Anti-war hip-hop activist Marc Hall has been jailed in the US for releasing a hip-hop song that hits out at the American military's so-called 'stop loss' policy.
Hall's lyrics express the anger he felt at the position he was forced into.
Under the army’s policy, an enlisted soldier's army service could be involuntarily extended from a few months to more than a year, sending the same people into the war zone against their will and beyond their contract.
“He [Marc Hall] returned from Iraq, his wife had a baby and he was expecting to get out of the army but they told him now we are sending you back to Iraq again. That made him depressed and angry and he wrote that hip-hop song that he allegedly sent to the Pentagon. And his unit has gone off to Iraq now and he is still here but in jail,” said his attorney, Jim Klimanski.
“They said that he communicated a threat,” explained Klimanski.
“I think they decided that maybe they did not want to send him back to Iraq, but did not want to admit that they should let him out,” said Klimanski.
“Instead of thinking logically and rationally about what should happen here they overreacted and put him in jail. Music is a powerful means of communication but I don’t think you are going to destroy the American military with a song.”