$500,000 Donation Frees Jailed League of Legends Player
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
I believe it was Fredrich Nietzsche who said, "But thus I counsel you, my friends: Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. They are people of a low sort and stock; the hangman and the bloodhound look out of their faces. Mistrust all who talk much of their justice! Verily, their souls lack more than honey. And when they call themselves the good and the just, do not forget that they would be pharisees, if only they had - power."maddawg IAJI said:
Another quote of his that rings true in this ordeal is, "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."
The kid said something stupid - of this point, there is little to no argument. The argument lies in the various perceptions of what punishment, if any, this young man should receive. In my opinion, he has suffered enough throughout this ordeal in memory, thought and nightmare to say that his punishment has been served justly in accordance to the severity of his "crime".
Yet, it will be the hatred of his peers, and their greed as well, that shall keep him suffering for more than what punishment he deserved. I believe there is a word for such lessons to be learned here for all parties, from within and without:
Karma.
Damn it, don't you see?!? They jailed this kid on false pretenses so everyone would get angry enough that they'd fork over 500k to the government for more military spending on drones that will be used to find potential terrorists like that LoL kid who said he was gonna go crazy!
WAKE UP SHEEPLE!
WAKE UP SHEEPLE!
Was it Ben Franklin who said "Those who would sacrifice freedom for security will receive neither and deserve none."?Jamieson 90 said:
How the frig did these colonial guys know so much and come up with these quotes without knowing how electricity works?
There's plenty of argument from me, which I've already made a few times but I'm going to make again. We are allowed to make jokes. In fact, as I understand it, jokes are protected under the First Amendment (not a US citizen so not really my area, but I've read a fair amount about these things). It's not exactly vintage Woody Allen but it's not even that bad a joke - it's the kind of thing that graces a million web forums every day. Christ, have you ever spent time on Reddit or B3ta? This is just bog standard banter - he even went to the trouble of adding a JK marker, which most people wouldn't bother with.CrazyCapnMorgan said:
The fact that even those *supporting* him are still prevaricating over this, saying things like 'maybe he deserved some punishment but not this' or 'maybe he could just have been fined' or 'he's served enough jail time' are missing the point. This kid deserved *nothing* - even people above calling him 'a little shit' are going too far (at least on the basis of the story itself - he may be a little shit for all I know, but nothing in the story gives any reason to know either way). If anything, the person who reported him should have been fined for wasting police time.
We need to draw this line firmly. There is no crime whatsoever in making a joke, no matter how tasteless. There shouldn't even be a crime in making a verbal threat, in my opinion. There are two crimes: actual harm to another person, and intent to cause harm. And to show intent there needs to be damn sight more evidence than an offhand remark on a web forum.
Putting the kid in jail and ruining his life would be a mistake, but it's good that people and the authorities at least did something so make it PERFECTLY clear to him that you don't joke about that kind of stuff. Ever.
At this point, I think we can be fairly certain that he has understood by now that that wasn't a good idea. Again, neither justice nor society are served by locking him up. All that's going to do is make him a real criminal once he gets out.
Captcha: kosher dill
Well, that was random. Is there even un-kosher dill?
At this point, I think we can be fairly certain that he has understood by now that that wasn't a good idea. Again, neither justice nor society are served by locking him up. All that's going to do is make him a real criminal once he gets out.
Captcha: kosher dill
Well, that was random. Is there even un-kosher dill?
He did and it's so true, and I think the reason he was able to do it is because some principles are timeless regardless of the culture/technology you live in, simple put we should always strive to protect our social liberties, and with advances in technology that fight is only going to get harder and more important.Syzygy23 said:
Syzygy23 said:
Well great, now you went and did it.
OT: I'm really glad he's out. This whole situation makes me want to start making over the top threats at anything and everything in protest of just how ridiculous this law is. But then I'd probably end up in the same boat as this guy.
Every time someone bashes America, I'm usually one of the first to say that it isn't that bad. Sometimes things happen and there is crime and corruption all over the world, but this country isn't as bad off and malicious as some believe. This is that bad. It is hypocrisy and hysteria and paranoia taken to extremes. And I just hate it. Very much.
Look, I am sorry, but the how fuck did he not know about Sandy Hook?Miss G. said:
I am in a completely different country and I still heard it through radio, facebook, websites, random ass people, not even counting the media.
If he seriously didn't know about it, not only is he fucking oblivious but the father should teach him to pay attention to the shit that is going on around him.
