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Teenage League of Legends Player Jailed For Months For Facebook Joke
Kohath writes "Eighteen-year-old Justin Carter of Austin, Texas was arguing with a friend on Facebook about League of Legends back in February. After being called 'insane,' he responded with 'Oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts.' Below that, he wrote 'lol' and 'jk.' He was arrested March 27, 2013 and has been in jail since that time. A hearing to review his case is scheduled for July 1, 2013. His parents have launched a change.org petition to convince the authorities to release their son."
He wasn't actually making a direct threat at any place or thing...just shooting off his mouth.
Sad that you can be arrested for just a general saying of something.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Here in the US it is impossible to take two steps forward without taking a step and a half back.
This week has been pretty scary in those regards...
for erroneous and unnecessary use of the comma.
A teenager being sarcastic? No way that *never* happens.
I was wondering why that black van was parked in front of my house for the past 2 weeks. My wife offered them some coffee, and they just pointed guns at her. Maybe I shouldn't go back home anytime soon.
sudo make me a sandwich
Why are you concentrating on trivial things at a time like this?
How can you be complacent when . . . BENGHAZI??????
The statements “lol” and “jk” — meaning “laughing out loud” and “just kidding” — indicate that Justin’s statement was entirely sarcastic, said his father.
But a Canadian woman who saw the post looked up Carter’s Austin address, determined that it was near an elementary school, and called the police.
Fucking Canadians...
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
A Change.org petition? Do people still think those have any relevance to the people they petition? Has a Change.org petition ever had any meaningful effect?
Real MOBAs are HoN and Dota2, enuff said.
It (ought to be) a whole other country.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
There is a line where the authorities have to intervene on such comments and investigate them, and seek psychiatric help if need be... but this 18 year old kid has been in JAIL for 3 months for making a single sentence comment that given the context was made in jest? Oh wait... it is Texas after all.
The last comma was superfluous.
I'm surprised it's come to this. I was sure that when I went back and read the summary more carefully, it was going to be Australia or the UK, not Austin, TX.
Who in their right mind viewed that as a credible threat?
I had a sucky sig.
On top of the people actually hurt, we are happy to create some more needless suffering.
Your tax dollars at work here people.
"Because we are not employing at entry level, offshoring will kill our industry stone dead."
The real shame here is that we're hearing about this now, after the kid's been in jail for 3 months. WTF?
And Iran are the same place.
Sounds like the average lol player to me.
Has he been charged for having weapons of mass destruction yet?
and lack of concern for privacy. Why should facebook posts by a teen in Austin TX even be visible to a woman in Canada?
Any chance the US could change the last bit? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pC49AqKlgs&t=1m14s
It just comes across as hilarious these days.
Really, how could he get away with saying something like this:
eat their still, beating hearts.
That is entirely the wrong place to put a comma. How could a heart be both still and beating? If you really have to have some kind of punctuation there, "still-beating heart" would be acceptable.
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
False arrest, wrongful imprisonment, violation of his civil rights, the list goes on.
He can sue the government for so much money that he'll never have to work again. This is almost as good as winning the lottery.
When will people learn that when you say 'lol, jk' it means you were joking?
In case anyone wonders what crime he could be accused of with those words, from the article: "Authorities charged him with making a terrorist threat. If convicted, he will face eight years in prison."
I also found this bit from the article hilarious: "“Justin was the kind of kid who didn’t read the newspaper,” said [father] Jack Carter. “He didn’t watch television. He wasn’t aware of current events. These kids, they don’t realize what they’re doing. They don’t understand the implications. They don’t understand.”
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The teen's stupid, the woman's human waste, and... the authorities don't know what jk means. When he gets out I hope they sue for 1st amendment rights violations. Whoever issued that warrant is the real monster here.
Just like the war on drugs, it's a bad idea that doesn't work in practice and has horrific collateral damage.
His parents have launched a change.org petition to convince the authorities to release their son.
Perhaps his parents should understand the difference between local, state, and federal governmental jurisdictions and spend their time more wisely if they want their son released.
Jailing someone for misplaced comma? If it were a bad use of the apostrophe, I could understand. But a comma?
"Why should facebook posts by a teen in Austin TX even be visible to a woman in Canada?"
Why shouldn't they? Unless he marked his post private or friends only, anyone can see it.
Common sense should tell you that.
An 18 year old is more than capable of determining the level of privacy they want when using Facebook, and are more than capable of stopping people they don't want seeing the posts from viewing them. I'm not justifying her, but it is a social website meant for sharing.
Contrast that to Alec Baldwin, who was making a direct threat: Alec Baldwin Melts Down On Twitter, Threatens To 'F*ck Up' Reporter
http://gawker.com/alec-baldwin-melts-down-on-twitter-threatens-to-fuck-604856776
I wonder if the rich still have their rights?
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
"is something wrong with a statement "18 year old teenager". I kinda thought "teenagers" ended right about 16, "
SevenTEEN
EighTEEN
NineTEEN
"ima stick a W54 up your ass!"
