And, how is what you just typed any different from what you are describing?Psychobabble said:Well good for the judge. We should never negotiate with terrorists. I'm glad to see law enforcement taking this threat seriously. While I know this vigilance annoys some of you as you feel these sick and twisted comments were simply "a joke". I pose the question to you. What if this person, much like a Batman villain, was publicly announcing his crime spree, intentionally misleading and lulling the public into feeling he wasn't actually serious, so when he did actually go through with his horrific murder spree, the devastation would have double the impact? What then? How would you feel if the defenders of justice had just laughed this off and this monster was allowed to kill again? (okay, for the first time .. as far as we know).
Being stupid isn't a crime. If it was, we'd have to jail the lawmakers first.Objectable said:And this is why you shouldn't be stupid.
Don't be stupid people.
On Facebook.thebobmaster said:On the one hand, being prosecuted for a comment made on an online game is ridiculous.
And yes, they admittedly are screwed both ways. But that doesn't validate the overreaction. Yeah, they're screwed both ways, and then they cranked it up to 11.tippy2k2 said:Damned if you do, damned it you don't.
Assuming the "your crazy" comment was in a vacuum and counts as harassment, at best you've established a "two wrongs" argument.option1soul said:Some of ya'll seem to forget he was getting harassed first.
That's news to me. One of the original outrages was that the person who complained didn't live in the area and didn't have any cause to get involved.Not to mention, wasn't it a family member of the person who initially harassed him that kickstarted this legal issue?
Oh dear Lord.thought that's why we have that "freedom of speech" thing, so that our government can't police what we say. I guess the constitution doesn't mean much anymore.
I 100% agree that once it's established that he isn't a threat, it should have been backed off at that point.Zachary Amaranth said:And yes, they admittedly are screwed both ways. But that doesn't validate the overreaction. Yeah, they're screwed both ways, and then they cranked it up to 11.tippy2k2 said:Damned if you do, damned it you don't.
Sure, when it's a Lite Brite ad, people are like "why did you waste our time?" and when someone slams planes into a building , it's "why didn't you do anything (despite the fact that you did, just prior, and you were mocked for wasting our time)?" But once you've established the guy isn't a threat, maybe dial it back a few.
fAreloch said:Wait.Doomsdaylee said:Good. Throw the little shit in prison. I mean, I'm all for freedom of speech and the GIFT, but still, saying shit like that deserves punishment. 8 years is a bit harsh, but maybe next time he won't try to seem edgy and cool.
As for the aforementioned "crossing the line twice" and "refuge in audacity" excuses, that works in fiction, and even then, only to a point. And this is the kind of crazy shit that actually happens.
Funny thing is, all these people crying about how he should be left alone would be doing the exact opposite, (I.E. "Why didn't they lock him up, he even said he was, who's stupid enough to ignore that on just a "jk, lol.") if he actually did go shoot up a school.
Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
"Only works in fiction?"
Ok, so if I were to post here that "I plan to steal 3 semi trucks, load them with barrels of gasoline, and then duct tape them together so I can drive them all at once and ramp them off that dirt pile from the construction in front of the office so I can slam them into the third floor window and kill that douchebag Bob from accounting"
That would constitute a completely legitimate terroristic threat. Really? Really.
Also, wow! Surprise and alarm! If he did something horrible and illegal people would want him to be in JAIL. Good heavens. You should be in POLITICS.
I'll say if he didn't want any chance to be construed as being serious he should have taken the absurdity further, but that is very much a thing. And given that other than a bad attempt at a dark humor joke, he hasn't actually so far done anything illegal, then yes, people are fairly justified to point out that the threat of jail time for most of a decade is rather absurd.
Excuse me, but can you name the people he threatened? Because that's kind of necessary in order to establish intent to do harm. And re how people see it, we don't arrest people to be prosecuted before the court of public opinion.Zachary Amaranth said:Being stupid isn't a crime. If it was, we'd have to jail the lawmakers first.Objectable said:And this is why you shouldn't be stupid.
Don't be stupid people.
On Facebook.thebobmaster said:On the one hand, being prosecuted for a comment made on an online game is ridiculous.
Now, considering the stupid shit I see on Facebook, it seems a bit absurd still. But Facebook is a little more public. And this is sticking point with me, especially of late.
And yes, they admittedly are screwed both ways. But that doesn't validate the overreaction. Yeah, they're screwed both ways, and then they cranked it up to 11.tippy2k2 said:Damned if you do, damned it you don't.
