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Teen in jail for months over 'sarcastic' Facebook threat

Dragonfly said:
Thoughts on this?

Is the kid a potential threat, or just the victim of current idiotic policy?
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I think he was being stupid, and that he should be punished.

People need to realize that we are living in an era where such things are really happening. If this had happened in 1993 on Prodigy or AOL, I would say it is an over-reaction. But in the last 20 years we have had multiple school shootings, and it is just getting worse. And I would take such a threat as seriously as if he had stated he was going to blow up a church or go rape his ex-gf because she had pissed him off.

Terroristic threats are terroristic threats, and unless they are so obviously over the top so as to be complete nonsense (as in "I am going to go get 2 tons of explosives and blow up a city bus full of clowns"), then they should all be treated seriously.

And consider the flipside of all of this. Imagine if the kid really was another Adam Lanza, and did exactly what he said he was going to do? Imagine the heat LEO would be under for "ignoring the threat". Some things you just do not kid about. And "Freedom of Speech" is not just a right, it is a responsibility. You are responsible for your own actions. If you do something so incredibly stupid as to make a threat to shoot people, or even go into Harlem screaming "White Power", then you have nobody to blame but yourself for the consequences of your own actions.

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And before somebody tries to blasst me for that, it is Bruce Willis from "Die Hard 3". But it is an example of when people do things, there are consequences (thankfully for him Samuel L. Jackson was there to save his cracker butt). :mrgreen:
 
People need to realize that we are living in an era where such things are really happening. If this had happened in 1993 on Prodigy or AOL, I would say it is an over-reaction. But in the last 20 years we have had multiple school shootings, and it is just getting worse.
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This is the type of idea that scares me more then the threats. We are liveing in an Age where stuff happens. So to stop it from happening we must stop everything that might be in some way connected?
You are no longer allowed to wish your boss harm?
or Muse about how you wish that one guy that cut you off in traffic would run into a streetlight?
Should we ban any movie/tvshow/comic where the one person threatens harm/death/dismemberment on someone else?

And before somebody tries to blasst me for that, it is Bruce Willis from "Die Hard 3". But it is an example of when people do things, there are consequences (thankfully for him Samuel L. Jackson was there to save his cracker butt)
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Its the same Idea. You just used a rasist remark. I could if if I cared. Go to town with Political Correct Nonsence about your use of a off hand derogatory remark about another persons skin colour.
People are Allowed to say stupid even Hateful things.
What matters is context. If it wasn't TV/Books/Plays/Games/Entertainment would be really darn boring.
 
Torrent said:
People are Allowed to say stupid even Hateful things.
What matters is context. If it wasn't TV/Books/Plays/Games/Entertainment would be really darn boring.
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Yes, people are allowed to say stupid things. They also may pay for them.

Yes, I can say hateful things about my boss. And if he finds out, he also has the right to punish me. Cause and effect my friend, cause and effect.

And yet you claim to be a Libertarian. I thought part of that philosophy was people being responsible for themselves and their own actions, is it not? If people are simply free to do whatever they want without consequence, that is not Libertarianism but Anarchy.
 
Context is everything.

You can yell "fire" in a theater if there actually happens to be a fire.

How long should it take to put context into a Facebook conversation?

Are we to assume everything we see, read, and over-hear on the internet is truth?

Think back to the Ted Nugent NRA speech thing.
Did he spend any time in jail for his comments?

Sure the dumb idiot making a comment about shooting up a school deserves to be investigated.
But for how long? Why not house arrest with a nice little radio collar thing on his ankle?

4+ months in prison?


Context. It's quite important.
 
Dragonfly said:
Context. It's quite important.
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And with an increasing number of mass shootings (especially at schools), any such threat should be taken seriously. Period.

Funny how nobody answered the obvious question I asked.

How would you all be reacting right now if this was a real threat and nobody in LEO did anything about it?

Why, then you would all be screaming that Law Enforcement ignored a real threat and allowed children to be harmed.
 
Nobody is saying not to investigate.

Nobody is saying nothing should have been done.

Do you honestly think somebody is spending 4 -6 months investigating this incident?

Or is the poor guy just rotting in jail? Almost forgotten?

Is jail the right place for him?

What about a psychiatric hospital?
Or, as I mentioned, house arrest with a ankle transmitter?
 
A self-confessed British internet "troll" has admitted threatening to kill 200 people at a US school by posting menacing comments on a memorial Facebook page.

Thousands of pupils stayed away from the school in Warren county, Tennessee, after Reece Elliott, 24, of Fossway, South Shields, South Tyneside, left terrifying messages under an assumed name.

