According to the parents of the 19-year-old facing eight years of prison for making threatening Facebook comments, jail has been a horrible experience for Justin Carter. Maybe that sounds like a no-brainer, but listening to the specifics of what Justin Carter is undergoing while jailed is heartbreaking.
Yesterday, we learned that Carter is on suicide watch in solitary confinement. But there’s more to it according to NPR. Carter seems to be “suffering quite a bit of abuse” according to Carter’s parents.
“Without getting into the really nasty details, he’s had concussions, black eyes, moved four times from base for his own protection…he’s been put in solitary confinement, nude, for days on end because he’s depressed. All of this is extremely traumatic to this kid. This is a horrible experience,” Carter’s father, Jack, told the NPR.
Carter is currently in jail because he jokingly told another League of Legends player that he was “going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts,” followed by “lol” and “jk”.
He was charged with making terrorist threats and is currently awaiting trial. If convicted, he can face up to 10 years in prison according to NPR. The bail, meanwhile, is set at $US500,000, which Carter’s attorney says he has “never seen” despite representing murderers, terrorists, and rapists in the past.
A new hearing is scheduled for July 16th, at which point Carter’s attorney will bring up the issue of abuse.
Father: Teen Jailed For Facebook Comment Beaten Up Behind Bars [NPR]
Comments
107 responses to “Life Behind Bars ‘Extremely Traumatic’ For League Of Legends Player”
America has the best legal system in the world.
lol jk
Exactly – In Aus he would have been given a crappy fine and a probation period for a year or something. That’s if he was prosecuted at all – oh and he would have been given a hug by the magistrate – welcome to Australia where you can be bailed on murder after 6 years.
Or paroled after serious rape incarceration so as you can rape then murder this time….
Given a crappy fine and probation – as opposed to costing the State thousands in incarceration costs and (eventually) civil damages? The reasons for prosecution in the overwhelming majority of cases (remember, the violent crime rate is extremely low, and isn’t increasing) basically come down to protecting the community and making sure the offender, and other people, never commit the crime again. And you do that in the most lenient, cheapest and most humane way possible.
Who the fuck cares if a shoplifter gets a fine or a dumb kid talking shit on the internet gets a good behaviour bond, as long as they don’t do it again and others are discouraged from doing it in the first place? How is anyone at all (or justice for that matter) served by this kid getting beaten up in jail?
Sorry I should have been more clear in my reply. I actually agree in this case jail is too harsh a sentence for what he did. Is he stupid, yes.
Does he deserve jail time, well that would depend on the intent behind the claim. If police ceased his computer and found evidence that he was clearly planning something similar to his online comments, and had easy access to a firearm, then yes. But comments alone mean very little, without the means to back it up.
My comment was more directed at the disparity in judicial systems. Whereby saying we are far too soft here, not agreeing with old mates sentence which is clearly too harsh.
The major problem with our system is, major crimes don’t carry the sentence they deserve, which subsequently means the offender has no real consequence for their crimes.
It’s clear the law is going after this kid to make an example. He said something wrong in very bad taste, that is obvious, but I have seen much worse on the internet.
The fact he he is being done on terrorism laws is a scary issue considering he can have all his rights stripped away
I’m not sure if they’re trying to make an example of him or they’ve just ralised they’re backed into a corner. It’s already gone way too far to end with a ‘yeah, that was stupid of us, sorry’. A lot of people are going to get in a lot of trouble if he doesn’t get jail time out of this.
So much for “innocent until proven guilty”. Best case for him now is time served.
That’s not the point… He is guilty. It’s just that the punishment is too harsh and the investigative process was a joke.
But he’s not guilty, not in the slightest. He said something that while in poor taste, was in jest. There was no legitimate threat to be investigated. This is purely down to the internet’s lack of a sarcasm filter.
I suppose it goes to show you don’t make those kind of comments in a public arena. It’s a harsh sentence though.
Do you not get thrown into jail for saying “I’m going to bomb this flight” at the airport, no matter how jokingly you say it?
Maybe, but *should* you be thrown in jail for saying something jokingly? My personal opinion is no. Its in bad taste, but its hardly a crime. Its only because of the a super-panicky U.S. that such laws now exist.
