remarkably—one count for destroying “any record, document or tangible object” with intent to obstruct a federal investigation. This last charge was for deleting videos on his computer that may have demonstrated his own terrorist sympathies and for clearing his browser history.
Matanov faced the possibility of decades in prison—twenty years for the records-destruction charge alone.
Ridiculous sensationalism.
and why should he prove something? is in US something like "the presumption of innocence" in place?
See to Snowden's situation, for example. Or simply try remember all these people, who were
shot by the police officers.
Presumption of innocence
de facto ceased to exist a long time ago. Currently people are guilty by default, that is the reason of mass surveillance and other idiotic actions.
Even the Russian propagandists are chiming in with the usual "but look at THEM!" tripe.
The fact is that the vast majority of the various laws and tenets that are supposedly "under threat" or "critically endangered" in the US are highly reliant on a feedback loop of public faith in the system. A real problem that the US could be facing is if public cynicism reaches critical mass, because then society would self-destruct under the sheer weight of cynical bullshit. "This place is going to shit anyway, so let's just ransack it and then torch it." Right?
Ironically, if US society (and the wider Western society) does finally collapse, it won't be the "dull sheep" responsible for it, but the noisy cynics who failed to see their own role in making everyone else depressed and cynical.