"knock-knock"
"whos there?"
boooooooooo!
mb
im throwing a party, gonna spin some old terrors-quad vinyls, bring some bubbly liquid and some sparklers!
Is it me, or is something wrong with a statement "18 year old teenager". I kinda thought "teenagers" ended right about 16, and by 18 we should have, at least in theory, a fully functional member of society, who should be a little more responsible with words. Especially when those words are are direct threat to health and lives of others.
In any case, "j/k" and "lol" does not excuse a sociopath, nor does it guarantee that a mentally ill person will not actually act upon the threat. It would, of course, be better if authorities investigated this faster and, hopefully, found that no such threat exists.
Aside from that, we don't know all the circumstances of the case (except for what one side with vested interest tells us). Perhaps such threat does really exist.
I'll reserve my raging for something else, if you do not mind.
sixTEEN, sevenTEEN, eighTEEN, nineTEEN
Notice the trend?
20 marks the end of a persons teenage years.
Land of the sensational, home of the afraid.
For me teenagers includes eighteen and nineteen ;)
Yes, he should know when not to say the bad things! You might not know what they are, so be careful and keep your mouth shut!
Except it wasn't a direct threat.
He's a sociopath, huh? How'd you figure that one out?
And now he's mentally ill?
Hasn't stopped you from casting judgement.
Therefore no amount of abusive, oppressive investigation and imprisonment is too much!
In other news Obama is supporting Syrian rebels who actually did eat the heart of their victims. It is Obama's fault for promoting cannibalism.
The science seems to show that the brain doesn't fully develop until around 24, so most psychologists consider anyone up to 24 or so to still be an "adolescent". That's judging by a person's ability to make decisions where they have to weigh future benefits against immediate benefits. Mature people (over 24) make more logical decisions regarding, e.g., investments, risk, etc.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
This is the age when the humorless will finally get their revenge.
Be aware, we are on to you!
Is it me, or is something wrong with a statement "18 year old teenager". I kinda thought "teenagers" ended right about 16.
That's because you are a dumbass.
And that's why you always put a smiley when posting crazy ramblings :)
we now know where you are and will be right over to collect you.....
feel free to post more meta data so we can locate you better.
SixTEEN, sevenTEEN, eighTEEN, nineTEEN... Regardless, it's legal to discriminate against young people in the USA, so you're essentially treated as a child (unless you commit a crime, of course) until you're at least 21.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Saved by bad grammar!
Fallacy: Slippery slope argument.
How can you say that considering all the bullshit coming out of Washington, DC lately? The government always abusing their power? The NSA was able to get away with it for so long because of abuse of the PATRIOT Act. The TSA is constantly going way beyond their original purpose.
The Slippery Slope argument is not only true but it is a fact.
Actually, I can't think of when it's NOT true.
...the charges were dismissed. And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling internet watchdogs:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/28/charge-dropped-against-student-who-refused-to-remove-nra-shirt/
land of the terror
you have the freedom to say whatever you want but unless you limit yourself to speech that doesnt "disturb the public order" you get men with guns knocking on your door
Isn't it curious! Hollywood makes 'fiction' where characters behave in the most vile ways imaginable, but no-one in Hollywood ever fears arrest. For you cretins that say this is different, there is ZERO concept in the USA of either a state-sanctioned journalist or state-sanctioned creator of appropriate fiction.
When Justin Carter wrote his post, he actually (although in law this is NOT required) went the extra mile to ensure readers would know it was a work of fiction (jokes and satire are a form of fiction). Now a cretin, shill or troll will now trot out the old "can't shout 'fire' in a theatre if there is no fire". Of course, we all know there are malicious circumstances where "it was just a joke" doesn't cut it. Bomb threats, or robbing a bank with a fictional gun come to mind.
However, where a person is rightfully prosecuted for issuing a threat, one of two factors must be present. Malicious intent or criminally careless behaviour. Irritating an official satisfies neither of these circumstances.
Sadly, monsters have worked to get the public accepting a police-state approach to enforcement, allowing (especially young) people to be taken out simply for saying the 'wrong' thing regardless of circumstance. This started with people making clear and obvious jokes at security stations in airports. Courts convicted on the basis on non-existent criminal principles with general public approval (the old 'lynch mob' or 'burn the witch' mentality.
The real game here is compliance conditioning. The sheeple are supposed to think only those state-approved zionists on the idiot box have free speech. Free speech by proxy. You choose your free-speech 'representative' (right-wing, left-wing, radical, etc) and only he or she has the freedom to express 'difficult' concepts. You, the sheeple, on the other hand, do NOT get to express 'difficult' ideas. Team Obama says "where's the problem- every type of opinion occurs in our free press".
Free speech by proxy is never free speech. Arresting certain groups of people for creating fiction, while allowing zionist Hollywood to express any form of outrageous fiction is disgusting, but how else is Team Obama supposed to groom a nation to cheer a rolling program of geocidal wars in the Middle-East.
