False threats just as illegal as the real deal

A lesson can be learned in the recent sentencing of Jason Shandy to 27 months in a federal prison after the 19-year-old falsely reported to police that he overheard someone making plans to bomb the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond back in April.

More recently and closer to home, a note, written on a paper bag and containing a threat to blow up OCCC on Jan. 28, was found on the campus Dec.15. It’s still unknown who wrote the note but it continues to be investigated.

That threat, just as Shandy’s report, was responded to with immediate caution and serious action by campus security officers, and local and federal law enforcement.

The people in charge of protecting the campus community are trained to heed such a statement with full expectations of it being an actual promise with malicious intent.

Since Columbine in 1999, and more recently, after shootings at Northern Illinois University in early 2008 and Virginia Tech in 2007, all threats, even hoaxes, are taken seriously.

Bomb threats violate federal law and those found to be lying about such a threat will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as seen with Shandy’s case.

So, what would prompt someone to make such harmful statements or manufacture threats of violence, that if followed through, could end innocent people’s lives?

Maybe Shandy thought he would be seen as a hero for turning in information on a bomb threat.

Perhaps the people who make these threats don’t realize the repercussions of their actions. Maybe they see it as a harmless prank.

But they are mistaken and are usually shocked to learn of the consequences if they are caught.

According to a letter in The Oklahoman written by the president of UCO, Shandy was ordered to also pay $21,512.23 in restitution — on top of serving time — for the money and time spent by federal security and local law enforcement on the investigation of his false report.

Perhaps these hoaxes are just some people’s way of having a big joke to laugh about, but this is no laughing matter.

In the sentencing of Shandy, U.S. Attorney John C. Richter said it “sends a message that the making of false terrorism hoaxes will have very serious consequences.”

Serious, indeed.

—Justin Combs
Staff Writer