Nov 16, 2023
White Rapper ARRESTED Over Music With Threats Against Children, Churches & Biden
- 5 minutes
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.
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