Posted on 07/01/2013 8:53:00 AM PDT by beaversmom
A Texas teenager has been in jail since February after making an offhand comment on Facebook about a video game he had been playing.
Justin Carter was 18 when he and a friend got into an argument with someone over a multiple player online video game, leading the teenager to post a comment he now regrets.
He now faces up to eight years in prison after saying 'I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still beating hearts' only two months after the Sandy Hook school massacre
'These people are serious. They really want my son to go away to jail for a sarcastic comment that he made,' Justin's father, Jack Carter, said.
Although the teenager, who turned 19 while in prison, added 'lol' (laughing out loud) and 'jk' (just kidding) to his post, a woman from Canada who saw it reported Justin to police after finding out that he lived near an elementary school.
Mr Carter is now campaigning to have his son released, and wants to teach teenagers about the dangers of posting comments on social media.
'Justin was the kind of kid who didn't read the newspaper. He didn't watch television. He wasn't aware of current events. These kids, they don't realize what they're doing. They don't understand the implications. They don't understand public space,' he told KHOU.
His son first got into trouble in February after he and a friend had been playing League of Legends.
Mr Carter said: 'Someone had said something to the effect of "Oh you're insane, you're crazy, you're messed up in the head," to which he replied "Oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a...
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2349328/Teenager-jail-making-terroristic-threats-Facebook-comment-carrying-school-shooting--despite-adding-lol-jk-joking.html#ixzz2XoFFqYtw Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
AppyPappy: “But if he had actually gone through with it, imagine the uproar because the threat was ignored.”
Do you have any evidence, including the comment, that the teenager intended to attack a school? Unless there’s some credible threat there—and I don’t see it—this is a travesty.
It was a dumb thing to say, but are you honestly saying you want the guy jailed for saying it???
I’m a parent. I wouldn’t want my son making the comment, but I can see it wasn’t serious. You left out that he said “and eat their still beating hearts” and had lol and jk next to it. I would have read it as an attempt at a sarcastic joke. People will use absurdity in the extreme to make a point. The eating their still beating hearts would have been my first clue of what he was doing. The lol and jk would have been my second.
From the article:
Mr Carter said: ‘Someone had said something to the effect of “Oh you’re insane, you’re crazy, you’re messed up in the head,” to which 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.’
He added that his son had made it clear that the comment was made in jest.
“only two months after the Sandy Hook school massacre “
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So it would be acceptable in 6 months or a year?
The young man was insensitive but jail? No.
.
Certainly should have been investigated. No question there.
However, once determined that the kid is a no threat, just a flaming imbecile, that should have ended it.
How about a speedy trial? Locked up since February?
Call me paranoid, but I see one side aspect of this event as the ongoing effort to intimidate everyone (not on the left) into silence. IOW, we can lock up an idiot teen indefinitely without trial, think about what we can do to political dissidents that we really dislike.
It starts when you’re always afraid, step out of line, the men come and take you away. Poor dumb Neil Young, had no clue he was talking about his socialist idols. Still doesn’t.
[[...Teenager JAILED for posting ‘joke’ threat on Facebook after row with an online gaming partner]]
Here we go- epople beign arrested for postign on the internet- swell- wonder how hte prosecution is goign to prove that he was serious?
I've got a perfect example that just happened to my 16 year old son yesterday. He was at the park near our house on his bike. He still had his GoPro attached even though the battery had died. He was riding around the park. My younger son and daughter went over to meet him. Someone called the police that he was filming children. I think even if he had been filming children it wouldn't have been illegal, but he wasn't. The camera was on his bike and dead. A policeman came over to talk to him. My daughter, in tears, and other son came running home that he was being questioned by police. After talking with police, the police had common sense and could see he was doing nothing wrong, and everything was cleared up. But what if the police didn't have common sense?
exactly- muslims can call for death to jews, death to americans, but a kid makes a joke and all of a sudden he’s a hardeened criminal?- I hope to hel the kid’s lawyer asks the judge why a kid’s joke is ‘more srious’ than the actual direct intentional threats by clrics in mosques
[[Well, a statement like that really does need to be investigated.]]
Ket word is ‘investigated’ - it shoudl have been immediately clear the kid was no serious htreat- had the kid had all manner of weapons and ammo stash, and literature all over htep lace expousing terrorism or hwtatever, then yeah- invesdtigate further-
Well said.
That's how I'd have phrased it.
After further pondering on this subject what I said here, although true, insufficiently describes the truth.
After a tragedy like Sandy Hook law makers are pressured by gun control advocates to implement laws curtailing the right to bear arms that supposedly will prevent similar tragedies in the future. Of course these laws only make future tragedy more likely by disarming those who would other wise be able to defend the innocent with their personal fire arms. A similar truth exist in this instance. A teen’s humor is taken out of context and he faces imprisonment while true terroristic speech takes place in Mosques throughout the country and is ignored because of political correctness disguised as protecting religious freedom.
So in this case when the words of this young man are taken in context of the conversation in which they were written is obviously not a threat but taken out of context they are prosecutable as a felony.
And why is Justin Bieber still free? TANJ
What is best in life? To crush your enemies — See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. LOL
LOL and jk do not negate a posting that is otherwise a terroristic thread.
It deserved investigation. Part of the investigation should be a psychiatric evaluation.
Jail time awaiting trial does not serve that investigative purpose.
My Xbox game partner and I were playing one night. One of our opponents went nuts screaming at his little girl, her background voice sounded like she was six or seven. He yelled for her to get her f’ing ass in bed, it escalated from there. I have never heard anything like it. Then he started slugging and slapping her using the most vile language I have ever heard, she was screaming bloody murder and it went on until he disconnected, which was about ten minutes. My partner and I were frantic, just sick on our stomachs. We immediately contacted Xbox techs and were told there was really nothing they could do. Just file a complaint on the gamer tag about profanity. We tried to set him up having some other gamers find out where he lived, and tried some other things. We felt helpless and I think about that little girl all the time.
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