The parents ought to submit a filing to the court with just one thing in it: a photocopy of the page from the dictionary with the definition of "sarcasm" highlighted, and the comment "Apparently the <SARCASM> tags in his post failed to render correctly.".
I think it's time to start pranking the authorities mercilessly and without respite. They want to be Dolores Umbridge, they need the same treatment.
Hes not a "Kid" anymore is an 18 yr old adult and any 18 yr old should know making a dumb statement like that can only bring trouble. Are the police over reacting? I dont think so, they have no clue as to his mental state which should be checked while hes in jail. Too many of our children have been murdered by "Kids" saying stupid things and were ignored.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Mr. Dumbass probably made it a public or friends-of-friends post. One of the TX woman's friends probably commented on the post, which then made it visible to her.
I'm gonna go shoot up a school, perhaps bomb wall street and throw M80's at the white house
jk
jk = just killing
There done. Come get me, faggots.
Can't; your too much of a coward to show your handle.
The correct way to make pissy threats at people is not to threaten their mortal life. E.g.
For Jusus FUCKing Christ people, I will pray to god everyday that when you meet your maker, you are given a 1-way, express trip, to the inner most circle of hell where demons will eat your still beating heart as you are drinking pure lava all while having to listen to Justin Beaver.
no canuck male would be calling and no internet savvy person knowing what j/k or lol meant would hten make a call NOR would police up here do jack about it.
ITS YOUR police that took this to the wrong level.
and when i get in front of a judge the j/k gets the case tossed and the judge would get angry at them for wasting his fucking time
beating hearts. Misplaced comma and all. And by "their" I refer to anyone who ever supported any legislation involving "terrorism". Absolutely fucking disgusting.
/me looks over at the U.S. Government.
Yeah, I'm not posting this AC. Because we shouldn't be scared of saying keywords or using goddamn sarcasm.
As kids like this might say, COME AT ME BRO.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
That's kind of my point. If you don't care about privacy and broadcast everything for everyone to see, you end up with some nutjob lady getting so upset about a joke she calls local authorities who are too stupid to recognize a joke and this mess happens. Idiocy is easily avoided by avoiding other people.
One hundred thirTEEN...
He's a sociopath, huh? How'd you figure that one out?
He plays LoL. Easy enough. Next question?
Another example of our freedoms being taken away under the guise of fighting terrorism. Sickening.
not jk.
First they came for the jokers with bad taste standing in line waiting to be strip scanned or sexually molested. We said little, did nothing...
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
I find it funny that League of Legends was mentioned. I'm curious to see whether parents start lobying against this game out of sheer stupidity.
No, they are MOST CERTAINLY NOT "damned if they do and damned f they don't". There is a big difference between doing an ACTUAL INVESTIGATION, and arresting someone without any critical thought or due process.
If any actual critical thinking was applied here, this kid would not be arrested.
No one has a problem with the police investigating threats. They are not "damned if they do". The problem starts when they just go off arresting people without any thoughts on if, you know, they actually meant whatever was being written.
...there's not much chance that he'll actually serve time for this. It would be pretty hard to convince a room full of jurors that he had INTENT to cause harm, BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.
I'm from a country where we had local terrorist organizations, and there were dozens of "small" attacks over the years causing hundreds of victims.
Yet I never lived with fear.
The irony is that this abuse of power feels like the real deal, it is terrorism. Fear is what I feel every time I read something like this. Terror... even if it doesn't happen in my country. I even fear thinking this way and writing a couple lines about it here... Fear.. and then anger. It is not only the US -athougth the US looks in very bad shape in this regard-, it is global in different degrees.
If after a fact like that the boy goes crazy and bombs the precinct how can I think of him like a terrorist and not a victim fighting desesperately? I must be a terrorist myself I guess.
Nothing makes sense. Those terrorist groups... they had their "reasons", sick, wrong, whatever. But what reason can a goverment have to keep a country living in a permanent sense of fear in the name of the war against terror?
Everything is greed and corruption and I see a terrorist in every politician, and the police as their army. They are taking my freedom and giving me fear instead.
When those who are arresting will be arrested and shoot up?
So is this kid from Houston or Austin? I've read it both ways. One of my wife's co-workers had a problem with the pizza delivery guy. Her husband made some choice comments to the little jack-ass. Later that night the cops came a-knockin'. Threw the guy in jail. The little bastard pressed charges of making a terrorist threat. This was in Houston. So no big surprise with this story. The only shocking thing is that we didn't hear about it three months ago.
HPD and friends have a history of shitty things like this. Just last Christmas an off-duty sheriff shot and killed a shoplifter in a Walmart parking lot. He claimed they were trying to run him over. I got pulled over for going 35 in a 35, because it was "almost time" for it to be a school zone. They arrested hundreds at a parking lot for trespassing even though some of them were actually eating at Sonic or shopping at Kmart.
