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Teen arrested for ranking looks of classmates on Facebook.

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Re: Teen arrested for ranking looks of classmates on Facebook.

#41
post #22
post #18

Makes sense, actually. > The list ranked 50 female students and in describing them, rated their body parts and used racial slurs. The teen also is being accused of printing out the list and passing it around during lunch periods at the high school on Jan. 14, the Tribune reported. ie, creating and distributing what amounts to hate-speech. This goes much further than a hot-or-not list, rather definitively landing on t…

Hate speech is constitutionally protected in the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._A._V._v._City_of_St._Paul

>Holding

The St. Paul Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance was struck down both because it was overbroad, proscribing both "fighting words" and protected speech, and because the regulation was "content-based," proscribing only activities which conveyed messages concerning particular topics. Judgment of the Supreme Court of Minnesota reversed.

Well yeah. "protected speech" and "[specific] content-based" are good reasons to strike it down. Only defining certain things as offensive enough is just asking to become obsolete and have people toe the line. But note that "fighting words" are specifically not protected, not that it particularly applies to the OP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaplinsky_v._New_Hampshire

Meanwhile, we have successful cases for harassment. Are you arguing that verbal harassment is constitutionally protected?

Re: Teen arrested for ranking looks of classmates on Facebook.

#42
post #41
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate speech is constitutionally protected in the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._A._V._v._City_of_St._Paul

> Holding The St. Paul Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance was struck down both because it was overbroad, proscribing both "fighting words" and protected speech, and because the regulation was "content-based," proscribing only activities which conveyed messages concerning particular topics. Judgment of the Supreme Court of Minnesota reversed. Well yeah. "protected speech" and "[specific] content-based" are good reasons to…

Are you arguing that verbal harassment is constitutionally protected?

No, but hot-or-not with a little bit of racial innuendo doesn't sound like harassment to me. It just sounds offensive.

The comment I was replying to took the position that it "makes sense" to arrest American citizens for "disorderly conduct" simply because they engaged in offensive hate speech.

Re: Teen arrested for ranking looks of classmates on Facebook.

#43
post #20

I guess innocence has died with the internet. People have been doing this since the beginning of time. There was a south park episode about "the girls" having a list like this. There was a "Recess" (another cartoon, this one geared towards adolescents) with the same plot. It's a common theme because exactly this behavior has been happening forever. This type of thing is part of childhood. It sucks, and the kid should…

[deleted]

Re: Teen arrested for ranking looks of classmates on Facebook.

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? You think this is part of a careful long-term plan, motivated by a fundamental characteristic of municipal power structure? I would lean toward 'officer applying vaguely worded rules to make the law behave as he feels it ought to', but yours is certainly easier to get behind. Fuck the man!

It doesn't have to be a careful long-term plan. I suspect a lot of "conspiracies" are actually emergent behavior in the system of laws and incentives.

I think this is an incredibly important point. It's perfectly possible for each actor in the system to behave in the way that he believes is right and proper, yet for the overall effect of the system to be evil.

I'm sure that this is the explanation for much of the bad that we see, and as a result, those -- especially in politics -- who base their actions on demagoguery, attacking the individual parts of the system, are really doing nothing to help.

Re: Teen arrested for ranking looks of classmates on Facebook.

#45
post #29
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Offensive and illegal are distinct concepts. Being offensive isn't against the law - if it were, there are plenty of racial supremacists who are far higher priority arrests than some kid playing Facemash.

I don't see how you and the comment your are responding to are in disagreement. Edit: Since people feel the need to downvote, I'll go into detail... > The charge in this case was unreasonable, but on the other hand so was the > kid's behaviour. Translation: The kid shouldn't have been arrested, but it's also not like he was minding his own business when a bunch of government goons just decided to randomly pick on him…

You conveiently left out half the comment I was replying to.

Grandparent said:

>So, when are they going to arrest the makers of America's Next Top Model?

Parent said:

>When the contestants are entered against their will and described using racial slurs?

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