Joking, I know, but still - can I just explain this to anyone else who doesn't get how bail works.Syzygy23 said:
Bail is not money 'forked over' to the government. Bail is a surety payment to ensure someone doesn't disappear without turning up in court. Now admittedly, this anonymous donor has shown huge trust in this young man because if he *doesn't* show up in court then the donor stands to lose all that money. But for now we can work on the assumption s/he will get most of it back (minus whatever fee the bail bond company or other third party involved in the transaction takes).
My heart ached when I read the original story. We all say stupid things, but his punishment was just way too severe for stupidity. The cop's could of scared him straight and give him a good reality check. I wish jail was about trying to fix people rather then ruin them, as no confidence and becoming suicidal and mental anguish is too much of a price to society.
I know it's fucking disgusting (Pardon my language but it's times like this that it's necessary), and anyone who thinks what happened to him is okay are repugnant in my view, I mean they sent him to prison on no evidence at all since they searched his home and found nothing, and that was without even a trial and a conviction since he's still waiting for that, so he's effectively spent 5 months in prison without even being found guilty with nothing being proven, and while there all sorts of things have probably been going on, and the fact he's on suicide watch is understandable if not shocking and horrible, god knows what he's been through, and even if he's found innocent his life is still probably ruined anyway due to the media attention, his record, and the mental scars of it all.Zeckt said:
And for what? because he said a very distasteful thing on the internet, something anyone who isn't a moron could tell was obviously sarcasm, I mean it just reeked of "Sure like I'm going to go into a school and do X and X etc," as though he thought it to be completely ridiculous, but as always sarcasm doesn't come across well in text, although in this case I thought it was clear enough.
All true but surely irrelevant. The 'threat value' of his statement is not altered by the existence of any particular school shooting incident. If anything, if he did know about the incident it would make his statement even more obviously a joke (even if also more obviously in bad taste).dumbseizure said:
It's been said many times before. What he said was stupid. He probably didn't deserve to have cops knock on his door, but this should have ended with community service at the MOST. Shooting a hooker in the back is justifiable homicide in Texas, but a sarcastic comment that was investigated to have no motivation or intent behind it is 8 years jail time.
If nothing had happened and he had gone and shot up a school, people would be up in arms that no-one reported him beforehand. Intent, in the case of making threats, is based on perception of the person reporting it - not whether or not the person making the threat actually was going to go through with it (in another words, if the threat actually scares someone, it's a crime). This isn't some "freedom" that has been taken away by "Dubya" in the name of tourism or what have you- the general principle has been the case in common law since before the US was even founded. Adding "lol j/k" does not mean that the threat automatically is perceived in lacking in intent.
totally just waiting till they come drag me off for some shit. or any of us for that matter. the more i look at this situation i get sad because if someone isn't pulling the strings to make all this crazy crap pop up ... well I fear for the day we all need to work together in order to do something for the good of us all.
half a million for bail on some who had no means or motive to carry out his 'plans' a little steep there justice system. but the guy with a history of drunk driving and a few hit and runs on his record is totally cool with just a fine. Not saying one is better than the other but some of the knee jerk laws we have are crazy. Take a look at a lot of laws based around computer hacking you can go to jail for a lot longer for using your neighbors wifi than you can for committing robbery.
I guess the point I'm trying to get to is that i have no words for the level of stupid that is displayed on such a public scale. That is all sides.
half a million for bail on some who had no means or motive to carry out his 'plans' a little steep there justice system. but the guy with a history of drunk driving and a few hit and runs on his record is totally cool with just a fine. Not saying one is better than the other but some of the knee jerk laws we have are crazy. Take a look at a lot of laws based around computer hacking you can go to jail for a lot longer for using your neighbors wifi than you can for committing robbery.
I guess the point I'm trying to get to is that i have no words for the level of stupid that is displayed on such a public scale. That is all sides.
What absolute nonsense. I can't be held responsible for someone else's inability to recognise humour. That's the complete opposite of what 'intent' means.GonvilleBromhead said:
If he was threatening this particular person, then you *might* have a valid point, but he wasn't. He was making a flippant remark with no specific threat and a clearly jocular tone, backed up with a clear statement that what he was saying was intended as a joke.
Naturally, it's possible that someone making a statement like that *might* conceivably go on to commit an atrocity, but I'd bet the difference between the probability of someone who made that comment taking a gun to a bunch of children and someone who *didn't* make any comment of that kind doing the same thing is vanishingly small. Sure, the police might have done a quick house call if they had nothing better to do, but if they want to catch potential violent criminals I bet there are more cost-effective ways of profiling them than locking up every teenager who makes a bad-taste joke on Facebook.