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Seeking YouTube Fame, A Teenager Kills Her Boyfriend (arstechnica.com)
Last Monday a 19-year-old woman named Monalisa Perez gave the police a strange reason for why her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz III, was dead. An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica:
A Minnesota woman has been charged with manslaughter after she shot and killed her boyfriend as part of the pair's attempt to become YouTube celebrities... The two had set up two video cameras to capture Perez firing the gun at Ruiz while he held a book in front of his chest. Ruiz apparently convinced Perez that the book would stop the bullet from a foot away. The gun, a Desert Eagle .50 caliber pistol, was not hindered by the book. Ruiz, who was found with a single gunshot in his chest, was pronounced dead at the scene. Hours before the incident, Perez posted on Twitter, "Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE."
The teenager -- who is pregnant with the couple's second child -- now faces second-degree manslaughter charges, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $20,000, or both. A local sheriff told the New York Times, "I really have no idea what they were thinking. I just don't understand the younger generation on trying to get their 15 minutes of fame."
The teenager -- who is pregnant with the couple's second child -- now faces second-degree manslaughter charges, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $20,000, or both. A local sheriff told the New York Times, "I really have no idea what they were thinking. I just don't understand the younger generation on trying to get their 15 minutes of fame."
Old news, not for nerds, shit that doesn't matter.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Stupidity kills.
They're YouTube famous for all the wrong reasons.
I just don't understand the younger generation
19-year-old couple, 3 year old daughter, one in the oven - and you expect responsible behaviour on the internet?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
that licensing guns is the first step to rounding them all up. Personally, if my gov't gets to the point where they're rounding up small arms I'm not going to be able to do much about it. I wouldn't last 5 minutes against a modern military. Hell, even Isis is being whittled down by the rather tepid force we toss at them (they just lost a couple major sources of income, Mosul).
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I was wondering why they didn't do a test run. Then I figured they only had one book.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
when those two elderly gentlemen ended their careers in Vegas when one was mauled almost to death by their tigers, both were equally responsible for putting both in clearly illegal danger. Did either of them get prosecuted? Of course not. The rule is simple- if it's for 'entertainment' and both parties are adults and both parties 'think' (no matter how foolishly) that the stunt is 'safe', then misfortune is a pure accident with no legal culpability.
We all moan when an obvious and pre-existing idea is given a patent, cos its on a computer. So why does the fact that these 'entertainers' were on youtube or faceback rather than a vegas stage matter? Only a clinton voting wahhabi loving neo-liberal would try to make a distinction between an 'elite' entertainment platform and an entertainment platform by and for the 'common man'.
But the neo-liberal justifies social engineering laws specifically designed to make examples of ordinary people. Orwell spotted this trend when writing in Animal Farm "some animals are more equal than others". This is why neo-liberals proudly vote Clinton for her 'pro-female' and 'pro-gay' rights even tho her rock solid support of Saudi Arabia has ruined the lives of tens of millions of gays and women across the middle east- especially in N Nigeria, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya etc.
This case is particularly unimpressive; but I suspect that the sheriff isn't thinking hard enough about it. Mortality in the late teens to early 20s related to doing really stupid things to impress your peers isn't exactly something that was invented at the same time as smartphone selfies.
"Cars and alcohol", "pointless fights", and "things not to do in flooded quarries" are more common variants than "youtube stunts"; but unless the sheriff's social circle is really small, he probably doesn't even have to imagine; odds are pretty good that someone he went to school with, or was otherwise close enough to have heard about, died while taking really stupid risks for attention. It's not that uncommon.
The story about it I read last week said that he did test it on another book and showed it to her to convince her it was safe.
That's why she's not going to prison. They'll drop charges, or she'll get acquitted. He asked to do the stunt, she said no, and he kept trying until he convinced her it was safe. Stupid? Yes. Manslaughter? No, she only did it after he had convinced her it would be OK.
The key thing here is that if they had done the stunt successfully, everything is legal. This is no different than a circus accident at the knife-throwing event.
"Don't test in Production" still applies, though. You can't just say "well, we can't afford to have a test environment so we'll do it in Production and work out the bugs there." ALWAYS have a test environment. Work out as many bugs as you can there.
This guy's test environment was simple: A second copy of the book, a second bullet, and a melon.(Melon credit to michelcolman.) Position the melon behind the book and fire on it. If the book stops the bullet, move to production. If, much more likely, the melon suffers a gunshot "wound", then cancel any production plans because your meatbag skin won't fare better.
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... how often do you see PSA's about jumping off bridges with umbrellas to break your fall?
some things are to stupid it's assumed that the majority of americans won't do it.