Posted on 12/14/2016 8:56:57 PM PST by BenLurkin
By Friday, someone had opened a social media page in her memory, but it was quickly filled with disturbing posts about her. Her father is fighting back.
“The continued harassment reported by Mr. Vela is being investigated,” Texas City police Capt. Joe Stanton said. “We currently do not have any suspects or persons of interest identified.”
“Two days after her funeral, somebody opened up a social media page in her name,” Vela said, “and people thought the family did it, so it started with people putting sincere condolences. After a few minutes, either four people or the same person posting four times said some things harassing Brandy about being a big fat cow, writing ‘you finally did it’ with a picture of a gun, writing ‘you’re a coward,’ ‘you should have done this a long time ago,’ some really horrific things.”
Vela can’t change what happened to his daughter, so he’s trying to persuade state lawmakers to increase restrictions on social media, making it harder for cyberbullies to stay anonymous.
He met with local legislators and community representatives and says they came up with good ideas, such as providing specialized counseling and mental health support at schools for victims like his daughter.
...
He said he wants every police department in the nation to have at least one officer trained to pursue cyberbullying crimes. He called Brandy’s death a murder, saying she was pushed to the breaking point.
“I feel like these people are cowards, these people hiding behind the texts and fake pages. They’re the ones who pushed her to this point. She lost all her self-esteem, lost all her self-worth,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
If I was this poor girl’s dad, some people would have some looking over their shoulder to do.
She was beautiful
Yes. Very sad. She looked happy decorating the tree. People can be so incredibly cruel.
This is the current storyline on "South Park", warning the dangers of pursuing such an agenda.
Sad for the family.
What do people expect anymore? Look at the trash the media is putting out on social media.
Why not just track down and prosecute the perps instead of making more laws?
Just goes to prove that some people are heartless, cruel, brainless, spineless assholes.
As a dad, it makes me want to find whoever this piece of sub-human filth was and educate them in the proper application of pain and terror.
Same here, and I'm certain Mr. Vela feels likewise. The problem is, with the anonymity of social media, he, you, or anyone else, would have no real idea as to the identity of the perpetrators...
the infowarrior
It’s far too easy for adults to get over-involved with social media and experience all sorts of emotional upheavals because of online wars, let alone kids. Parents could do their children a big favor by teaching them not to take social media too seriously and not to spend too much time on social media sites.
It is a total tragedy that a person is so distraught by anonymous postings (allegedly) on line that they take their own life. I wonder if there isn’t a lot more to this story than is being presented here.
There are ways of finding out.
Anonymity works in both directions.
Assume an anonymous identity, befriend them, find them, deal with the situation accordingly.
If there is a will, there is a way.
You and me both, hoss.
They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; but Lord have mercy on the souls of anyone who harms my children.
Social media have administrative controls allowing the owner to moderate posts. I don’t know why we need more laws than that.
Behavior like this is cruel beyond belief. The people who would torture this girl to death, and then torture her grieving family, are the same type of people who torture animals and small children; the same type of people who grow up with no conscience or empathy for others. I honestly don’t know if I would have the strength to handle this type of torture, were it me and my family. I suspect that those doing the torturing would be in some serious danger once I discovered their identities.
A lot of freepers with teen kids know the “You should kill yourself” line is now extremely popular. I have NO IDEA as to why. If I had ever, EVER said that to someone.. my Mom would have slapped the taste out of my mouth. Strange to me how so many teens support “acceptance” of certain groups YET the level of insensitivity has gone to this level.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho! God Bless Texas!
People lack the guts to do stuff like this because they’ve become accustomed to the idea of always relying on someone else to do their dirty work. Instead of beating the miscreants black and blue, they prefer to retreat behind being ‘civilized.’
People are just stupid.
This sounds like an inside job. It’s just too creepy.
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