Why does it matter that they were arguing about LoL? That seems like a really extraneous detail.
The people who run the business of government are opportunists, and this is merely the latest in a never-ending line of exploitable opportunities. In government, such opportunities come often, quite unlike what happens in the private sector. This is because in the business of government, the executive team isn't risking their own money, and thus there is little to no penalty for failure.
The opportunities here are (1) to justify more spending, which is always first and foremost, (2) to justify more control over the source of wealth (i.e. power over the people), which will be used as a weapon against government's real enemy: those who call for reducing the size, scope, power, or net worth of government.
I don't think I have to explain how such opportunities, when successfully exploited on a continuous basis over time, can give rise to the most powerful, most expensive government and world empire in human history (with military bases in some 150 countries around the world).
The difference between "tier 1" governments and the rest is merely the ability to recognize and exploit these opportunites.
I see what went wrong here: the cops are morons.
This has nothing to do with some kid who doesn't read the news. Whether he read the news or not is irrelevant. He wasn't serious, didn't seem serious, and nobody was threatened. What went wrong here, is that the cops were either too stupid to notice this, or they acted in bad faith.
So Austin taxpayers: have you decided yet? Are they stupid or are they evil? Either way, I don't know why you would keep signing the paychecks.
So what happens if everyone starts Tweeting jokey threats in response to these charges? Maybe it's happening already - I don't Tweet, or Twitterise, or whatever you'd call it.
But I think I will get drunk and go beat up some midgets.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I lost a job because some peoples did'nt saw the SARCASM and the second degree joke I made in one sentence!
Nowadays people interpret everything literraly, like this Canadian woman.
We now live in a society where what you say is much more important than real actions.
Maybe because of 50 years of marketing, brainwashing and superficial politicians.... and 10 years of paranoia.
If we have a right, the government can not just claim "saftey first!" and subjugate that right, just because they say. If they can then we never had any rights to begin with and we have a larger problem
Greet your friend named Jack in an airport by saying, "Hi Jack." You'll get a similar response.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
I agree with others that since there's neither a direct threat nor any intent to harm anyone (quite obvously, I might add), this kid should not be in jail. However, his parents (not the government or the police) should take away his computer for being so stupid. People these days just don't think about the consequences of their actions. This reminds me of that MIT student who went to the airport with a "fake bomb" strapped to her chest. It wasn't a fake bomb, but she damn well should have known better than to think that TSA grunts were going to know the difference.
See, if you're trying to make a political statement, then it's sometimes necessary to do something like this. Like if you're trying to expose flaws in the TSA scanning systems or demonstrate principles of free speech. But that is NOT what these kids were trying to do at all. They were just being stupid and would have been better off doing something different. All they accomplished was to make things difficult for themselves. What I mean is, if you're going to tick off the authorities, do it for a REASON, with a meaningful and productive goal in mind, with your ass covered (i.e. your plan documented with your attorney) in the (likely) event that you get arrested. When the authorities inevitably screw up, they look stupid. Ticking off the authorities "by accident" like this just makes YOU look stupid.
This is way too Orwellian and although terrorism is bad, mm'kay, we better find a way to determine the real threats versus the non-real threats. Not too just protect people and their potential futures (which this kid now has none). But, also to not overburden the system with a bunch of gamers saying $h!t.
I not only hope that they dismiss the case, but, purge his record entirely. He won't even be able to get a public trust clearance with this.
Land of the Free... and the Home of the Brave??? Ha!
I am in the military myself, and to be frank, underage drinking is overlooked in the barracks. The general rule is not to have a run in with the law that would cause you to get caught drunk. Also, don't drink on duty. Which goes without saying. While you still can't drink in a bar, or buy booze yourself, there are plenty of fellow soldiers who will gladly run up to the Class Six for you and get you some beer or liquor. If you're actually in the military, than your only concern is to not get in to trouble while drunk. That can result in Article 15 punishment if your leaders choose to pursue it (Loss of pay, loss of time through extra duty, possibly loss of rank). But in all reality, if you are drunk in the barracks and don't cause any trouble for the MPs to show up or anything, than you can drink all you want.
For once I actually RTFA, because I couldn't think of a crime this kid could have been charged with. He is charged with "making a terroristic threat."
Then I wondered what that means, feeling a bit surprised that this kid's actions could be interpreted as a terroristic threat (though, I think we can all agree that sometimes summaries on /. and descriptions in news can be innaccurate, which may very well be the case here), so I found this summary of the common elements of the crime of "making a terroristic threat":
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/making-a-terrorist-threat.html
Basically, my conclusion is that, yes, we should all be afraid--This is getting into "thought crime" territory.
Not to be "that guy", but really it should be "still beating" or "still-beating" hearts, and not: still, beating hearts. The later of the examples is just silly sounding.
...but it's for The Children.
your too much of a coward
your
He just left.
