Texas teen jailed for four months over sarcastic Facebook comment Concern is growing for a Texas teenager who has spent the last four months in jail after being arrested for making seemingly threatening comments on Facebook. Justin Carter, 19, is currently being held under suicide watch in Comal County Jail near San Antonio, Texas, after being arrested in February following a Facebook …
"Sure its a bad taste joke, but still a joke IS a joke....."
Not in America. I mean "Think of the children."
Obviously that doesn't mean doing anything to really protect children, like IDK limiting magazine capacities or serious background checks.
Teen photographs their dangly bits and texts them to friends.
Making, owning and distributing child pornography. No defense and entry on the SOR.
Welcome to American "justice."
Oh, this article is leaving out the juicy bits. The kid has to be confined to solitary for his own protection. When they pull him out and put him back in the general population he gets beaten to a pulp. And bail has been set at a number even the bail bonds companies can't afford.
I'd have given him twice as long, the Police are damned if the act and damned it they don't.
This isn't about free speech or being a prat, make a statement like that and expect some kind of sanction.
Just ask those parents whose children have died at the hands of idiots like this, just a joke, didn't mean anything by it... Well tough luck sit back and reflect on it.
America is waking up so expect to be downvoted by protectors of the free, defenders of the right to spy and by a nation that has had it's fingers stuck in the pies of war and responsible for so many deaths in the name of peace.
Oh, just a thought, is the US still funding the Egyptian Army, I think it is.
"Just ask those parents whose children have died at the hands of idiots like this"
Yes, indeed. Just ask the parents of those who have died in prison as a result of being arrested by an idiot for something clearly innocuous.
It's worth remembering that the US still has more people in prison than any other country. 1% of the US population are prisoners, and amongst non-white ethnic groups, the number is much higher, for example 10% of the black population of the US is in prison. They have the highest per-capita prison population in the world, followed by Russia, and the highest total prison population, followed by China (who have a significantly larger population as a whole). By any measurable term, they are the exact opposite of the 'land of the free'.
The sort of idiocy exemplified in this story and by some of the (anonymous) commenters here is hardly surprising, cast in this light.
Can humans rule an other human, and who has the right to do so, and when?
Is the punishment in balance with the act? Should the punishment be softer or harder than the original act?
To, me just the case that those ideas is in someones heads, as a joke or not is worrying. Not for the joker sake, but for the pictures and ideas he puts in other's peoples heads by communicating them.
In the end, those ideas and mindset becomes something normal to someone, and will act upon it, and yet for some others they will not react when they see it happen.
On the other hand it's worrying that if you say something stupid out of your stupidity ( as we all do ) what can it lead to. It's not at all a pretty world we live in.
"Just ask those parents whose children have died at the hands of idiots like this"
The people who shoot up schools don't post their intentions on social media beforehand. In fact, terrorists as an obvious rule don't do that. Kinda limits their chances of success. So is that really what he was doing?
Or was he just venting some kind of frustration in a way I agree is totally inappropriate, but this is very much about "free speech." Where is the police work that has brought evidence to light that he is what they call a CREDIBLE threat? Does he own or have access to the necessary weapons? Is he involved with people who are considered a threat to school safety?
The police have, after four months, not produced any such evidence. All they have is a few posts on Facebook.
1. I have a "handle" but the uk forum site hasn't processed it yet.
2. Does this not just represent yet another WASTE of taxpayer dollars?
3. Gotta say it: if he was a 'minority' would he be in jail? Didn't Trayvon and his friends post in social networks about a variety of criminal activity, including buying, selling and using drugs, as well as violence?
4. Sorry, but the sheriff in this Texas town is just some kind of M O R O N. The judge? Probably running for re-election...
5. 4 months in jail for this?
6. I bet he lives in a county with lots of Democrats, who incredibly have lost the ability to read and comprehend the US Constitution.
The point here is that his comments were in jest. I agree that the police were correct in taking action to investigate and evaluate the kid, but after that was done, he should be released. Arrest him and question and investigate, but after finding that he is not a threat let the kid go. A few days in lockup while being investigated should teach a lesson.
I'm sure there is an over reaction here, that a little investigation might have put an end to in short order, however...
In the current climate, posting anything about any shooting up a school is going to get you the exact same treatment that you would have received for telling an airport official you were carrying a bomb in October 2001.
