The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life • Hacker News Board

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#231

Post by jff » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:08 PM UTC

nervousvarun wrote: post #146

ItendToDisagree wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 jo…

Lived in the south my entire life (currently in Nola). There's definitely an I don't know...afterglow effect? with this stereotype at play in the south today. It certainly used to be highly isolated culture with it's own weird problems ("fanatics, racism, and overreaction"). These days though thanks to television, the internet, decades of immigration etc. it's pretty much the rest of the US...with better weather.

Don't tell people that, or the Californians will move in and ruin it.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#232

Post by joncrocks » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:09 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #16

hmsimha wrote: post #8

While they're at it why not arrest every musician, poet, and writer who ever penned dark or violent writing.

There's a notable difference between writing a book and publishing an announcement that you're going to go on a killing spree. The former is relatively benign, the latter has far too often been done right before a killing spree. The former is done over time, in relative peace; the latter is done in the spur of the moment. It's like writing the Anarchist's Cookbook about how to make a bomb, and writing a tweet about h…

> the latter has far too often been done right before a killing spree

There's an important point that should be made here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias#Biased_search...

You may have good metrics on the number of incidents that were pre-dated with announcements, but you probably have very bad metrics on the number of announcements that were followed by incidents.

There's no way you can make a statement about how strong the link is without that information.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#233

Post by jff » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:14 PM UTC

tbastos wrote: post #88

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.

Exactly! I think I can only visit the states again after I'm married and with kids, to go to Disneyland... it seems the only safe venture. I mean if you're single, go to a club and get into a fight, that would probably be enough to make your life hell already... going there is like russian roulette

Why would you assault someone in a club? I thought you're from a ~civilized country~

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#234

Post by watty » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:16 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #212

smrtinsert wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 thr…

I don't follow your first remark. Are you trying to say that because he said "kindergarten" instead of naming a specific kindergarten that it's no longer threatening or a threat?

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#235

Post by Dewie » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:17 PM UTC

jaegerpicker wrote: post #164

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.

Don't be a complete Ass. The US is a a big place, really big and there are vastly different types of states and situations. Any country in the world has fucked up abuses of power, name where you live and I guarantee that an example exists. Comparing Maine (where I live, which has the lowest crime rate and rate of prisoners per 100,000 in the US) to Texas is like comparing Switzerland to Russia based on the size and p…

It's funny how when someone lands on the Moon, then it's because of the greatness of being American. If some American person or group does something bad, it has everything to do with being such a heterogeneous country.

This probably has more to do with being Human than being American. Someone would probably bring up some analogy about the Olympics and nationalism as a retort. The thing is, though, when the US wins the most gold medals during the Olympics, they conveniently gloss over the fact that it is a first world nation with 300 million people. When something bad occurs, it is precisely because they are 300 million people - "we are so many and so different", "that would never work over here, we are too many and too different"

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#236

Post by jff » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:17 PM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #206

When officers searched Carter's home, Flanary says, they did not find the hallmarks of a lunatic. "They found no guns in his house," Huh. Guns = hallmark of a lunatic?

That was my response too, but at least you'd assume a real lunatic who planned to shoot up a school would, you know, have a gun.

That's why I don't joke about shooting people.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#237

Post by iopq » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:19 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #82

DanBC wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What do you do when you're in custody and the police deny you access to your lawyer as appears to be the case here. Or moves you and provides a puppet lawyer, as also appears to be the case here. Or simply incarcerate you without charge for an extended period as also seems to be the case here. Do you keep quite when those incarcerating you [by action or inaction] set you up to be raped. At what point do you give in a…

You still don't admit any fault or guilt! It never helps. They only have you admit things to put you in prison. There is no other reason. "Proving" you're innocent to the cop is not admitted in court anyway. Admitting you're guilty to the cop is.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#238