Guilty? By what law do you define him as guilty?
He obviously used poor judgment, but in what bloody country of this world is it illegal to say “I’m gonna go to my school and kill everyone”, followed with “Just kidding!”?
This whole thing makes me so angry for so many reasons.
So you’re saying its perfectly OK to say absolutely anything, even if you mean it as long as you say “just kidding” afterwards?
Who are we to assume if he is or isn’t “just kidding”. I never said he was guilty of terrorism. But he sure as hell isn’t an innocent angel.
There are plenty of other things you could charge him with like civil unrest, wasting police time etc…
Gotta ask yourself what kind of person says stupid shit like that anyway? even in jest? On a public forum where anyone in the world could read it…..
The fact that there hasn’t been a proper trial yet and the investigative process is broken doesn’t mean he is completely innocent. Threats have to be investigated and taken seriously, it’s not a black and white line.
“just kidding” is not an automatic get out of jail free card.
Any police officer worth anything could take 5 minutes to do some research on the kid and realise he wasn’t a threat and was only making an inconsiderate joke. An official warning is all this deserves, especially in a country where freedom of speech is part of their constitution.
What the hell kind of human being can sit there and be so condemning of a young man who said one stupid joke on facebook. There is SO much worse shit on the internet from people of all ages.
The kid can’t be charged with wasting police time, because he never instigated the investigation, the woman who rang the police would be charged of that.
The fact that the investigation is completely broken proves they have no real evidence against the kid besides his comment, and are scrambling to find things to use against him. The justice system has completely failed this guy.
If making THOSE kinds of jokes is justification for being physically abused, thrown in solitairy, and jailed for 8 years, then you may as well throw half the world in jail. If this had happened to me every single time I had told someone I was going to kill them, I would have been dead a decade ago. Last night, I told my brother “If you touch my sandwich, I will kill you”. Should he have rang the police and made a complaint against me for that?
As everyone has said, sure, comments and/or threats of that nature deserve to be investigated. But they should damn well be sure that they are correct before charging them with a crime against humanity. Many of the people who HAVE committed mass murders in America showed signs for years before hand, but never once were they stopped.
This kid will be mentally and probably physically scarred for the rest of his life, because the local police department couldn’t conduct a proper investigation.
YES. That’s right! It’s called freedom of speech. I am allowed to say absolutely anything I want if it is in jest. Why is this so hard for you to understand? As long as I’m making it perfectly clear that I’m not being serious and malicious (and yes, in this day and age, following a message with a “lol j/k” does constitute as that), then bloody common sense should take over and say “oh, he’s not actually being serious!”.
Are you gonna arrest Louis CK and put him in jail every time he makes a joke about rape? No, because it’s blatantly obvious that it’s in jest!
So much for common sense still prevailing these days…
He is not guilty of anything except making an inconsiderate joke. THAT IS ALL HE DID.
If you can’t get that through your thick head, you deserve to take his place.
He is getting worse treatment than most people do in jail. I cannot believe the kinds of things he is being put through.
Did future judge make a future screw up and reach through time to personally hand you the verdict of the pending trial?
Damn it, I’m sick of future judge’s shit.
Well considering he sent the sarcastic to a friend after the friend made a similar remark, it’s ridiculous.
I read the initial comment out of context and thought ‘good, you deserve it for being a dick’ but after reading it in context, while still incredibly stupid, isn’t jail worthy.
I don’t see the problem here, in a sense he has engaged in an act of terrorism. If you had a child attending a school even remotely close to where this guy has made threats from, I would be terrified to send them to school not knowing if his threat was serious or not. Much like if you walked up to someone in the street and told them you would kill them, here is a threat on a public medium to hurt or kill countless innocent lives.
I say leave the idiot kid locked up. His “extremely traumatic” experience is NOTHING compared to the parents of those who have lost children already.
For those older Australians, I recall being at a party around mid ’96, cops turned up because it was too loud. One drunken lout screamed at the cops “I’ve got Sarah Spiers inside doing the dishes”, cops beat him unconscious and dragged him to the wagon and I never saw him again. Sure, it was a joke in poor taste, but like this idiot facebooker, public threats should not be taken lightly or with a slap on the wrist.
