Rednog said:
You have to use a sense of judgement in situations, for example as you brought up work, say a worker is just having a crummy day and says off offhandedly "wow I'd really love to just jump out that window". Do you jump up and pin them to the ground and call the authorities for an attempted suicide? No, you use your better judgement and realize that it's dark humor.
You can judge things based on context, true. Problem is when you say something in a public place you risk people who are not involved taking it out of context. Facebook comments are not necessarily public, you can choose who sees them, this kid evidentally didn't do that. He put a comment up which people who were not aware of the context could see. As such they've done the right thing and expressed their concern to the authorities.
Also the fact that this was an online comment changes things too. Sarcasm and humour generally can be detected by tone of voice, such things can't be noticed in an online setting. A coworker telling me about his shitty day and joking about hanging himself or whatever may not be a concern. A coworker typing about how shitty his life is finishing his comment saying he's going to commit suicide can be a concern. Again, maybe not to the person who he's talking to, who presumedly knows his sense of humour, but quite possibly to the supervisor who he forgot he had on his friend list.
Robert Holmes said:
The correct analogy would be if someone called in a bomb threat and said the bombs are inside your kidneys or someone else said they had a gun which fires solid bullets of blood pumped from his very veins. I would hope that you do not report me and have me arrested as both a criminal and a blood mage.
I don't think you know how analogies work if you think that's in any way more correct.
The still beating heart eating (sounds cooler this way) is possible, unlikely, but possible nonetheless. But if you want to be more realistic, its also possible for a real threat to be made using hyperbole for effect.
Basically what he said is something you can take to be a real threat in spite of its over-the-top imagery.
Your anologies on the other hand, are stupid and illogical, bordering on the impossible. Having said all that, if you said something like that to me without context for doing so (especially if it was in a call to my workplace or especially in person) then yeah, I'd have you arrested or at the very least institutionalised.
bdcjacko said:
Also by threating to shoot up a school and eat the still beating hearts of children is not something to acceptable joke about where anyone can see or hear. If you want to joke about it with your friends, don't got posting it on Facebook.
Spot on.
In a group of friends where the context is understood, talk about whatever you want. If there's a chance people will overhear without the oppurtunity for you to explain the context, then watch what you say.
I do still think that imprisonment is too drastic for making an example of someone. As I said earlier, fine him (or his parents) for the costs involved. Any more prison time than he's already experienced through his arrest and awaiting trial is going to do more harm than good.