Sure, when it's a Lite Brite ad, people are like "why did you waste our time?" and when someone slams planes into a building , it's "why didn't you do anything (despite the fact that you did, just prior, and you were mocked for wasting our time)?" But once you've established the guy isn't a threat, maybe dial it back a few.
Assuming the "your crazy" comment was in a vacuum and counts as harassment, at best you've established a "two wrongs" argument.option1soul said:Some of ya'll seem to forget he was getting harassed first.
That's news to me. One of the original outrages was that the person who complained didn't live in the area and didn't have any cause to get involved.Not to mention, wasn't it a family member of the person who initially harassed him that kickstarted this legal issue?
IOh dear Lord.thought that's why we have that "freedom of speech" thing, so that our government can't police what we say. I guess the constitution doesn't mean much anymore.
Free speech doesn't have universal ramification. You cannot threaten, you cannot call for someone's death, you cannot shout "fire" in a crowded theater, and so on. And adding "lol jk" to it (and after the fact, I might add) doesn't mean that people aren't going to see it as a threat.
If you jokingly threaten to kill someone, the authorities aren't guaranteed to see it that way, and this neither violates freedom of speech nor is it something new.
f you're going to talk about free speech and the Constitution, know what it says and what it means. Arguments like these do more to devalue free speech than anyone involved in this case is likely to. Now, one could argue about other portions of the Constitution, since the bail was pretty unreasonable, the charges seem harsh, and there have been questions raised about due process, but that's another story (and not all of it confirmed).
Free speech does not mean freedom from consequences, nor does it mean freedom to threaten or harm others.
I kind of doubt at least half of the people here posted something resembling a public threat on a venue like Facebook at some point.dj Facchiano said:I'm sure at some point at least half of you have done or said something worse online.
Nor is it what happened here, so that's irrelevant. It looked like a threat and was treated as such. Since you don't have protection of free speech for threats, arguing how this harms free speech is kind of absurd.dj Facchiano said:"You can say whatever you want but If you do I'll throw you in jail" Is not freedom of speech...
The founding fathers weren't as explicit on free speech as you seem to want to believe.Augustine said:It was well established fact for me for years now that many people don't actually believe in the freedom of speech. At least not in the way it was defined by the founders.
Now just show me where the charges against him include "being offensive or disagreeable to the public" and you might have a case.LostGryphon said:"if there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable."
By that logic, the kids who shot up Columbine were also just kidding.Alleged_Alec said:He clearly made a sarcastic hyperbolic response to that guy. For fuck's sake: his words were " "Shoot up a kindergarten watch the blood rain down and eat the beating heart out of one of them."
Now, I admit I don't have 90% of the internet on my Facebook account, but really, I'd like to see some proof that so many others are making comments that could appear threatening.GrimSoup said:As this is going on worse things are happening in America. If saying something stupid on the internet warranted this kind of consequence, 90% of people should be locked up.
Thankfully not, unless you say something like "in Soviet America, I'm going to shoot up a school."SimpleThunda said:So in the U.S. you can go to jail for making tasteless jokes?
It keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?
Time for "in Soviet America" jokes then?
Or will I get jailed for that?
Wouldn't the logical thing to do here be to research whether or not this was true, rather than operating from the assumption that it's the same and working backward?TheWanderingFish said:That is the way it is in Canada anyway, and I would imagine it would be similar in the States, but I could be wrong.
Except it never has. Not in America, and I doubt you'd find any country where free speech is absolute speech.cikame said:This should be dismissed, freedom of speech allows us to say anything we want
In truth, it probably is trying to set an example. Even then, I think it's needlessly harsh and the guy who set bail at half a million for a kid with no outstanding threat needs to be out of a job. Hopefully, it's one of the jurisdictions where you vote on judges and the community decides this was batshit.tippy2k2 said:I 100% agree that once it's established that he isn't a threat, it should have been backed off at that point.
Now admittedly, I haven't closely followed this case. Maybe there's more behind it we don't know about (which is why they are continuing to pursue it) or maybe it's just a "setting an example" kind of thing. If there truly is nothing else to this beside what we see here, I agree that at this point, the issue should have been dropped (I suppose community service if you are feeling like SOMETHING has to be done but that should be the farthest it goes).
Also: I 110% agree with the mis-use of the term "freedom of speech". I swear no one seems to understand what it actually means...
[citation needed]w00tage said:Excuse me, but can you name the people he threatened? Because that's kind of necessary in order to establish intent to do harm.
The victim in this case being?loa said:The victim blaming is strong in this thread.
Fuck people.