"Student’s Arrest for Controversial Rap Challenges Free Speech"

Cameron D’Ambrosio, a high school student from Massachusetts posted a rap that he wrote on YouTube. In his rap, D’Ambrosio referenced the White House and the Boston Marathon bombing, saying, ‘Everybody, you will see what I am going to do: kill people.” These lyrics lead to his arrest and he was charged with terrorism with a 20 year sentence and a possible fine of up to $10,000.

I deem those charges and this entire situation ridiculous for a number of reasons. For starters, I can’t even count the number of rap songs that I have heard that mention some kind of violence, threat, or weaponry in some way. Secondly, I believe that this was all just based on the fact that timeliness did not play in his favor. The Boston Marathon bombings had occurred not too long before he wrote his rap, and I feel like this had a lot to do with the reason this event even came to light. Had D’Ambrosio posted that song on YouTube today, I don’t believe that he would have been charged at all. Lastly, it does not seem like there are no limits as to what people post on YouTube nowadays, so why was his video singled out? After all, isn’t YouTube a website that allows and encourages free speech?

I don’t mean to sound insensitive about the tragic incident that happened in Boston, I am just saying that we do not know the reasons for D’ Ambrosio’s rap, so therefore, who are we to tell him what to say or what not to say? The main issue in this context is that his rights were denied. The Massachusetts statute that was used to arrest D’Ambrosio, states that you need to mention specific weapons and specific people or a location, as Hutchinson says in the article. Therefore, I would agree with Hutchinson who believes that D’Ambrio’s right to free speech has been violated  and he should not have been charged, unless everyone else who has ever publically rapped about killing someone also gets charged. Hutchison says, “As much as I disagree with the video, the more you censor stuff, even if it’s stuff like this, that’ll just allow for [censorship] to be more acceptable, and anything can be censored.” I completely agree with this statement. What becomes of the first amendment then if everything is censored?

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