YouTube video cause for arrest

Two men were arrested for a video posted on YouTube.com.

By Juana Summers

Published Sept. 25, 2007

In northwest Missouri, a YouTube.com video caused a stir and has resulted in the arrest of two men.

Benjamin D. Stevens and Kenneth D. Black were arrested on Sept. 18 on suspicion of conspiring to commit forcible rape, conspiring to commit second-degree assault, making a terrorist threat and tampering with a judicial officer after posting a video titled "Kop Killa" on the popular Web site.

In the video, which was removed from YouTube, Stevens and Black said they would shoot police officers with an "AK." They also named a specific female officer and claimed they would "turn her into a whore."

Savannah Police Lieut. Bruce Lundy said the police department was made aware of the video by one of the city council members.

"We watched the video ourselves and then made a recording of it," he said.

Lundy said the Andrew County prosecutor, Steven Stevenson, suggested that the department pursue the case.

A copy of the video is part of the evidence file for the case against Stevens and Black.

Lundy said that neither of the two individuals involved with the creation of the "Kop Killa" video was well known by the department.

He said one of the two suspects arrested had been "in a little bit of trouble" as a juvenile, but Lundy said it was not serious.

The other man was relatively unknown to the department.

Lundy said the individuals in the department are not "terrified."

"I think that there is always an aspect of fear that something could happen," he said. "It's a reality that you have to be aware of. We're taking a little extra caution, but we're still doing our daily job."

Lundy said the case was referred to the FBI.

FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza confirmed that a federal investigation has been started but could not give any details due to the continuing investigation.

MU journalism professor Sandy Davidson said legally, individuals have the right to free expression but cannot make specific threats directed toward a specific individual.

"To think that under the First Amendment, freedom of expression includes threats is not true," Davidson said. "There are many laws that regulate that kind of speech because that can cause serious harm to the individual living under the threat. Once you go from the political to the threatening, you have crossed a line."

Davidson said the medium carrying the threat, in this case YouTube, could not be held responsible for the threats.

Lanza confirmed that YouTube was not under investigation as a part of the federal investigation.

"However, once you have been given notice, then clearly the only responsible thing to do would be to remove it," Lanza said.

The arrests of Black and Stevens come a year after the family of Ryan Ferguson accelerated their efforts to prove their son's innocence by creating videos on YouTube using the interrogation tapes. Ferguson was found guilty of the murder of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt.

Nationally, YouTube has been used as a popular medium to promote political campaigns and even to encourage debate, as seen in the CNN and YouTube partnership.

"It's a broad avenue of expression," Davidson said. "It opens up the world of expression to a lot broader of a population when you start talking about the marketplace of ideas. The notion that freedom of the press only belongs to he or she who owns the press is perhaps becoming obsolete."