Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

dallasobserver.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 356 posts

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#31

Post by venomsnake »

dirktheman wrote: post #20

I think anyone agrees that this whole situation has been blown out of proportion on a massive scale. But threatening to shoot up a school, in the light of recent events... really? What if he actually DID shoot up a school, and afterwards people discovered that authorities WERE warned? People need to realize that what you post on the internet can be interpreted different than what you actually meant. Besides, threaten…

I agree that every threat should be taken seriously, but there should be sane and quality judgement in the authorities to quickly dismiss false positives.

People will behave goofy. You cannot put the burden on them.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#32

Post by spacemanmatt »

WIDELY MISREPORTED.

Austin resident here. There is very little right about this case.

He was joking, and his original post included indications of this. Prosecutors intentionally misrepresented and truncated his comments to mislead the Grand Jury.

The arrest warrant issued claimed they found him by driver's license records but he has never had a Texas driver's license.

They failed to protect him, an 18 year old kid, in jail. He has been sexually assaulted.

The state maintains their case against him at this point only to blunt his eventual lawsuit against them.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#33

Post by alan_cx »

dirktheman wrote: post #20

I think anyone agrees that this whole situation has been blown out of proportion on a massive scale. But threatening to shoot up a school, in the light of recent events... really? What if he actually DID shoot up a school, and afterwards people discovered that authorities WERE warned? People need to realize that what you post on the internet can be interpreted different than what you actually meant. Besides, threaten…

"But threatening to shoot up a school, in the light of recent events... really? "

Yes, absolutely, really. If you are in playground type ranting slanging match, you go of the most extreme things to say, which could cause shock in the recipient. Right now, things like school shootings are the current shock fodder, and well in peoples minds. So people will use that subject. Same with pedophiles and terrorists. And of course, many strands of comedy also use this.

There is nothing whatsoever strange about this.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#34

Post by sheetjs »

Out of curiosity: if someone hacked this kid's account and posted those comments, and if the legal system is considering the Facebook comments to be his words, what recourse does he have? How does he demonstrate that the speech wasn't his?

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#35

Post by DanBC »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #14
darklajid wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

English as a second language. The former makes sense, i.e. I can parse that. The latter causes me to stutter and look confused when I read that. Explain? Difference and meaning of the latter version? I ignore the whole 'went to jail for a random FB comment' crap. That's just sad but not surprising any more.

Native US English. "I hope you burn in hell" is normal. The comment as written, "I hope you bring in hell you fucking prick", is nonsense. If someone asked me what it meant, I'd be confused, but I wouldn't assume that "bring" was a typo for "burn".

I'd assume it was an autocorrect error.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#36

Post by spacemanmatt »

zacinbusiness wrote: post #28
dirktheman wrote: post #20

I think anyone agrees that this whole situation has been blown out of proportion on a massive scale. But threatening to shoot up a school, in the light of recent events... really? What if he actually DID shoot up a school, and afterwards people discovered that authorities WERE warned? People need to realize that what you post on the internet can be interpreted different than what you actually meant. Besides, threaten…

The problem is that it's not a crime to be an idiot. A lonely teenager who's already angsty gets into a flame war with an internet troll. That happens every day. And much worse things are said between people. What happened here is a dumb kid was dumb, and either the troll or some busy-body made the call to the cops. And, more importantly, an over-achieving DA with aspirations of being a district court judge thought t…

There's also a judge who deserves a heaping portion of blame for abject failure to hold the cops to any reasonable standard of 4th amendment rigor. What probably happened is they got a bunch of classified information from the FBI and hastily constructed a very poor "parallel construction" which they are now seeing fall apart.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#38

Post by spacemanmatt »

jessedhillon wrote: post #29
nopassrecover wrote: post #26

> Until that point, his only brush with the law was a temporary restraining order two years earlier. > "He started threatening me, saying that he would kill me. ... I told the school officers, [and] they started watching him really closely. He would say that he would shoot up the school." So I'll start by playing Devil's Advocate very briefly. It's interesting how facts can be shaped with different language ("his onl…

Important to point out, re the restraining order, that according to the article he wasn't given the opportunity to respond to the charges made against him. Restraining orders aren't convictions, I am surprised that it seems they can be used as evidence given that they apparently do not imply any finding of fact.

In a witch hunt, a lack of evidence implies a cover-up. A piece of non-evidence becomes a smoking gun. We've lost our heads.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#39

Post by ItendToDisagree »

zacinbusiness wrote: post #13
billyjobob wrote: post #9

Wow, I didn't realise US police were that bad. After reading this I don't think I could ever feel safe enough to visit the US. Sounds like you'd have a better chance of getting justice in an African dictatorship where at least the dont-rape-me bribe would be affordable. Tourists really should be warned about this, because it's not the image the US tourist boards present to us at all.

Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia - fear these places.

Any state south of the Mason-Dixon line is portrayed as a cartoonish land of religious fanatics, racism, and overreaction.

In truth it is not exactly so, but I personally wouldn't want to live in any of those places. I probably wouldn't be happy living in the mid-west either though.

It generally holds true that these sorts of things can happen in any state now. If you 'threaten' to shoot up a school (no matter how jokingly) you're likely to get reamed for it.

Context no longer matters... There is a zero tolerance policy on certain words and ideas now it appears.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#40

Post by Tohhou »

sheetjs wrote: post #34

Out of curiosity: if someone hacked this kid's account and posted those comments, and if the legal system is considering the Facebook comments to be his words, what recourse does he have? How does he demonstrate that the speech wasn't his?

What about someone who creates an account, picks a name of a victim, uploads a picture, and then sends threats to others on their victim's behalf.
Post reply on HN