Let's just say the US is a really fucked up place.
The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
211–220 of 356 posts
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#212> 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…
Well, people have children. The protection they feel must be absolute, and here is someone who threatening them. If someone came up to me on the street and screamed I'm going to fucking kill you, I wouldn't argue for his freedom of speech.
I am probably instigating a flame ware...but I strongly disagree.
>here is someone who threatening them.
Threatening them, who is them? As deplorable as his speech was, it was not an identifiable threat of some imminent danger to some specific victim. (ie. I would have a different opinion if he identified a school by name). A counter-argument to my opinion is that we could have people making very real, but vague threats and police could not take action until after it is to late. However, there must be a balance between right to free speech and police powers, I just tend to err on the side of rights over government power.
>If someone came up to me on the street and screamed I'm going to fucking kill you, I wouldn't argue for his freedom of speech.
Your example is good because it can highlights where the law can strike a fair balance better rights and powers. First, I agree in your example I would not argue for right to free speech, but the declarant in the story is more akin to someone on the street screaming "I want to fucking kill someone" not directed at anyone and otherwise not posing an immanent threat.
If this kind of speech is to be punished with 8 years prison or 10 years probation, police just need to log onto Xbox Live and have a field day with all the threats...in fact one of the statements from the thread in this story "go drink bleach", I have only heard before on Xbox Live and I have heard it many times from various players - though this example is not a threat there are plenty to be found...mostly involving mothers.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#213Moral of the story: Not using Facebook is worth at least 10 years of your life and $500k.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#214I 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…
+1. I'm as liberal as they come, but the guy deserves the weight of the law to come down on him like a ton of bricks for even hinting at considering to shoot kids in a school.
> but the guy deserves the weight of the law to come down on him like a ton of bricks for even hinting at considering to shoot kids in a school.
They never found any evidence that he even said it. FB didn't give them access to his account. A screenshot is easily faked.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#215Wow, 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.
> Wow, I didn't realise US police were that bad. You didn't? Stories about attrocious behaviour by US police, and the sorry state of the US prison system, not to mention the fact that the US locks up more people than any other country in the world, have received a lot of attention here and elsewhere. To me, the worst one was the prison that bribed a judge to convict more children.
So one story of the justice system going wrong in the USA means the whole system is systemically corrupt?
By this thinking I hope neither of you drive a car to work every day. You'll really be afraid of the risks with that one.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of it comes down to the fact that you have extremely geographically isolated people. Communities in the mountains of the Carolina's for instance may not even have a bank or a post office. These people are extremely paranoid and fearful of change, and thus they elect politicians that share their views and that, worse, feed into them with religious and political rhetoric about how the bad man with dark skin is goi…
Not a criticism but how much time have you spent in the South?
My entire life. I've met some of the most viciously racist people that exist. And not just poor and uneducated people. Wealthy, educated people as well. There is an institutionalized racism that permeates most of the south. Not all southerners are that way. Some of us try to lift the south up into the 21st century. But it's a hard fight. And the resistance to change is strong.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#217Wow, 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.
> Wow, I didn't realise US police were that bad. You didn't? Stories about attrocious behaviour by US police, and the sorry state of the US prison system, not to mention the fact that the US locks up more people than any other country in the world, have received a lot of attention here and elsewhere. To me, the worst one was the prison that bribed a judge to convict more children.
> To me, the worst one was the prison that bribed a judge to convict more children.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#218Moral of the story: Not using Facebook is worth at least 10 years of your life and $500k.
only if you plan on making sarcastic death threats
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia - fear these places.
Oh fuck off, you obviously haven't been to half of these states, especially considering you dumped New Mexico into a list with Mississippi. How that would ever make sense is beyond me. What would you even be fearing? Burritos and Barbeque?
I wouldn't fear anything. But I'm white. If I were not white? I'd fear the corrupt cops, the corrupt legal system, and the corrupt banking system to name a few.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#220This headline is sickening. Comal County criminal prosecutors ruined this man's life.
Facebook in the headline gets readers, usually i would agree that using the name to spread the words is heinous, but the crimes against this kid are worse