That he had NOTHING to do with. He made a joke, a bad joke, but there was no hostile intent and zero desire to follow through on it. Worst case scenario someone’s feelings were hurt. It’s not a smart thing to do, it’s not a good thing to do, but it’s still not something that should result in jail time.
Frankly I’d say you’re a worse person because of your ‘let him rot’ attitude than he is for making a distasteful joke.
And what if it wasn’t a joke? What if he went to school the next day and killed your kid. Wouldn’t you have preferred if the authorities did something about it BEFORE it happened? Or are you like the rest of the clowns that thinks an evil deed such as rape or murder needs to be followed through before actions are taken.
There’s no what if. It was a joke. This isn’t back tracking. He isn’t trying to play off actual threats as jokes now it’s got serious for him. There’s a world of difference between doing nothing and jail time. They responded to it as a serious threat which is fair enough, but continuing to treat it as a threat and treating him as a criminal[*] after it’s been revealed that it’s not a threat is just a waste of everyone’s time.
[Edit: Sorry, I meant to say ‘dangerous criminal’.]
What I don’t get in the US is how they decide which law overrides another. Like with the freedom of speech they have in their constitution – why wouldn’t that override this?
Freedom of speech was initially to ensure the freedom of the press. Free speech allows you to say whatever you like, in terms of political or social expression. It’s why those clowns the Westboro Baptist Church can run around calling people “fags”, and informing them they’re going to hell. They’re very careful not to make specific threats towards individuals, which is not allowed – but can still condemn people as “fag enablers” and so on. It’s a label, rather than a threat, and so despite how awful they are, and how much pain they inflict, they can’t be silenced or arrested because they’re essentially spouting a political and social agenda.
This case is different, because it could be interpreted as an actual threat of violence. Threatening individuals, or even – as in this case – THEORETICAL individuals, is not covered under free speech because the act of doing so infringes on the subject’s rights. In short, it’s criminal activity, and criminal activity cannot be tolerated.
It’s not quite that simple. It’s the same as the limitations on the right to bear arms. “Arms” is really general, but you’re not exactly allowed to have a stockpile of nukes in your garden shed.
But in the US, they would if they could
did you really just endorse thought crime as though not punishing it makes you a clown? I think you migt have meant valid threats should be seriously investigated but without hyperbole what you actually said is the stupidest thing I’ve ever read on this site. Well done.
If it wasn’t a joke, then there would be evidence to support that. but there is NONE.
…surely you’re kidding. Some kid deserves a 10 year jail sentence in solitary for a stupid sarcastic comment on a message board? Are you out of your damn mind?
I completely understand that it would be worrying if someone made these comments about a school near your children or really any school in the world, I just don’t see how the punishment fits the crime, it’s obvious that this kid said it as a joke. Yes, the joke is in absolutely woeful taste – but I have seen people say far worse than that on the internet.
I really do not understand how this type of thing could ever happen, yes he was stupid for saying it but there is no way that the punishment fits the… I can’t even say ‘crime’ because I don’t see how it’s a crime to say what he did. Perhaps it should raise suspicions or receive a pretty harsh fine and maybe even community service… but (up to) ten years in prison? Please.
You are a complete idiot
Sounds like some good justice going on there; completely thrashing a guy who never hurt anyone.
1984 was not an instruction manual.
No I think this is what happens when you privatise the prison system. More and more Americans especially children, the poor and minorities (people without power) are being gaoled than ever before for ‘crimes’ that would have warranted little more than a warning fifteen years ago. However now America has created a system where more people in gaol equals more profit for the companies running the prisons the result is that America now has the highest incarceration rate of ANY country in the world per capita. This case is not unique there are many like it.
Except they keep releasing people because the jails are overcrowded…
I don’t know. Using both ‘lol’ and ‘jk’ unironically in the same post sounds like something that should get you put away for at least five years. Maybe ten’s a little on the excessive side, but it’s understandable. As a society we need to show that this sort of thing shouldn’t be tolerated.
I bet the soccer mum bitch who reported him feels real proud of herself.
America. Everything is “terrorist threats”. What a load of horseshit. That whole clause stinks of a desire to achieve a true Orwell 1984.
