Slashdot Mirror
Teenagers Charged With 'Intimidation' After Sharing Siri's Helpful Response For A School Shooting (nwitimes.com)
A 13-year-old boy visiting family in Indiana has been charged with "intimidation", according to the Northwest Indiana Times:
The boy allegedly said to Siri, iPhone's voice assistant, "I am going to shoot up a school," according to a news release from the Valparaiso Police Department. Siri then replied with a list of multiple Valparaiso schools near his location. The boy, identified as a Chesterton Middle School student, posted a screenshot of the inquiry and response on social media, which was reported to Chesterton police by the boy's social media contacts.
Chesterton police then contacted the Valparaiso Police Department, which launched an investigation into the possible threat. Valparaiso officers determined the boy made no direct threat to a specific person, school or school system and that he had no access to weapons -- ultimately stating the picture was posted on social media as a joke. "The threat is not believed to be credible at this time; however, these types of communications are taken very seriously by the Valparaiso Police Department and our community," police stated in a news release.
A 14-year-old was also taken into custody, and is also being held in a juvenille detention center, facing charges of intimidation and "criminal recklessness with a handgun" over related photographs with weapons.
"Come on kids. It isn't funny..." reads one comment on the police department's Facebook page. "How many of you are going to be detained before you realize it?"
"Thank you for taking it seriously, and prosecuting it accordingly," added another commenter. "'I was joking' is not a defense. Hopefully juvie knocks some sense into this kid."
"I hope he's prosecuted for this! Totally not funny and as a parent I'm taking any threats against schools serious!" reads another comment -- though at least one person directed their scorn somewhere else.
"Sounds like Siri needs to be re-programmed."
Chesterton police then contacted the Valparaiso Police Department, which launched an investigation into the possible threat. Valparaiso officers determined the boy made no direct threat to a specific person, school or school system and that he had no access to weapons -- ultimately stating the picture was posted on social media as a joke. "The threat is not believed to be credible at this time; however, these types of communications are taken very seriously by the Valparaiso Police Department and our community," police stated in a news release.
A 14-year-old was also taken into custody, and is also being held in a juvenille detention center, facing charges of intimidation and "criminal recklessness with a handgun" over related photographs with weapons.
"Come on kids. It isn't funny..." reads one comment on the police department's Facebook page. "How many of you are going to be detained before you realize it?"
"Thank you for taking it seriously, and prosecuting it accordingly," added another commenter. "'I was joking' is not a defense. Hopefully juvie knocks some sense into this kid."
"I hope he's prosecuted for this! Totally not funny and as a parent I'm taking any threats against schools serious!" reads another comment -- though at least one person directed their scorn somewhere else.
"Sounds like Siri needs to be re-programmed."
The land of panic and fear.
So Jeff Dunham's sketches with Achmed the Dead Terrorist should also get him investigated? He jokes about blowing things up and that the most important part is location, location, LOCATION.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Google predicts that the next word is "workplace". Does that mean that iOS is for kids & Android's for grown-ups?
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
School shootings have become a regular occurrence in the USA. A "normal" part of everyday life. How did this happen?
Sensational news media mostly. The rates were much higher in the early 90's and just like most crime, the overall rates are much lower now than in the past. However, the old saying of "it bleeds, it leads" is still relevant and no one wants to read stories about how things are generally better than in the past. That's essentially what Trump's Make America Great Again boils down to: the notion that things have gotten worse and we can see that people like to buy into this notion when it isn't true.
I do recall reading some previous research that linked gun violence in schools with economic troubles. I couldn't find a full-text version of the paper, but here's an overview of the research: https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/about/news/2017/infographic-hagan-school-shootings.html. The authors are just claiming that there's a correlation, so the cause may be deeper, but it was an interesting take that I hadn't seen before.
Having to grow up around paranoid, cowardly excessively serious adults who should know better.
Are you completely insane? Kids say and do stupid shit all the time and there is no evidence that he ever actually intended to do anything. Kids are not just small versions of adults, their brains are still developing and you can't expect a 13 year-old to make decisions like an adult. This kid needs counseling. Who seriously thinks it's going to be helpful to anyone to send this kid to juvi? It's certainly not going to help the kid and there's plenty of evidence to support that. I also think you also need professional help and I certainly hope you don't have any children of your own.
I doubt the ACLU would touch this. As much as people think the ACLU is all about protecting the civil rights of American citizens they've been very anti-gun in the past. They eventually had to admit that the Second Amendment protects the rights of the individual, and is not in fact a "collective right" as they stated prior to the SCOTUS opinions on Heller and McDonald. They've been silent on the Second Amendment since Heller in 2008, at least as far as I can tell, and have not in any recent memory lifted a finger on any case that touches the rights to keep arms.
This should be about a person's right to speak freely, be free from unwarranted search and seizure, right to due process, etc. What muddies the waters though is the kid had guns in the pictures. This tells me that the ACLU will not be interested. They've been unwilling to speak up on the Second Amendment, likely out of fear that this would drive out donors from either side on that debate. So long as they keep quiet they can claim some kind of neutral ground. This has worked for a decade now but eventually, I would think, they will have to choose a lane.
Oh, and before anyone thinks the NRA will stand up on this I will remind people that the NRA is not a lobbying group or in any way connected to supporting court cases. These are instead fought by Gun Owners of America and/or Second Amendment Foundation, and in some cases by the separate but highly linked organization National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. The NRA likes to jump in after the hard work is done and send someone from the affiliated NRA-ILA so they can claim a victory. The NRA mostly does hunter education, firearm safety courses and certification, and sell a bunch of crap with their logo on it.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Wrong. He told Siri he was going to shoot up a school, probably to see how Siri would react. Siri's reaction was. let's say "unfortunate", so he posted it.
I remember my 4th grade teacher explaining how America was better than Russia because we have freedom of speech but in Russia you had to watch what you say or you could be hauled away by the police.....
Had they not actually charged him with a serious crime and hauled him off to juvie, you might have a point.
Instead, all he has learned is that anyone who says the police are his friends or that we have freedom of speech is full of crap.