I think is is reasonable to believe the teens where joking with on another, if it is true the LOL was in the post, and given fact they where talking League of Legends.
In the same breath, and in the same country, that have given us Columbine, Stockton, and Sandy Hook did the teen "yell fire when in a theater".
The problem is that is written, not heard. There are no inflections in the words. Did LOL mean laugh out loud or League of Legends.
If it had been heard while walking down the street would had it been different.
Is facebook and other social media really a public forum, or private forum among a group of friends that would understand the context.
But where? It sucks when the most armed country in the world goes. It's like being locked up in a cell with Hannibal Lector. You know things won't end up well for you.
I applaud your efforts, but you then hid behind "Anonymous Coward", thus feeding into the very hysteria you're trying to avoid.
But then you turn around and insult how few people were killed in Newtown so I guess you're just trying to be SuPeR eDgY
I believe that might get you charged under hate crimes for insulting someone's religion(s). You can't say things like that about Justin.
The officials who oversaw this debacle should be relieved of office by the taxpayers. Enough is enough. If you can't parse reality, if you can't understand multi-syllabic words like "hyperbole" then please do the taxpayers of Texas a favor and find a job for yourself that doesn't require you to.
Perhaps become a Sunday morning commentator.
That's judging by a person's ability to make decisions where they have to weigh future benefits against immediate benefits.
I guess by that logic the voting age should be 24. Long term benefits vs short term benefits are a very important factor in deciding who to vote for. That is the problem with magic numbers. Yes the brain might not be fully developed before 24 but it does not switch from no ability weigh future benefits against immediate benefits to complete ability to weigh future benefits against immediate benefits. It is a transition and that ability should be well enough developed in an 18 year to understand that a threat against a school is not a good thing. It comes down to this, the brain does not need to be completely developed to be responsible for one's actions.
He posted it in February, and then was jailed March 27th? That's some good police work, right there.
Is it me, or is something wrong with a statement "18 year old teenager". I kinda thought "teenagers" ended right about 16
You thought wrong.
In any case, "j/k" and "lol" does not excuse a sociopath, nor does it guarantee that a mentally ill person will not actually act upon the threat.
Sorry, but almost all teens are sociopaths. It's part of the shitty environment they're put through in school. Hell, I know a lot of adult sociopaths that are fully functioning members of society.
It behooves the authorities to search for CONTEXT as well.
As anybody with any semblance of consciousness understands that zero tolerance is bullshit, first to last. And that context makes all the difference.
Yes, consciousness. As only someone asleep or brain dead could imagine zero tolerance was any sort of reasonable policy.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Mature people (over 24) make more logical decisions regarding, e.g., investments, risk, etc.
And yet many of them still act like imbeciles who think the terrorist/pedophile/communist bogeyman is going to get them unless the government takes away some of our rights. Speaking as a 31 year old, many adults may as well be adolescents; it wouldn't make much of a difference.
lol you're dumb
The issue is that the target has no way of proving the threat is not credible and may react as if it is. Many extortion plots have no actual way of being carried out but they work because it is possible for them to work. For example, I could see someone going into a hotel room with some other than the spouse, assume sex was going on and threaten the person with showing the spouse sex tapes. I have no sex tapes but the person does not know that because it is possible that they exist. The threat is the issue not whether or not the person making the threat can carry it out.
...untill proven innocent...
does this even needs several months of investigating?
Why is this chap still in jail?
I've read the articles. Maybe my Google-Fu is weak today. But I cannot find anything that explicitly states why either he was denied bail or the bail was set ludicrously high.
Having to go to court for this is silly enough. But did a judge seriously deem this teen so much a threat as to deny him bail? I'd really like to know because it would seem to me a judge is who should have added some sanity to this issue.
Of course the NSA sees everything regardless of privacy settings. So unless you trust the US government, it's probably best not to post anything that would be interpreted [by a moron] as a threat.
...have become the 'Stranger Danger' adults and these adults are so weak-minded that things like this happen all the time.
All. The. Time.
The enemy of my enemy is quite possibly also my enemy. I've made a lot of enemies.
If you get to 113 then you see how many people complain about you acting with no empathy and staying in bed until 11am.
Slippery slope is a fallacy only when there is no evidence that the slope exists.
It's well produce proven that government will in fact stretch any powers they are given to the limit. As example, the US federal government was given the power to regulate commerce between the states. Based on that power, they made it illegal to grow vegetables in your home garden, for you to eat. There's nothing interstate about that, and no commerce, but nevertheless govt did that under the interstate commerce clause.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn
In any case, "j/k" and "lol" does not excuse a sociopath, nor does it guarantee that a mentally ill person will not actually act upon the threat. It would, of course, be better if authorities investigated this faster and, hopefully, found that no such threat exists.
Aside from that, we don't know all the circumstances of the case (except for what one side with vested interest tells us). Perhaps such threat does really exist.