Post by triplesec » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:21 PM UTC

toyg wrote: post #188

tbastos wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, there are problems everywhere, but you cannot compare the level of bullshit in the states. Just look at the statistics on Wikipedia, and the many documentaries on YouTube and newspaper articles on it. Yeah if you're poor and vulnerable you're screwed anywhere in the capitalist world. But in the states you're screwed even if you are middle class (absurd bails) and have a good lawyer, because the government is so…

>just because people are more laid back and sane here than in the states. Are they? I distinctly remember the post-riot reactions in London last summer: people got sentenced to years of imprisonment for posting banter on Facebook and Twitter, with full support from mainstream public opinion. Because we're all cool until you touch private property, and then it's HANG THE THIEF! And if you think that's just Brits being…

The riots were in 2011. The punishments were for a different thing. Still, these were really bad punishments. http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/16/uk-riots-four-year... . The UK policing approach is more of a middle-class order authoritarianism, "we want to stop this rotten bunch of oiks" rather than "my ego and promotion are founded on jailing anyone I can find", which seems to be the case in much of the US. Nobody was nabbed for just bantering, though, as it seems this kid was, although "just a restraining order" suggests some queries. But knowing what the US cops are (in)capable of, I'm appalled again by the system where they want to put as many people in jail as possible. This was, however, excessive.

A note on rhetoric: I'm glad you mentioned this because I'd forgotten about those convictions. But please Do give links as justification, because you do your arguments a disservice by loose argumentationm and hyperbole.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#239

Post by markus2012 » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:31 PM UTC

Xdes wrote: post #192

D9u wrote: post #70

The Comal County District Attorney's Office did not intend for Carter to suffer what happened next, Flanary says, but it was reasonably foreseeable: He was sexually assaulted. The fact that prisoners are commonly subject to sexual assault, and that this consequence is trotted out as an acceptable deterrent to crime, illustrates just how uncivilized the US prison-industrial-complex is in this, the year 2014. Failure t…

Prison in the US isn't about rehabilitation it's about punishment. No one goes to prison thinking they're going to come out as a better person with a new outlook on life. They're going to come out war-torn and barely above functional with little to no prospects.

Little to no prospects: right, because punishment doesn't stop when you leave prison. Punishment continues until the day you die: you can't get a good job because virtually no one will hire an ex-con.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#240

Post by corresation » Thu, Feb 13, 2014, 6:42 PM UTC

MojoJolo wrote: post #22

This is disturbing. They arrest the guy and sentenced to ten years in jail with just a screenshot of a Facebook comment as a starting evidence. It's kinda puzzling to me why didn't they manage to check the whole thread? I think it's simple enough and contacting Facebook for it is not needed. What's the topic of the thread? We don't know. Edit: Let's also not disregard the fact that the screenshot can be all made up.…

They arrest the guy and sentenced to ten years in jail with just a screenshot of a Facebook comment as a starting evidence.

I don't believe he has been sentenced to anything. He was given an offer of 10 years probation, which his lawyer bizarrely spouts off against as if deals are not the common actions in the justice system.

In any case, he confessed to what was stated, and despite the spin now that it was a false confession, in earlier versions of reports about this he freely admitted that he said what he said...but that he purportedly followed it up later by an lol that made it all okay.

It is actually interesting seeing how people sway in opinion about things. In the whole Flappy Bird fiasco, many were calling for the heads of those who "threatened the life" of the author, even though the threats were almost universally clearly absurd or satirical. Yet in this case it is an outrage that the police followed up on threats against children (shortly after Sandy Hook), and then when they discovered a confluence of concerning behaviors (suicide threats, restraining orders, bizarre behavior) they pursued actual charges.

Should people be raped in jail? Of course they shouldn't. No criminal should. Though it's interesting that many on here believe that he is not like those other criminals, when the jails are stuffed with non-violent offenders who likewise shouldn't face sexual assaults.

Should people face absurd sentences about thought crimes? Of course not.

But what you say matters. Words have consequences. This whole fallback on some rote "Freedom of Speech!" thing is devolving from a civilized behavior.

EDIT: I see that we're not looking for a rational, mature discussions. More of a rah rah rah mass outrage.