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Topic: Teenage Gamer May Go To Jail For Up to 8 Years

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theblackdragon

@AlexSays: if they've actually gone through the trouble of arresting him and throwing him in jail, though, they'd have to have found more than just that one line in a chat log via a video game.

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Jaz007

You've got to be kidding me. 8 YEARS FOR A STUPID JOKE! At worst his parents should ground him for a couple a days. How does freedom of speech apply to movies and music, but not a joke. I'm not saying it's okay for him to say it in the game, but I mean people don't get arrested for saying innapropriate things online. Frankly, I think a lot of kids in high school make jokes that are more offensive. It's not even a seriously offensive joke. This is rediculous, I can't beileve this is happening. They don't have grounds to jail him on, it was clearly a joke, he didn't threaten anybody. Heck, they don't have grounds to do anything but give him a harsh glare and tell him not to do it again if you ask me.

Edited on by Jaz007

Jaz007

Klimbatize

They should lock up more dummies like this.

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AlexSays

theblackdragon wrote:

@AlexSays: if they've actually gone through the trouble of arresting him and throwing him in jail, though, they'd have to have found more than just that one line in a chat log via a video game.

They have not said anything about there being other evidence.

Seems unfair to assume they have evidence, rather than largely overreacting (which is not a new concept for Texas).

AlexSays

Captain_Toad

8 years man... if you're going to something like that at least put in more proof than just a jokey-joke school threat. Hard evidence I'd say!
My hearts go to the family and the kid.

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the_shpydar

I have absolutely no desire to discuss this subject, but I must drop a little legal knowledge on everyone freaking about the "8 years" thing.

It's not that if he's convicted he automatically will get 8 years, or even anything close to that. He's charged with making terroristic threats, and that crime has a maximum sentence of 8 years.

The realistic outcome of this story is that he'll plea out to a reduced charge, will get credit for time served (which allows the legal system to punish him more severely in the future, should he ever be arrested for anything else), and likely get slammed with community service and some period of probation.

Lawyered.

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k8sMum

AlexSays wrote:

k8sMum wrote:

why aren't any of you upset that he would think what he said was funny?

That's largely irrelevant. People say classless jokes all the time, or humorously imply they're going to break some sort of law, and its generally overlooked. I'd rather not live in a politically correct (or even more so..) society where everything gets taken 100% literally.

Think he's screwed up in the head? Awesome, send him to therapy. But he didn't do anything to warrant actual prison time.

no, it is not irrelevant.

he didn't say: i would LIKE to do such and such. or i have DREAMED of doing such and such.

he said: “He replied ‘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,’ and the next two lines were lol and jk,”

the latter implies an actual threat where the examples i gave do not.

Edited on by k8sMum

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AlexSays

Jaz007 wrote:

Frankly, I think a lot of kids in high school make jokes that are more offensive.

People of all ages make very offensive jokes

A lot of personal bias in light of recent events is going towards wanting him incriminated. If we take this seriously, despite the fact he said he was kidding, where is the line drawn? What criminal acts can you humorously mention, and which ones will be taken legitimately no matter what?

Like I said, if you think there's something wrong with him, send him to a medical professional and have him evaluated by a psych doc. But taking these comments as an intended threat is just silly.

Last night I was watching Deadliest Catch and one of the fisherman found out his girlfriend was letting another man stay in his home while he was gone. During the episode he said if he saw him, he would put a bullet in his head. He never said he was kidding either. Where is the outrage there? (and don't say its because 'lol nobody watches that show') lol

AlexSays

theblackdragon

all right, now i've read through a couple other sources stating that what went down was an argument on Facebook where the threat (joking or not) was posted. That part had confused me, because I was wondering how a random Canadian woman would be able to find out particulars about a person via in-game information. this wasn't a chat log, it was FB comments.

No offense, but that school shooting was absolutely everywhere during that time. everywhere. If he was only playing his game during that time, i could totally see him being absolutely unaware of what was going on in the world, but i'll be damned if i couldn't blink for weeks without seeing a new post about the school shooting come up on my FB feed back then. He would have had to have been blind to have had no knowledge of the school shooting. i can't fault the lady for having reported it after what she discovered, nor can i fault the authorities for taking the threat seriously at that point in time. He said the absolute wrongest thing possible and is paying the extreme price for his lack of tact.

as The_Shpyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy has so helpfully lawyer'd, again, i can't see him getting the full 8 years he's potentially facing, especially if he's a first-time offender.

Edited on by theblackdragon

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AlexSays

k8sMum wrote:

no, it is not irrelevant.

he didn't say: i would LIKE to do such and such. or i have DREAMED of doing such and such.

he said: “He replied ‘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,’ and the next two lines were lol and jk,”

the latter implies an actual threat where the examples i gave do not.

Whether or not it is funny, is irrelevant. We don't send people to prison for unfunny jokes (though I may support this! lol)

Like you even quoted there, he explicitly said he was kidding. There's no indication he has a real intent to actually shoot anyone.