It's possible a credible threat existed, but it's pretty unlikely. It's reasonable that the police may make contact following an international notification, but an arrest seems excessive, let alone several months imprisonment.
Texas, where saying something in bad taste is a felony?
Hope they have a lot of prisons! ;)
jk lol
Imagine, trying to raise a child in Texas. In TEXAS! What are they thinking of.
He wasn't making a threat in jest. He was making a joking interpretation of the word "insane", which had been wrongly applied to him. The point was to underscore the absurdity of the insult. And underscore it he did, with a bright highlighter across the entire state of Texas and the sadistic government operations that go under the banner of "law enforcement" there.
The elephant in the room:
Some passive-aggressive griefer kid just figured out how to send his online enemy to jail for making an off-the-cuff remark in an online game, and no charges will ever be filed against that "informant" who reported the "terrorism" and irreparably damaged another innocent teenager.
IMHO, the kid who called it in is the one that should be charged with cyber-bullying, filing a false police report, and domestic terrorism.
Why is this just now being reported?
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
Crazy people need to be reported, put on record. Then when they go to buy a firearm, they get denied. Taking guns away from crazy people sort of makes sense too. We all know who they are and we're crazy for letting them run around, especially the "potentially" dangerous ones. Too often cops have to shoot them dead, even if they don't have a gun. If you can't comply with a LEO telling you to put your hands up, for your own safety, you should be locked up. Is this kid stup, ya; crazy, probably; does he need to learn a lesson, yup; no more guns, definately.
And to top it off they did it in Austin, which is very much into individual rights so he would most likely win that lawsuit.
He's a sociopath, huh? How'd you figure that one out?
And now he's mentally ill?
I did not say that either of those things are true. What I *did* say is that either of those things are *possible*. Hence, there is a need for investigation which, as far as I can tell, is ongoing. It is possible that they found something we did not.
Hasn't stopped you from casting judgement.
I provided no judgement. Rather, I specified what possible options are there (among with "completely innocent", obviously).
If and when more information becomes available - I may form a more specific opinion. I wish the required slashdot raging would be reserved until such time as well.
In China?
You don't have a legal right to say you are going to go and shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still beating hearts. That is pretty explicitely not covered in freedom of speech. You don't have the right to say you are going to commit any crime, nevermind one that horrifying.
Further, you can't say that, then add jk, and think that's somehow going to stop the police.
This is less about freedom of speech, and more about one little gaming shit learning he can't do stuff like that in real life. This isn't about some kid who pointed his fingers and said bang, this is about a kid who said HE WAS GOING TO SHOOT UP A SCHOOL FULL OF KIDS AND EAT THEIR STILL BEATING HEARTS.
Use only private chat rooms with strong encryption when you write anything on-line. Forming brains often posses, or appear to posses sociopathic tendencies. Don't give adults a change to use it against you.
yeah, and if you let them grow up to be 24 you'd end war because noone would sign up. surely they'd be renting barkoloungers and shit by then and couldn't be bothered :)
I see lots of comments about the 'garbage coming out of DC these days'. Is it really the politicians causing events like this though? I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, our government has been having a field day using terorism as an excuse to grab new powers and erode our freedoms. But.. locking up some dumb kid who said the wrong thing of Facebook? I don't see how that even directly benefits any of the self-serving politicians. I doubt very many of them care one way or another what happens to this kid.
So, why are these things happening? Who is really to blame? It's the whole country!
Crazy people do horrible horrible things and the media happily serves the details, tears and all to the rest of the nation. Then... (and here is where I see things really beginning to break down) people are shocked by it. Please.. don't get me wrong, I don't mean to dishonour the victims by taking lightly what has been done to them. But... we shouldn't be so shocked every time we see tragedy on the news. The US is a big place with a lot of people. And.. some percentage of any population is batshit insane. So... bad things do happen.
Then... all of these shocked people demand that something must be done. All logic and reason goes out the window, it is just a big emotional scream for action. What would one possibly do to make 311 million people inhabiting 3.79 million square miles of space totally safe from one another? Sorry, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE. The politicians know this. If they don't know it coming in to office for the first time (naive) I'm sure they learn it very soon after. But... they care about re-election. They are elected by all of these shocked people who are demanding action. So we get zero tolerance laws. Yay! I feel safer now!
Then there are the enforcers. Another thing you are guaranteed to find among any population of more than a few people is people who crave power over others and a feeling of authority. And... what kind of personality is going to be most attracted to the prosecutor's position? The kind that just wants to live and let live? Yeah... right! So.. they take these crappy laws and use them to lock up dumb (and I do mean dumb) kids that run their mouths in the wrong way. But.. hey America... you got what you wanted, they did something!!
So.. remember this when bad stuff happens. Encourage your politicians to support law enforcement finding the crazy who hurt people and making an example of them... GOOD! Pushing for new laws and action for action's sake.. BAD!!
I wish the required slashdot raging would be reserved until such time as well.
And I'm sure Justin Carter wishes he weren't being held in jail until that time.
