A ringleader in a global monkey torture network exposed by the BBC has been charged by US federal prosecutors.
Michael Macartney, 50, who went by the alias “Torture King”, was charged in Virginia with conspiracy to create and distribute animal-crushing videos.
Mr Macartney was one of three key distributors identified by the BBC Eye team during a year-long investigation into sadistic monkey torture groups.
Two women have also been charged in the UK following the investigation.
Warning: This article contains disturbing content
Mr Macartney, a former motorcycle gang member who previously spent time in prison, ran several chat groups for monkey torture enthusiasts from around the world on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
Well I am shocked that a person like this would be A Trump supporter and love the Confederacy. /s
He should be up for now than 5 years. This is completely fucked.
Ironically, his 5 year sentence would be longer than the Confederacy lasted.
Don’t worry. Trump supporters will just hand wave this as some sort of false flag.
LMAO, they’ll call him a legitimate businessman running a legitimate business, why is the government getting in the way of a stand-up American’s monkey-torture distribution network!
Whaaaaat? Confederate and Trump flags? I’m so surprised!
With motherfuckin Ice Cube on a T-shirt that’s hanging on the wall, too. Says “Boyz N Da Hood” and everything.
What song of his do you think this POS likes?
That CAT shirt isn’t a good look either. That company is full of sadistic fuckers. They’ll probably promote him for this.
He didn’t do the actual stuff though, he got people in Indonesia to do it.
Congratulations, you’ve figured out what a distributor does.
Okay? People in the comments are talking as if he’s the one doing the torturing and killing.
Alternately, you’re talking as if facilitating the whole network, including the torturing and killing, is somehow better than doing the actual torturing and killing.
They had the same conversations during the Nuremberg trials … soldiers and low ranking officers defended themselves by saying they were just taking orders and were forced to do terrible things, so it was the leadership’s fault … high ranking officers and political leaders defended themselves by saying that they ordered people to do things but it wasn’t their fault that the orders were carried out, low ranking people always had the option to refuse, so it was the soldier’s fault.
It’s the same conversation every time … terrible things happen and everyone excuses themselves with mental gymnastics to avoid any responsibility to terrible things they helped to make possible.
Yes, running chat groups is not as bad as actually torturing and killing monkeys.
This type of comment always really bothers me. You are misrepresenting what is being compared. It’s not running chatrooms that is being judged. It’s facilitating and organizing the creation and distribution of animal torture content. If he was running chatrooms about my little pony no one would care. Framing it as running chat rooms is dishonest. Flying planes isn’t bad. Flying planes into buildings is. Say out loud the part you are trying to to minimize.
How so? I didn’t say he ran some innocent or general chat groups, they were obviously involved in horrific shit. You are misrepresenting what I am saying.
Without him the tortures wouldn’t have happened or at least be minimised.
So he is directly responsible for the extra torture he himself knowingly facilitated.
Whoa! Look at them go, digging up that goal post! Where y’all think they’ll move it to next?
Willing to say the same thing about child porn and sex trafficking?
Why not? If you do the act yourself it’s worse than asking someone. Just like it would be for murder, the murderer gets longer behind bars, this is not surprising.
I disagree
Willingly and knowingly promoting and distributing and organizing inhumane acts is as equally bad as commiting the core inhumane act directly. The goal and impact are equal.
In my opinion there is no spectrum for comparison in inhumane acts. It simple is or isn’t.
Hitler was just as inhumane as the ones he ordered to commit the acts.
There is no better or worse, just is or isn’t.
Was he charged with “running a chat group?” Or “conspiracy to create and distribute animal-crushing videos?”
What did he do?
Organizing the torture of hundreds of animals is better than torturing one animal yourself?
Good strawman.
You should probably actually learn fallacies before using the wrong one where it is not applicable.
Okay, you must be trolling. No one is this stupid.
Lol you have no idea what a straw man is. Cute.
Boy are you wrong
Why?
Somebody check this guy’s hard drive ASAP. Nobody makes this kind of argument unless they’re downloading some deranged shit from Telegram.
You’d be surprisingly bored.
Hitler probably didn’t kill many/any of the Jews himself either…
He even was nice to that one little Jewish girl. So obviously, he deserves some slack.
Yes, someone made the same point already.
I think you are projecting. I don’t see that anywhere. Just people saying that the sentence should be longer. Which it should be. It should be considered as something like federal trafficking with a minimum of 5 years and up to 40 years. I bet they would have sentenced him with more than 5 years if it was CP he was trafficking.
Why would you think that? I’m not interested if you think I’m discussing in bad faith.
Yeah, I’m the one arguing in bad faith. This is exactly why I think you are projecting.
I didn’t say that. No interest whatsoever in your pisspoor understanding and attempt at using words you do not know how to use.
Lol that’s actually really funny. I know exactly what I said and why. I don’t think you have the reading comprehension to actually understand my words and attempts at using them.
Read the book Whipping Star. It isn’t very long. If you get to the end and can’t see the corollary, I’d be happy to point them out to you.
I have too many books and papers on the go at the moment, feel free to summarise it.
Imagine defending the fucking torture king
Imagine imagining that I am.
The comment you originally responded to didn’t say that he did the torturing himself, so your unsolicited response that “he didn’t do the actual stuff though” absolutely comes across as an attempt to minimize the things that he is accused of doing according to the article.
That sounds like a defense to me. You think we should give him slack because of his distance to the violence he was orchestrating.
No, I do not think that.
Conspiracy then. Just as bad.
How so?
You’re overdoing it now.
Overdoing what? If you don’t want to engage in discussion you don’t have to be here.
Meanwhile, Charles Manson is in prison, even though he never killed anyone with his own hands.
He died like 7 years ago.
In that case he received the same sentence as Atkins, death, commuted to life. Good example, although he was more directly involved due to proximity.
Which adds a while other level of hypocrisy. Why can’t he have good ol’ Americans do the job? Are they not good enough for him?
Also don’t care that he did not directly do it. He was facilitating it and it would not have happened on the same scale without his help. So in essence, he absolutely caused the torture of monkeys. Should someone who goes a hitman not be charged with anything? The hit man isn’t killing the victim without pay so obviously the person hiring one should be charged.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50137450
This was the example which came to mind, where the original person was sentenced with the strongest punishment, then the subsequent people each received subsequently lighter ones.
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2023/06/29/sean-caddle-sentenced-to-24-years-in-prison-for-2014-slaying/
However this disagrees with my stance, and gave the person who requested a hitman a longer sentence than the two who committed the murder (24, v 16 and 20 years respectively).
I upvoted you, by the way, in case you thought it was me who downvoted.
Wow! When you put it that way he’s basically a political prisoner. BRB going to set up a gofundme for this sweet misunderstood angel.