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The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

dallasobserver.com

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Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#111

Post by [deleted] »

marvin wrote: post #96
zacinbusiness wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A Norwegian tourist was sentenced to seven years in prison in Arizona for accidentally running over some guy's foot with his car. The incident happened after he took a wrong turn onto a one-way street and was about to turn around, when he was crowded by a group of people at a nearby music festival, apparently angry with his traffic violation. One of them punched him in the face through the car window, upon which he s…

[deleted]

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#112

Post by noptic »

DanBC wrote: post #41
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?

I'm guessing this is just one more eeason that you don't say anything until you have a lawyer.

Did your lawyer approve this comment?

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#113

Post by bmunro »

zacinbusiness wrote: post #21
StavrosK wrote: post #12

Is he charged with anything? I only saw a reference to a "terrorist threat", what kind of fucked up country is one that gets you ten years in jail for joking about committing a crime? Don't you actually have to commit the crime to go to prison, usually?

Not at all. Thousands of innocent people at sitting in our jails as we speak. Most of them will never be free. But that's beside the point. He's not in prison, he's in jail, and there's a big difference. Depending on the circumstances, you could sit in jail your whole life while you await some technical process to complete. You don't even have to be charged with anything.

He's not in prison, he's in jail, and there's a big difference.

What?! Jail and prison are synonyms. There is no real difference.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/prison - A building to which people are legally committed as a punishment for a crime or while awaiting trial.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/jail - A place for the confinement of people accused or convicted of a crime.

Both refer to being detained both before and after conviction.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#114

Post by xtrumanx »

rmc wrote: post #103
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.

I've been to an Africa country. A friend was almost robbed by a member of an ethnic minority. The police brought the suspect in, beat the crap out of him until he confessed. My friends were down the hall while they heard the police beat him up and heard his cries. In the 1990s during the Rwandan Genocide, neighbours turned on neighbours and a million people were hacked to death with machetes. Get real.

I hope you're not implying situations found in the Rwandan Genocide are typical in Africa.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#115

Post by beachstartup »

xtrumanx wrote: post #114
rmc wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been to an Africa country. A friend was almost robbed by a member of an ethnic minority. The police brought the suspect in, beat the crap out of him until he confessed. My friends were down the hall while they heard the police beat him up and heard his cries. In the 1990s during the Rwandan Genocide, neighbours turned on neighbours and a million people were hacked to death with machetes. Get real.

I hope you're not implying situations found in the Rwandan Genocide are typical in Africa.

they aren't typical but they aren't uncommon.

you could say the same thing about europe, though. especially in the 20th century, but there's time yet for the 21st to catch up!

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#116

Post by beachstartup »

rmc wrote: post #105
tbastos wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope the kid wins a shitload of money in a lawsuit against the state... and the cops get punished. Now what's the chance of this happening?

I don't get it, I thought the USA was a massive litigation centre and you could sue people for millions left right and centre? Are you saying that you can't sue people like that?

i'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but suing people takes time and money, something most people don't have a lot of.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#117

Post by jonhohle »

mjolk wrote: post #92
Nux wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USA is a lovely country, too bad it's inhabited. ;-)

Shut up. This snide comment isn't even cute. The US is vastly better than many parts of the world and we get a disproportionate amount of attention on our ills because we're an economic powerhouse that does many things. The country is a collection of states that each have their boons and drawbacks. Texas is near (or at) last in public education. Don't make public threats to kill children in a state that might not und…

> Texas is near (or at) last in public education.

According to what metric? They rank in the the top 25% in US News rankings, 14th in Quality Counts rankings, and have one of the highest high school completion rates in the country.

I would imagine that Austin in particular is probably over average compared to much of the rest of the state due to the number of colleges in the area and significant tech sector.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#118

Post by dirktheman »

jessaustin wrote: post #109
dirktheman wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, I'll bite. Because... why am I part of what problem exactly?

Your first response to this clear case of injustice amounts to "well it's understandable, we certainly can't blame the authorities for being vindictive idiots who destroyed this kid's life over a throwaway joke." If enough people did blame the authorities, we wouldn't have the horrible system we have. It wouldn't even have to be a majority; we've made progress in the past based on a principled minority of citizens pu…

Whoa! Jumping to conclusions here! My first reaction was not that it's understandable and that we can't blame authorities. It was more 'we can't put 100% blame on the autorities'. Let me be very clear: I'm 100% pro freedom of speech. Everyone should be allowed to say/post whatever they want, no matter how deranged. Unfortunately, that's just not the reality we live in. The reality is that the US has become a surveillance state, and that you should mind what you post online. My point is that if you post stupid things like this on the internet, you can expect some consequences.

Side note 1: The fact that we're having this conversation shows that it's incredibly difficult to get all nuances of your opinion across over the internet.

Side note 2: Free speech in my opinion is the fact that you CAN say anything you want. It doesn't mean that you SHOULD.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#119

Post by rangibaby »

bmunro wrote: post #113
zacinbusiness wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all. Thousands of innocent people at sitting in our jails as we speak. Most of them will never be free. But that's beside the point. He's not in prison, he's in jail, and there's a big difference. Depending on the circumstances, you could sit in jail your whole life while you await some technical process to complete. You don't even have to be charged with anything.

He's not in prison, he's in jail, and there's a big difference. What?! Jail and prison are synonyms. There is no real difference. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/prison - A building to which people are legally committed as a punishment for a crime or while awaiting trial. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/jail - A place for the confinement of people accused or convicted of a cr…

I think by jail he is referring to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remand_(detention)
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