This kid must be thinking so many bad things about society in general right now that when/if he gets out of jail, it would be no surprise if he actually plans to get even. Mr. Osama must be happy that the US authorities are carrying out his plan.
none
Can't; your too much of a coward to show your handle.
And you are too much of an ignorant uneducated idiot
to even know that "your" is incorrect English.
I was going to say "damn!", but that implies condemning people to an eternity of destruction in a lake of fire with no chance of redemption. Not sure how the authorities might interpret that.
It has nothing to do with what he wrote - that's just a pretext. It's about money. You're being jailed for non-crimes because some rich fucks are profitting of it. Since your penitentiary system has been "reformed" (privatized) in 80s, number of people jailed in the US has risen ten fold. Does anyone in his right mind believe that people suddenly started commiting 10 times more crimes than before ? Or is it just prison industry lobbying to incriminate more and more people in order to increase its profits ? Sorry to say this but your "justice" system looks more and more like nazi Germany used to look like. They also had corporations profitting of breaking human lives (and murdering them in later stages).
It was one of my favorite lines, as Johnny pulls out a revolver with a barrel about 3 feet long: "It shoots through schools..."
Although clearly inappropriate, I'm disgusted that it's now illegal to say certain words... even in jest. This country is falling apart faster and faster.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
If Justin Carter was really arrested and held for four months on the basis of a stupid joke on Facebook, then there's plenty of reason to be outraged. But I've got a feeling that we're not getting the facts. If you Google this story, you'll see that all of the articles are traced back to one short, badly sourced article by KHOU in Houston. There isn't a single independent source for this article that I could find. And nothing from a news organization that might be considered reliable. So maybe Justin Carter is really getting a raw deal and we should be storming the castle. Or maybe the facts are different. Who knows, I'm not even sure that Justin Carter even exists.
Having played online games, I'm pretty sure millons need to be arrested for potential rapists, since I've heard lots of insults regarding fucking people's mums!
All three of them.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
What's so stupid in being able to use basic literate decides, like sarcasm?
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Is it me, or is something wrong with a statement "18 year old teenager". I kinda thought "teenagers" ended right about 16
You only get so many characters to write a headline on Slashdot. "Eighteen-year-old" didn't fit. It's not ambiguous at all because of the very first line in the summary.
In any case, "j/k" and "lol" does not excuse a sociopath
Sure it does. Sociopaths have precisely the same free speech rights as everyone else.
nor does it guarantee that a mentally ill person will not actually act upon the threat.
Life offers few guarantees. The future is unknown.
It would, of course, be better if authorities investigated this faster and, hopefully, found that no such threat exists.
Yes, because locking up an innocent guy for months for a joke is supremely unjust and, for lack of a better word, evil.
Aside from that, we don't know all the circumstances of the case (except for what one side with vested interest tells us). Perhaps such threat does really exist.
I'll reserve my raging for something else, if you do not mind.
Got it. Locking up people for months, without a trial, for (something that seems like) a joke on a Facebook page is something you take lightly.
Wait. This kid makes a threat to kill schoolchildren, and she's the "nutjob"?
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
This is in the grey area of yelling "fire" in a theater. If the school was evacuated or went on lock down as a result, that's people's time and money being expended and that's damaging.
I don't really get what they have here though, thus the statement about the DOJ monster, it sounds like a case of a totalitarian execution of power by LEOs and a fat judge. When is enough enough? For a DOJ employee ruining a kids life the sentence should be nothing less than life in the confines they've created.
FIFY.
You know how I know you watch a lot of TeeVee news and/or read Fox.com? Because you're all worked up over a non-existent crisis.
Yeah, right.
live in a really fucked society.
work in progress
The kid wasn't yelling fire in a theater. He wasn't in a school at the time, he did not mention a specific school, he even added "lol" and "jk" after it to make it clear it was a joke. This is not even near that grey area.
That's the authorities basis:
“In light of recent situations, statements such as the one Justin made are taken seriously,” said an Austin police detective in a statement.
Yelling fire in a theater would be the dark side here, while his situation is in the grey, so it sounds like you don't understand what a grey area is, but that's ok. Still, that statement by the PD is circumstantial, last I heard people didn't go to jail for circumstantial statements. The whole situation smells of abuse of power.
Wow, literally every sentence you wrote is wrong, illogical, and/or inconsistent. Amazing. I couldn't have pulled that off if I tried.
weinersmith
'... eat their still, beating hearts.'
He should be in jail. That's a pretty egregious misuse of the comma.
"The only place for a just man in an unjust society is in jail" - Don't know who said it but it's distilled truth
I'm gonna go to a school full of kids and actually teach them something worth knowing! ....
brb, someone's at the door...
In Soviet Russia, dot slashes YOU!
This sort of free speech is over. Prove me wrong.