You *can* make jokes about Agent Orange as it happens, because (rightly or wrongly) the Vietnam War was a long time ago. Sandy Hook wasn't.
"You *can* make jokes about Agent Orange as it happens, because (rightly or wrongly) the Vietnam War was a long time ago. "
No, actually, you can make jokes about Agent Orange because it only killed, maimed, and impoverished Asians. If it had harmed Americans, 40-50 years wouldn't be nearly enough time to forgive and forget.
On the National Institutes of Health website: 2000 - 2008 total number of children under 16 killed by bicycles in the U.S. is 940.
Not including injured.
Anything can be a joke in context and anything can be dangerous. Especially emotional over reactions...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/core/lw/2.0/html/tileshop_pmc/tileshop_pmc_inline.html?title=Click%20on%20image%20to%20zoom&p=PMC3&id=2663877_11_HelmkampTable1.jpg
You guys..... Your brains woukd explode if you ever read sickipedia.
It doesn't matter how sick and twisted a comment is - if it's obviously intended as a joke, you guys are sick suggesting he deserves to be punished in this way.
He eve wrote j/k for the common-sense-impaired brigade... sigh...
At least now we can take solice that there's one less rude LOL player behind bars. It's about time these people calling me a faggot for clicking the wrong skill were punished, I say put the lot of them behind bars... Wait he's behind bars for a comment outside of LOL? Oh... Set the guy free then for god sakes.
Why not look up the statistics for all murder? Thousands of them, so we can't make jokes about murder any more. There goes "Goodfellas". What about accidental deaths of children falling from heights? Loads of them, so we'll need to ban that evil death-revelling tract "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", which contains a joke on the subject. Carroll's long dead, but we could still jail Scorsese. After all, if the police just stood by and did nothing and then Scorsese did become a Mafia boss and have dozens of people killed, the victims would sue the police. They can't win!
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The american dream... become fat and sue the company that made the food for emotonal distress and damage, have an accident and sue everyone who may have been at fault for emotonal distress and damage, or get arrested and sue the police - for false arrest causing emotonal distress and damage...
...and never have to work again for the rest of your life.
Shame for the kid... but if the police had done nothing and he had of done something, the police would be sued by ever victims family for emotonal distress and damage to the tune of 100s of millions per victim... I guess it's just cheaper to arrest the kid... if it all goes pear shaped, you only get sued once
Shame for the kid... but if the police had done nothing and he had of done something, the police would be sued by ever victims family for emotonal distress and damage to the tune of 100s of millions per victim
Two points:
1) It is not possible to sue the police as a victim of crime.
2) The police are there to arrest people after a crime has been committed, not 'in case they do something naughty'.
You really, truly, are an idiot if you believe what you just wrote.
@Loyal Commenter
Police liability varies by state. I was the victim of a home invasion and was seriously injured by stabbing. The town and the State (Tennessee) sent me two nice checks, without any prompting from me, for failure to ensure my safety. I had to agree not to sue to cash the checks, but police can be held liable for failure to perform their job in some places.
Yo, brainless! Of course the police are supposed to do something. They're supposed to log the call, go to the parents house, asses the situation, and apply some common sense. With contextual evidence that the kid wasn't serious they give him a good stern warning about not doing it again and go back to the station to log the report. Throwing him in jail with a $500,000 bond on the basis of nothing more than a single FB post is beyond the pale.
Oh and all those victim suits would get tossed as soon as the were filed. The police departments have no legal responsibility to protect you from harm.
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"Lets hope he makes himself a millionaire by taking them to court after it is all over."
Right, waited quite a while before responding because in my opinion there is no clear right and wrong here.
I tend to agree with you, however what I hope for even more is that his stay in jail (and the psychological impact this must have) hasn't turned him into the kind of twisted guy they were afraid he'd be in the first place.
Because although I think that some "jokes" shouldn't be made and deserve some form of punishment you also need to make sure not to overdo it. That is the other side of the medal.
I sincerely hope not but if this guy is going to "get back at society" in 5 or 6 years or so, then who is to blame here? That's going to become quite a bizarre argument. One which could have been avoided in the first place; right now.
Totally on the kid's side here. El Reg didn't replicate his emphasis either. He was clearly speaking in that Internet dialect known as HURR DURR. You would need to be utterly ignorant of so many things to not realise that what he said was a joke. Another atrocious oppression from a fear-mongering government.
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