Ohio teen jailed over lyrics

There's an interesting situation developing in Jefferson Ohio that our friends at VMS Records wanted you to know about.
Kevin Beebe, a 19 year old student, was arrested and ended up in an Ashtabula County jail on charges of inducing panic and aggravated menacing. Beebe reportedly self-recorded and released a three song CD, which he distributed around his school. The lyrical content of these recordings have landed him in trouble, as detailed in this article.
VMS label head Adam Gecking, who has roots in the area, put together a 'letter to the editor' response to the paper. You can find it below.

"SUBJECT - Kevin Beebe, his unalienable rights, and the music industry in general.

My name is Adam Gecking I grew up in Ashtabula (not very long ago), and now I work in the music industry. From my experience it is common practice for people to distribute self made cds ESPECIALLY to kids of a certain age group (I would think highschool students would fit the demographic perfectly). It is also safe to assume that Kevin is doing this at a very amateur level or by now he would have left the great county in which I grew up. If we take the two above statements as givens and we have any basic knowledge/understanding of this particular style of music then we can safely assess that Mr. Beebe was just following the example of his contemporaries and NOT making actual threats BUT SIMPLY painting a not so pretty picture to which others could possibly relate. If, for example, Eminem was arrested for each time he said something on his records then the rap mogul would not be where he is today. While Kevin is no Eminem I think you can gather for yourself that he meant no harm or serious threat by his actions. If this case came up against anyone who had a real lawyer, not one appointed by the courts, it would be quickly dismissed and the lawyer would hold the state responsible for false imprisonment as well as violation of his first amendment rights. The fact that Kevin is a local boy who obviously can not afford such representation is going to be detrimental to his cause. Maybe if he was singing something that was more appealing to such a small town's musical aesthetic or if he was no longer in the small town then this whole thing would never have happened, BUT unfortunately for him he is just playing the cards that he was dealt and right now it appears to be a losing hand.

-Adam Gecking
direct any replies to adam@vmsrecords.com

I know this doesn't concern your favorite band or even most of your chosen style/genre of music, BUT what they are doing is just wrong and people need to know about it.

thanks

Adam VMS