If a mob boss you owed gambling debts to tells you “Nice house, it would be a shame if something happened to it.” he can’t use the defence that it couldn’t poss

If a mob boss you owed gambling debts to tells you “Nice house, it would be a shame if something happened to it.” he can’t use the defence that it couldn’t possibly be interpreted as a threat because the precise syntactic reading of that statement is that it’s merely an observation.