Hell of a thing. A rapper gets arrested for his lyrics, no kidding. Put up the picture, full mass. I'm going to give you an interesting saga. 20 year old Reese Alexander Sullivan, a white rapper from Arkansas, [00:00:17] has been arrested after the Bentonville police found his lyrics to be threatening in his music and believable enough to cause concern. Sullivan was taken into custody on Thursday. [00:00:32] This actually went down November 2 charged with terroristic threatening in the first degree. Sullivan created tracks describing a desire to commit school shootings, blow up churches associated with a specific race, and [00:00:48] murder and sexual assault children. He also claimed to want to assassinate President Joe Biden, according to a redacted probable cause affidavit seen by Atlanta Black Star. And they did a great job on this story. [00:01:03] The Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Threat Operation center received a tip from an anonymous individual regarding statements made by the artist on Monday. This happened August 21. The tipster gave authorities links to Sullivan's ten videos, [00:01:21] which contained the violent threats. His rap name was amongst the items redacted in the paperwork. The FBI obtained a warrant on Halloween to search Sullivan's apartment, but found no weapons or explosives on the premises. [00:01:38] The young man was not present during the search, but at his job. When he finally was reached by authorities, he told them that the rap songs were manifestations of a character or persona he created when he was 17 years of age. [00:01:57] He also said that, quote, rap songs are meant to be funny and that he doesn't believe what he said in the songs, especially about hating certain people, sexually assaulting children, shooting up his school, or harming any elected officials. [00:02:12] He also confessed that he did not have any weapons or explosives in his possession, despite his songs indicating that he was bullied. Police state that they did not discover a history of abuse or trauma in his life. Sullivan was granted a $50,000 bond, according to the affidavit, and [00:02:30] released on November 4. Furthermore, he was instructed to refrain from using social media or writing or uploading audio, and instructed to abstain from all internet use, online records state. The rapper's next court date is set for December 11. [00:02:48] He will be accompanied by Public defender J Scott Saxton as he stands before the judge in the Benton County Circuit Court. Now let's put his picture back up. This is going to be a very interesting case because we do not have all of [00:03:04] the information that the investigators have. We do not have all of the lyrics that they're utilizing to prosecute or at least create offense for arrest on this case. But I will tell you that typically rap lyrics are off limits. [00:03:19] It's considered artistic expression. However, how many times have we been here but after the fact, meaning something tragic has happened? And when we go back and do a simple Google search or [00:03:38] maybe even look at a Facebook profile or Twitter now xFeed, all the signs are there. Words, threats, aggression, racism, targeting a particular group. [00:03:55] All of the ingredients are there. So I don't know if the strategy for the local jurisdiction is to provide a remedy that typically is not provided in cases like this. And giving him what's called arrest time, meaning they know at a point he will not actually be prosecuted. [00:04:14] I do know that people who have done absolutely nothing have gotten no rest time as well, where they were arrested and put in jail. Cops knowing they did nothing. Yes, but thoughts on this one? >> Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't tell if music sucks these days or if I'm just getting old, but it's probably both. [00:04:30] As far as this quote unquote rapper goes, there is a fine line between artistic expression or saying you're going to do something or thinking about doing something. There's a difference between that and actually doing the thing. And I'm not a legal expert by any means, but as far as I understand it, [00:04:46] you can't be convicted of a crime you only thought about committing. However, when you're publicly saying that you're going to assassinate the president, that gets people involved that I'm sure this kid didn't want involved. He had the FBI combing through his videos, and over the course of nine or [00:05:01] ten videos, patterns start to emerge. And when it comes to the president, those patterns have to be taken seriously. Ultimately, though, he didn't do anything. He wrote some terrible things. And I really do believe that artistic expression needs to remain protected. But I don't think it's excessive to keep an eye on this kid for [00:05:19] the reasons that you detailed. >> Speaker 1: Yeah, you definitely got to keep an eye on him, even if you do it under some mental health guys, which has been done before.