For reasons beyond normal, mortal, understanding Texas has a bizarre legal system with really bad laws on the books. In Texas remarks can be considered as threats that would not be called threats anywhere else in the English speaking world. There is some concept that anything that might cause another person to feel uncomfortable is a threat. So if you say "I'm not going to punch you in the nose. I want to but I'm not going to do it." in Texas you could go to jail.
Sounds to me like the kid has the makings of a very lucrative suit for denial of civil rights under color of law.
If you want to stop the authorities from misbehaving, hit 'em in their budget.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
jk, as in Jew killing perpaps?
In the Soviet USA, words come to get you. *
Actually, the jail sentence was for his grammar violation: he should have used a hyphen rather than a comma in "still-beating" hearts. They take their grammar really seriously down in Austin TX.
Wait a sec... he's been in jail for months, and didn't have a trial? What did the jury rule? Or have we disposed with yet another inconvenient Constitutional Amendment?
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense." --- sixth amendment to the US Constitution, a.k.a. The Bill of Rights
--- wad
You can steal elections, insider trade, lie cheat, steal, and pee on the constitution (funny haven't gotten out of the house of representatives yet, but if a stuppid kiddoes likke kids do and acts like a moron, he gets jail time? Seriously, what is wrong with this picture? Want an answer.....the people in this country that are aged between 55 and 65. The REAL baby boomers. They have systematically laid waste to this country better than any foreign power. Leading the country in bankrupcies, defaulted loans (home and student) etc. AND the funny thing, these are the lawyers, senators for life, and business inheritors that have brokenthe back of this country.
Take out a few blacks / poor people / foreigners / mental retards too at the same time. Clean up the streets a bit. What could possibly go wrong?
Was it in Texas? Probably ; more likely there than anywhere else.
Can I haz Presidency?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Why aren't the cops arresting the people at /. who posted this? Obviously this posting contains the same phrase as the OP. Doesn't that mean everyone on /. is planning to shoot up a school? Why isn't my right to be afraid of everything being taken into consideration here?
Society at times becomes overly sensitive on some topics. We're in a time where 2nd graders are expelled for bringing small plastic soldiers to school. The only thing this kid is guilty of is near terminal stupidity.
The lady in Canada may be the terrorist here.
Oh so murky when international boundaries are crossed.
The Texas officials may be culpable in international kidnaping if the kid was not promptly delivered to a mental health facility. A holding cell and the massive international legal services are clearly (to me) punitive without due process. There are laws against international child trafficking even in Texas.
This is not a good thing.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
in Texas. Oddly, in Austin, TX but it is still Texas.
That is all.
this thread's probably long dead but your story reminds me of something that happened to an old boss of mine:
he was coming home from a 24 hr drug store (his toddler daughter needed something fairly urgently) and came to an unlit 4-way stop when four men came running out of woods from both sides of street shining flashlights & yelling. turns out they were idiot and/or insane cops on DUI duty but without a squad car or anything to suggest they were police as opposed to car jackers but the REAL punchline was that this happened in KENNESAW, GEORGIA where residents are theoretically legally REQUIRED to own a gun! I have no idea how many ambushes they conducted that night but they are DAMN lucky none of them were run over and/or shot (not to mention the poor driver who'd likely gotten the death penalty).
I still realize/accept cops are a necessary evil but they are evil (just less than alternative - for now) but GODS DAMN are they STUPID!!!
They say that they have to take all the threats seriously. TFA says they arrested him a month after the complaint. If that's 'taking it seriously' then there are other problems in the mix.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
That getting four months of jail for using facebook appears quite lenient actually.
Especially with the aggravating circumstances of using one's real name on the Internet and publishing personal information on Zuckerberg's thing...
Hahaha, 18 years old and still mentally unstable ... good for him.
It Specifically states "The right of the people shall not be infringed"!
There is an element that you describe, but they may ride two abreast for safety which keeps cars from trying to squeeze through with oncoming traffic. Regular cyclists will pull over periodically and stop for stop signs and lights. Like drivers, there is an element that creats a bad impression..
They're making an example of him to discourage people from posting comments like that.
Albeit my general problem with authority figures creates a strong desire for an example to be made of the legal system where
corruption is clear. Individually there has been police who have raped people, beaten people, accepted bribes and so fourth, where is the public
news where we make an example of them?
No, we just show them defending themselves and they get off with a minor tap on the wrist, no jail time, suspended with pay.
His comment was a poor decision on his part given the current climate of society when it comes to matters like this, but jail with a several month
court date, which will release him no doubt, is just for show.
The sad part is, society is whimsical. They don't do things out of true concern for safety and peoples well being. They do it if it's the popular favor of the month,
anything that gains them social graces and support. "Ah yes, I can pat myself on the back, I did good! Everyone click like!"
If its not the social flavor, you get flayed for 'making a big deal out of nothing', even if it is a real concern. Then when it turns out that you were right, no one wants to hear it ;)
Yes, humans as a species overall are pretty terrible. If I was from another planet, I wouldn't come to this one.