AlexSays

Undead_terror

I don't know why people are hating on the poor kid, the world lately has gotten sarcastic a lot lately in the digital world, either if it's defending yourself from jerks/just joking around/acting tough, the kid was doing one of these things, yet most people in America are too frighten now from past events they take this crap too serious, not everyone has a bomb in their house and a dozen guns.
Ps: I also signed the petition.

Edited on by Undead_terror

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k8sMum

@alexsays: how would it be known that his comments were not a true threat. again, Newtown comes to mind. do you recommend that all things that sound threatening be put down to silliness and teenagers being stupid? should nothing be investigated? should free speech come unemcombered by responsibility? can any threat be dismissed due to a 'jk' being posted?

how do we discern who is kidding and who is an actual threat? do we just wait for more dead kids to pile up and say 'oops'?

Edited on by k8sMum

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Aviator

theblackdragon wrote:

all right, now i've read through a couple other sources stating that what went down was an argument on Facebook where the threat (joking or not) was posted. That part had confused me, because I was wondering how a random Canadian woman would be able to find out particulars about a person via in-game information. this wasn't a chat log, it was FB comments.

This makes a lot more sense now. And made the comment I was just typing up not relevant at all to this situation. People need to learn Facebook isn't private, and now this comment will be stuck with this kid for life, and the repercussions that it caused.

@Alex I think that the 'threat' on deadliest catch would be considered less harmless because a lot of people experience that sort of emotion irl. Where as if the threat came from within a video game (and it works to facebook to in an extent), there are a lot of people who still haven't experienced it, and a lot of comments/scenarios can unwillingly be taken out of contents. I'm not defending the kid by any means, he should be accountable for what he said, like everyone should be.

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Edited on by Aviator

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Jaz007

k8sMum wrote:

AlexSays wrote:

k8sMum wrote:

why aren't any of you upset that he would think what he said was funny?

That's largely irrelevant. People say classless jokes all the time, or humorously imply they're going to break some sort of law, and its generally overlooked. I'd rather not live in a politically correct (or even more so..) society where everything gets taken 100% literally.

Think he's screwed up in the head? Awesome, send him to therapy. But he didn't do anything to warrant actual prison time.

no, it is not irrelevant.

he didn't say: i would LIKE to do such and such. or i have DREAMED of doing such and such.

he said: “He replied ‘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,’ and the next two lines were lol and jk,”

the latter implies an actual threat where the examples i gave do not.

If someones actually making a threat, the littles deatails of grammer like that are irrelavant. If someone is very angry at me and says I'm feel like shooting you, I'm going to take him seriously as if he had said "I'm going to shoot you." When someone makes a serious threat they don't think about the small details you mentioned. They just say it in way that comes to their mind.

Jaz007

AlexSays

Generally saying that you're kidding, is an indication that you're kidding.

Also there's a difference between investigating and sentencing. I would much rather take the chance with this kid, than sentence to prison every teenager that makes an unfunny remark about doing something unlawful. People are taking this to the extremes here, just as you are with your 'watching dead kids pile up' remark.

Yes, if we fail to ruin this kids life and disallow offensive jokes, dead kids are going to pile up in the streets.

AlexSays

OptometristLime

MetallicDonkey wrote:

They should lock up more dummies like this.

I understand this to be a kind of opinion / gut-feeling thread, so I don't want to get caught up in who's right or wrong.

...But taking a potential hypothesis from your statement: that we should target our youth to identify [and prosecute] reckless behaviors before they become endemic.

This subsumes both that aggressive verbal "crime" is analogous to murder, and further that criminal prosecution is appropriate for these malcontents. All the while other parties in society can prosper by keeping their violent tendencies undercover, perhaps exploding suddenly in a heat of the moment action. Upon making the discovery that society would purvey such an incriminating sentence on a young boy (who has revealed some internal angst), others with deficient mental health might retreat from society - and the help they require to function in a healthy manner.

Edited on by OptometristLime

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shingi_70

Stupid comments. I personally don't think he should receive Jail time but considering all that has happened recently those were dumb comments. ALso if your kid doesn't pay attention to current events and only plays video games your doing a bad job as a parent.

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Klimbatize

OptometristLime wrote:

MetallicDonkey wrote:

They should lock up more dummies like this.

I understand this to be a kind of opinion / gut-feeling thread, so I don't want to get caught up in who's right or wrong.

...But taking a potential hypothesis from your statement: that we should target our youth to identify reckless behaviors before they become endemic.
This subsumes both that aggressive verbal "crime" is analogous to murder, and further that criminal prosecution is appropriate for these malcontents. All the while other parties in society can prosper by keeping their violent tendencies undercover, perhaps exploding suddenly in a heat of the moment action. Upon making the discovery that society would purvey such an incriminating sentence on a young boy (who has revealed some internal angst), others with deficient mental health might retreat from society - and the help they require to function in a healthy manner.

We really need a sarcasm font on this site.

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Kyloctopus

He made a dumb joke. It shouldn't take 8 years for him to know not to say such things. I'm sure if they let him out of jail he will learn his faults, and the majority us will have no issues.

Kyloctopus

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