It still completely boggles my mind how the people of America accept this as a way of life, where the scumbags get ridiculously tiny sentences – like 4, 8 years for rape – and kids who download a song or make dumb comments on social media are up for 10 years and a half-mil bail.
I’m glad I live here in Au, but sometimes I swear we’re trying to edge towards US behaviour ourselves.
Poor kid. They’re ruining his life for a joke.
Our joke of a legal system is a long long way away from the US system
Oh, yes of course. I was (ambiguously) referring to our “scared of our own shadows” mentality. My bad.
Didn’t you know? Hurting a corporation’s wallet is MUCH worse than hurting a real person physically.
(Actually, it sounds callous, but I can ALMOST see the logic behind that, even if I don’t emotionally agree with it. Theory goes: Corporations rely on their profits to support the employment of hundreds, even thousands of people. If someone does something to damage a corporation badly enough, the corporation may have to fire those people, inflicting the hardship of unemployment on them, including all the knock-on effects of poverty if those people then can’t find employment in what is already a very tight job market. If one person dies, that’s very sad, but if a thousand people lose their jobs, that’s a broader social impact.
I can see the cold logic of that reasoning but I don’t agree with it.)
While I admit that our system isn’t as bad as the US. It has similar problems.
People who commit serious offences rarely get a punishment that fits their crimes, or get parole and go on to commit further crimes. While on the other side, you see people who commit minor offences, and get made an example of by some old fart judge and has their entire life ruined one way or another.
This is fucked.
This is so, so fucked.
I hope that Canadian busybody that ruined his life feels awful. And/or experiences huge karmic backlash.
Absolutely disgusting. I don’t know what’s worse – that they knowingly punished him like this for a bad joke or that they seriously think this is all deserved.
To me it seems the only way that they can justify themselves is by claiming that they believe it was a genuine threat…which is in itself, pretty mind bogglingly stupid. Sure it was in poor taste, but really…
He deserved some form of punishment, a Psych evaluation to see if he’s a threat and a good behavior bond. A think before you post stupid things on Facebook lecture and done.
He’s 19, and he made a bad taste joke. Being imprisoned is a massively disproportionate reaction. I’m glad the stupid things I said when I was 19 never got made public.
Pretty scary to think that those days are coming to an end. I instinctively think people are hyper-over-reacting whenever I hear references to 1984, but… this? This seems like how it starts. We get used to learning that it’s OK to jail people for things they say in jest/while drunk/angry, we expect that everything we say or do will be observed and we will be held to account for how it could be perceived rather than how it was intended…
If you’d described that sort of situation to me fifteen years ago, I’d have thought you were off your rocker.
I don’t really understand why we shouldn’t be held accountable for our actions. Whether vocal or physical.
That’s why we live in a society with laws.
Whether or not you agree with the levels of surveillance today, remember that this kid’s post on Facebook was reported to authorities from a concerned woman in Canada. It’s like they were just sitting there watching everyone’s Facebook posts.
If he had said this privately to whoever he was arguing with it probably wouldn’t have gone any further
The clue is in your first sentence. We should absolutely be held accountable for our actions. Actions, not words.
Anything else sounds like a John Becker rant to the police. “Why can’t you lock up the criminals BEFORE they commit the crimes?!” Back in the nineties, that was the joke. Today, it sounds like a fucking headline discussion topic on Fox and Friends. Minority Report sounds good to you?
Also, the important thing to remember here is the demographic. The youth of today grew up not knowing a world without internet, or in some cases facebook. The delineation of private vs personal is clearly not understood, and commenting on someone’s wall is meant to have a private context in their eyes.
It’s what gives rise to the humour on failbook blog, all those kids getting manipulated by the structure and reward system of facebook (and its advertisers) into believing that having more friends is a good thing, a status symbol, without then realizing that that it also includes those people in the ‘conversation’. Like, say… their parents. There are unwritten, unspoken conventions at play which are beyond the understanding of litigators about who it is and isn’t meant to be included, and they understand this implicitly themselves because it’s how they’ve grown with the system, but those of us who understand ‘behind closed doors’? Becoming a thing of the past. We know – and they know if pressed – that there’s no ‘expectation of privacy’ if you didn’t restrict posting to friends-only, but that then locks out the people who they do want to view the material, but don’t want to take advantage of the other benefits provided by friends. Far as I’m aware, facebook doesn’t do tiers/circles very well yet.
