed on tight.
I saw personally what the military was like in the late '70s with the pot smokers and druggies. I never will condone that as a sane, accepted way of life. You think the "war on drugs" is expensive, try life without it. The dead, dying, brain fried consequences will make Iraq in 2006 look like child's play.
#14
Prison incarceration for most offendors is an idea way past it's use by date.
We need new ways of punishment like home incarceration, which not only cost less, but more importantly allow offenders to be economically productive while they serve their sentence. Properly structured the phrase 'paying for their crimes' could be made literally true.
#15
Tipover you can't hold a job or be in the service if you can't pass a drug test, this was not the reality in 1970. All the war on drug does is keep cops, the justice system and prison system busy and keep eroding your civil rights. There are better ways to fight this problem than pissing away billions and billions of dollars and human lives.
We need fewer people locked up and working in prisons. Work camps seem to be an idea that can and does work.
#16
The buzzword is "Cruel and Unusual Punishment." Notice the AND word. So if it is cruel and not unusal, or it is not cruel and Unusual, it's ok.
So get out your punishment tools and sintax reference and start punishing those criminals so they will never go back.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/04/2008 21:34 Comments ||
Top||
#17
I'll believe it when I see it.
OTOH, the images and premises of THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE, + UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, etc. is tantalizing, not to mention also took place in World-Ancient Military History.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A 20-year-old with a weapons cache that included four AK-47s was arrested after threatening over the Internet to undertake a Virginia Tech-style massacre, authorities said Thursday. 
