While Eminem is no stranger to controversy, consistently coming under fire for his incendiary lyrics, the Detroit rapper’s infamous wordsmithing has seen a 15-year-old boy from Fresno, California arrested on terrorist charges.
As Pigeons & Planes reports, police arrested the teen after he made a post to his Instagram account featuring lyrics from the song ‘I’m Back’, on which Eminem raps:
“I take seven kids from Columbine, stand ’em all in a line, add an AK-47, a revolver, a nine, a MAC-11 and it oughtta solve the problem of mine.
“And that’s a whole school of bullies shot up all at one time. I’m just like Shady and just as crazy as the world was over this whole Y2K thing”.
Higher-ups at San Joaquin Memorial High School notified local police of the boy’s post and classes were canceled at both San Joaquin as well as St Anthony’s Catholic school, where he had previously been a student.
According to the Fresno Bee, the 15-year-old has been charged on account of making terrorist threats and disrupting school activity. Fresno’s police chief Jerry Dyer said detectives had “every reason to believe that there was potential for a threat to be carried out”.
Mr Dyer described the unidentified boy as a “loner” and “socially awkward”, suggesting he shared the traits with past school shooters. An attorney for the family denied Mr Dyer’s characterisation and the boy claims he did not make the post.
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Alarmingly, however, the Instagram post led to a search of the teenager’s home, where local police found several guns, ammunition, and a bulletproof vest. However, it’s not clear if the items found belonged to the boy.
Chief Dyer said the detectives took the teen into custody and made arrangements for a mental health evaluation. The arrest of the teen comes a week after rapper Tyler, The Creator was banned from entering the UK after authorities claimed his music provokes “terrorist acts”.