How was anyone to know it was sacrcastic if they were born without a sense of humour? Would he still have been arrested and jailed for several months (so far) if he’d used the appropriate ‘/sarcasm’ BB/HTML code? Isn’t that was ‘jk’ was meant to convey? Sarcasm is illegal now?
I approve of the Becker reference.
I approve of his entire post. Very well written.
Transientmind is on like, every article. This dude is always on Kotaku and is always saying something insightful.
Good on this man.
Awh shucks. Thanks.
So you’re saying we should be allowed to say anything we want without any consequences? When does talking become bullying? or online stalking? or slander? or defamation?
It’s ok now to call in a bomb threat because it’s just talking?
If someone called you up from a private number and said they were going to kill you….. jk , how would you feel? safe? protected?
As for the demographic thing…. your point makes no sense. you claim the youth of today grew up not knowing the internet … then they should understand how facebook and public forums work. it’s PUBLIC.
This would have gone no further if he said those things around a dinner table or privately to a friend. But it took some woman from Canada to report the post. And let’s face it, context is everything, so saying shit like that was downright reckless 2 months after Sandy Hook.
On a more psychological note: sarcasm or not, what kind of person says things like that? I sure as hell don’t make joke like that. Anonymously or otherwise.
Not purposely trying to be “that guy” but since you asked, I say things like that quite often both in private and in public, I haven’t been punched or arrested once.
Humour is subjective and shock/black humour has it’s audiences. While it might have been in bad taste as such jokes will always be to some people, it’s definitely not something he should have been arrested for, perhaps a talking to at most. Context is very important with things like this and in regards to all known evidence this chap should really be in the clear.
Without consequences, no. But you can clearly see – and you would even if it took thorough investigation into the psyche of this foolish 19-year-old – that it was not a legitimate threat. So why inflict extreme punishments as if it wasn’t simply a stupid comment made by an immature child?
Punishable, sure – I mean, I don’t see how this kid is a special case, worse comments are made daily, and a lot of teenagers don’t understand the privacy issues involved in social networking. But 10 years jail-time and a half a million in bail? Suicide watch?
People say stupid things. Sometimes they say really, REALLY stupid and offensive things. But there’s a difference between a joke and actual intent, and it really couldn’t be more obvious here that there was absolutely no intent behind this comment. Call it the most stupid, thoughtless comment you’ve seen on the Internet (in which case: really?), but the punishment is quite unwarranted.
What if a good friend of yours did that? One that you trusted and knew for a fact it was 100% in jest?
Except you missed one point…
He was in a conversation *WITH A FRIEND*. Unfortunately some folks in general do not know or care about the difference between saying something publicly between friends on a text/chatroom and posting PUBLICLY ON AN FB WALL. It happens all the time w/ posting of pictures, stories, etc. between FB walls.
Sure they understand the concept of “public/private” the same way we knew the difference of hot and cold. But some people would never fully appreciate that difference/danger until they’ve burned their hands. The same way some people never fully appreciate the public/private divide until it proverbially hits them in the ass
Unfortunately for the dumb fool he has to learn the hard way on the implications of the difference between public and private. Again your blowing it completely out of context. If he had made a general response/threat to the general public then yes no amount of “jk” would ever justify it. However he was *talking* to a friend and that context completely changes everything
Also that being said… as for the “let him rot to teach him a lesson” I would much rather the penal system actually do its proper job and keep REAL felons in there as opposed to wasting resources and time on what is a very trivial offence. But hey if one criminal gets to walk around free because were busy prosecuting a child making a terribly crass statement then at the very least we’ve taught someone a lesson didn’t we?
Oh and it’s called “dark/black humour”. It’s how some people deal w/ the morbid realities of life and yes I make jokes on that line as well amongst friends.
Good show. Great post.
Personally I don’t think being drunk is an excuse. If you chose to drink than you are responsible for your actions while drunk.