Elliott, a father of one, went online in the weeks after the mass shootings at Sandy Hook, the primary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults died.

Newcastle crown court was told that after the messages were posted, security was stepped up at schools across the area in Tennessee as the authorities implemented a "lockdown" with armed guards on duty and restricted access to sites.

Elliott appeared at court dressed in a grey top and admitted one count of making a threat to kill and eight of sending grossly offensive messages. He has been held in custody since his arrest in February.

Using a false name, he wrote on a tribute page to Caitlin Talley, a 17-year-old girl at the Tennessee school who had died in a car accident in October: "My father has three guns. I'm planning on killing him first and putting him in a dumpster. Then I'm taking the motor and I'm going in fast. I'm gonna kill hopefully at least 200 before I kill myself. So you want to tell the deputy, I'm on my way."
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Internet troll admits Facebook threats to kill 200 Tennessee students | Technology | The Guardian

This guy got 2 years and 4 months for something similar. But don't worry, the kid is only being held until his family can raise bail. And there is a bail reduction hearing next week. And the time he has been locked up will likely be taken off as "time served".

Sorry, no pitty, no sympathy, he did something really-really stupid, and now he needs to pay the price.

Period. I do not give free-bees for his being a stupid kid.
 
Oozlefinch said:
And with an increasing number of mass shootings (especially at schools), any such threat should be taken seriously. Period.

Funny how nobody answered the obvious question I asked.

How would you all be reacting right now if this was a real threat and nobody in LEO did anything about it?

Why, then you would all be screaming that Law Enforcement ignored a real threat and allowed children to be harmed.
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Nope, I would say it's a low probability event that given enough time and people will work itself out.

However, I don't think people were saying there shouldn't have been an investigation. But rather, when that investigation turned up nothing (as it did here) that charges be dropped.
 
Oozlefinch said:
Internet troll admits Facebook threats to kill 200 Tennessee students | Technology | The Guardian

This guy got 2 years and 4 months for something similar. But don't worry, the kid is only being held until his family can raise bail. And there is a bail reduction hearing next week. And the time he has been locked up will likely be taken off as "time served".

Sorry, no pitty, no sympathy, he did something really-really stupid, and now he needs to pay the price.

Period. I do not give free-bees for his being a stupid kid.
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And I do not try to justify gross government power for action which has not infringed upon anyone's rights. There's no reason to jail these kids for doing stupid stuff that causes no harm. Perhaps it's time to take a step back from the Big Brother authoritative fascist state and try, just once, to use reason and logic.
 
Oozlefinch said:
Internet troll admits Facebook threats to kill 200 Tennessee students | Technology | The Guardian

This guy got 2 years and 4 months for something similar. But don't worry, the kid is only being held until his family can raise bail. And there is a bail reduction hearing next week. And the time he has been locked up will likely be taken off as "time served".

Sorry, no pitty, no sympathy, he did something really-really stupid, and now he needs to pay the price.

Period. I do not give free-bees for his being a stupid kid.
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They are similar, but not the same. The kid in Tennessee gave specific means by which he would commit the threatened crime and was capable of doing so. Also, it appears like his threat, considering the context, was exactly that. So, in Tennessee's case, the kid was specific in threat and capable to act on it. In the case of the OP's kid, his threat was a joke when considering context. Also, that "threat" was not specific and he did not have the means easily available to him to act on his joke. So:

Tennessee: An actual, specific threat with the means available to him to act upon it.
Carter kid: A poorly delivered, unspecific "threat" made in jest without the means available for him to act upon it.

That is a distinction with a difference that you are not considering.
 
CycloneWanderer said:
That is a distinction with a difference that you are not considering.
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Oh, I am considering it, I am simply dismissing it because the welfare of children in a school is more important to me then some stupid looser who lashes out like a kid in kindergarten himself.

If you notice, I have never said he should spend years in jail, he is only being held pending bail, nothing else at this time. If his parents would have raised the bail, he would have been out months ago. And likely he will get his bail reduced next week and probably be back at his xbox again. And likely when he does go to trial, he will plead out to a lesser offense that includes "time served".

Look, the kid made a threat, and he was arrested for that threat. He has not been held "without bail" during the investigation, he is being held because for one reason or another his bail has not been posted. So don't blame that on anybody else either. The kid did something stupid, and I do not believe in a "free pass" because of either youth or stupidity.

So don't blame the police, or anything else. This is one of the things I get freaking sick of in this country today: the lack of personal responsibility. The kid made his own bed, now he sleeps in it. In jail. And now hopefully he and others will learn their lesson, and not do stupid things like this in the future.
 
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