A Massachusetts-based activist group called Center for Rights, claims the 18-year old from Methuen, Massachusetts, a small town outside of Boston, is being unjustly imprisoned without bail for comments he made on Facebook. But are they giving you the whole story?

As I've mentioned before, I believe society is often too quick to take what they read on the internet as truth and blindly share it through social media outlets without taking time first to do a small amount of research and validate the facts. I also believe this is one of those stories.

According to Center for Rights, D'Ambrosio is currently being held in a Massachusetts prison without bail, facing "terrorism charges and 20 years in prison for posting rap lyrics on the internet."

Their version of the story reads:

On May 1st, Cam was skipping school and messing around online. He posted some lyrics that included a vague reference to the Boston Marathon Bombing and called the Whitehouse a "federal house of horror." Shortly after that he was arrested and charged with Communicating a Terrorist Threat, a felony that carries 20 years in prison. 

The post contained no specific threat of violence against any person or group of people, and in the context of the rest of the lyrics and Cams' rap persona, it was clearly nothing more than a metaphor. A search of Cam's house found NO evidence that he was planning any violence, but a judge still ordered him held without bail for the next 3 months, pending trial.

Center for Rights goes on to claim the Boston / Methuen media is sensationalizing the story by posting images from his Facebook page (which was recently deleted), along with what they deem to be "disturbing" posts from D'Ambrosio, particularly one that read, ""F--- politics. F--- Obama. F--- the government!"

The activist group makes a point to call out the Boston Fox affiliate, who they claim only shared a small portion of D'Ambrosio's lyrics, taking them completely out of context. According to them, Fox 25 printed the lyric, "(Expletive) a boston bominb wait till u see the (expletive) I do, I’ma be famous".

They follow that by claiming the actual line reads, "(Expletive) a boston bominb wait till u see the (expletive) I do, I’ma be famous rapping", and stating,

Notice something? The context completely changes the meaning of the line. Suddenly something that sounds like a threat of violence is clearly just bragging about how good Cammy Dee (D'Ambrosio's stage name) is going to be in the rap game. Last we checked, teenage dreams of grandeur were not a crime.

Ironically, I did notice something. I noticed the group themselves are guilty of sharing only a portion of the lyrics, in essence taking them out of context for the purpose of presenting their side of the story. After looking into a bit, I found there's even more to the lyric than what Center for Rights shared. The Eagle-Tribune reports the full lyric reads, "(Expletive) a boston bominb wait till u see the (expletive) I do, I’ma be famous rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me.”

Another statement the group makes about D'Ambrosio's case is that the Methuen Police Chief made a public statement after the arrest saying, "I do want to make clear he did not make a specific threat against the school or any particular individuals...”, which is true, he did say that, but according to the The Valley Patriot, the Chief's full statement was, "“I do want to make clear he did not make a specific threat against the school or any particular individuals but he did threaten to kill a bunch of people and specifically mentioned the Boston Marathon and the White House. The threat was disturbing enough for us to act and I think our officers did the right thing.

The Center for Rights suggests D'Ambrosio "should be released immediately unless the D.A. can produce some additional evidence as to why he is a threat to anyone." What they completely neglect to mention is that there is additional evidence. It turns out D'Ambrosio has a history of violence, and making violent threats, beginning with a 2006 incident sited in a separate report from May 10th, 2013 by the Eagle-Tribune that states the teen had previous run-ins with the law including a fight in April 2006 between D’Ambrosio and a boy from his street, during which the boy’s mother said D’Ambrosio bit her son on the arm.

Another incident in November 2011 states the teen threatened to shoot two eighth-grade students. Police say D'Ambrosio admitted to the threat, but claimed he was only kidding.

A third arrest record sited by the Eagle-Tribune states D'Ambrosio was arrested in June 2012 "after a fight over $20 with his older sister, who called police after locking herself in her room. During the argument, D’Ambrosio pushed her and, after she locked herself in her bedroom, threatened to stab her." The record goes on to state that D'Ambrosio also admitted to making the threat, but claimed he was just upset. That case was dismissed for unspecified reasons on April 17th, 2013.

The judge in the case cited these reports as the basis for sentencing D'Ambrosio to his current 90-day sentence without bail, claiming his past behavior makes him a threat to the community.

So is Cameron D'Ambrosio a threat to his community or society in general, or is he just another attention-craving teen who's willing to make extreme statements so people will notice him? Now that you have all the facts, the answer is up to you.

Watch D'Ambrosio rap about life in "the hood"

Sources:

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