tl;dr Don't say really fucked up shit on the internet...
The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
261–270 of 356 posts
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
> America is pretty good -- don't anecdotes from the internet says deter you. It's not merely anecdotes; there's plenty of hard data. The US locks up more people in absolute numbers than any country in the world, including China, which has 4 times the population and a totalitarian government. Per capita, the only countries with more inmates are a handful of tiny Carribean islands, I believe. Law enforcement is struct…
Fun fact: the USSR under Stalin and the gulag incarcerated fewer people than does the contemporary United States. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2109777...
And how did that work out for all the un-incarcerated people in Ukraine?
Would you care to do a "contrast and compare" between Soviet gulag conditions and those in a typical contemporary U.S. prison?
I thought not.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Note that though Maine has the lowest incarceration rate of the US, globally they're only average. Most countries in Europe still have a lower incarceration rate, for example. And every other US state has a higher incarceration rate than Maine. Many 3 times as high, some 5, one even 10 times as high. The US as a whole has by far the highest incarceration rate of the whole world. Maybe Maine is the exception as the on…
However, Maine is home to greatest number of horror stories by Stephen King, by far. Clearly, your chances of being mauled by a rabid St. Bernard or vampire or nameless evil is far greater than in the other States.
Then again, you could look at other metrics and reach a different conclusion...
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Yes exactly.
It's the difference between "I'm so angry I could kill someone right now!" and "I'm so angry I could kill so-and-so neighbor right now!"
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#265> 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.
He didn't threaten anyone's children. He threatened children as a concept in order to shock. Is the difference between shouting at someone that you are going to kill them and shouting that you could kill someone. The first is a specific threat, the second is the sort of thing that is said after a bad day at work.
If you took everyone seriously when they threatened non-specific murder, you would have to jail everyone who makes jokes about how many points you get for running over different kinds of pedestrians while driving, which at least in the UK seems to be around half of all drivers.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So I'll start by playing Devil's Advocate very briefly. It's interesting how facts can be shaped with different language ("his only brush with the law"): it appears the restraining order from two years prior related to similar threats to those alleged in the Facebook comments (although in a remarkably different context). IANAL but I'm reasonably confident that a restraining order he received as a minor would not be…
It is, however, when you're subjected to Trial by Media.
Don't know about the USA, but here in Canada the media is also disallowed from discussing young offenders.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#267Wow, 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.
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia - fear these places.
Well, if you're going to paint with such a broad brush, go ahead and list the other 38. I hear there are bad people in San Francisco, Madison, Boise, Olympia, Reading and Topeka too.
Then you should start listing Canadian provinces, because surely they've got some bad apples. And don't forget Mexico, since they've had issues with murderous drug cartels. At that point you should also mention the bloodthirsty populations of Central America as well as the black-hearted people of Iceland.
Really, I think only the Moon is reasonably safe but the place has gone downhill since 1969.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#268Penny Arcade comic on the subject
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hope you're not implying situations found in the Rwandan Genocide are typical in Africa.
Guess what also isn't typical? The treatment of this kid by police prosecutors in the US. The person he replied to sees one isolated incident in Texas, easily the most ass-backwards state in terms of morals and common sense, and assumes it's the case for the entire country of 310 million people.
> one isolated incident in Texas, easily the most ass-backwards state in terms of morals and common sense
Um, yeah, let's judge the entire state of Texas based on one county's prosecutors. Sheesh.
Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
No, the relentless compelling evidence that pours out in torrents day after day without respite is what makes it look like it is corrupt. This story is shocking, but it is not surprising in the slightest, and there is a reason for that.