If your drink is spiked you definitely have diminished responsibility. I think the RSA/RSG laws in this country take away far too much personal responsibility.
I think his actions should have consequences, maybe a couple of weekends of community service. But they’ve blown this completely out of proportion.
People really need to look at every angle before they post opinions about this.
Lets look at the facts:
Yes, he said a stupid thing online.
Yes, he put “lol j/k” afterwards.
Yes, he did post something that can quite easily be seen as a terroistic threat on a very very public forum.
Yes, the post was reported to authorities by a concerned 3rd party from Canada.
Yes, he did say it less than 2 months after the school shooting massacre.
No, “j/k” is not a get out of jail free card.
No, freedom of speech does not let you say whatever the hell you want with no consequences.
Now for the opinion part:
Yes, he should be getting psych evals and put on gun ownership watchlists or things like that.
Yes, it was sarcastic and incredibly stupid
Was the public correct to be concerned? Absolutely.
Were the authorities correct to be concerned? Absolutely.
Is he being used as an example? Probably
Is the punishment too harsh? I think so. He needs to understand the consequences but hard jail time is an exaggeration.
The fact is that without knowing this kid (and sometimes even when you do know them), it’s impossible to tell if something they say is a joke nor not. Doesn’t matter if he puts a bloody “LOL” at the end.
Just like every building has to take a bomb threat seriously even if 99.9% of them are hoaxes. This isn’t much difference, it may have not been said with malice but it can just as easily be a warning sign.
People always complain after a shooting “why didn’t we do anything when we saw the signs”, well there you go. Now you’ve acted upon a “sign” and you still can’t win.
I’ll leave this here.
Has anyone considered that maybe, just maybe, by arresting this kid, they saved a whole classroom of children….
I haven’t seen anyone argue that he shouldn’t have got a terrifying visit from Mr Policeman & Baton to explain what is and isn’t appropriate.
The problem is then, in the absence of any other evidence of intent, such as firearms/explosives/building schematics/prior discussions, they’ve gone with charging him as a terrorist, which in America, a conviction will ruin any chances he will ever have of a respectable career, and locking him up in jail with legitimately dangerous and violent people. In March.
It is now July.
I’m not condoning america’s terrorism laws. I’m not saying he should get years of hard jail time, but i’m not exactly loosing sleep over it.
I’d say a few months behind bars and a good behaviour bond should do the trick.
And, whether it’s right or not… lets hope it sends a message and others learn from his stupid mistake.
As for other evidence, I’ve only read a few articles and none of them mention any investigation, which I did say I don’t agree with.
How about if they charged him with the appropriate conviction? If that conviction meant a few months behind bars, sure, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t. I’m pretty sure it entails a psych test.
If this isn’t dirty tactics at play, then why did they have to throw on the “terrorist” charges? And not the legitimate charges for the crime he committed?
With that logic, we should lock up anyone who ever said “I’d kill for a hamburger right now.”
Basically, with the rise of terrorism, the US has found a nice loophole to eradicate human rights.
Take a look at this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_threat – because as far as I’m concerned the “sounds like terrorism” excuse is unconstitutional.
Sounds like terrorism is working, causing the country to attack itself and its own citizens and getting everyone whipped up in fear frenzy. That’s the point, right? Of ‘terrorism’?
Con-fucking-gratulations America. Should’ve taken a page out of England’s book. “We’ve been bombed by a better class of bastard than that.”
That’s a well known figure of speech. Bit different.
I’m not defending america’s terrorism laws. They are fucked. But I don’t think everyone should be jumping on the “this kids an angel” bandwagon.
The system is broken and the punishment (of which there isn’t an official one yet) is too harsh, but he shouldn’t be patted on the back and congratulated for his witty humour.
I don’t think anyone is saying “this kids an angel”, I think people are saying that “this kid is a normal fucking kid.”
No, he’s an asshole troll kid
Every kid is an asshole troll kid. Have you seen the internet?
I have considered that. But more likely, they just screwed up a kid’s life and that of his family over a stupid joke.
What he did was silly, but in this case the punishment doesn’t fit the ‘crime’.
Out of curiosity, did you read the post he was responding to?
Many of the posts above you have already taken those facts into account. Some of them even share your opinion.
Generally when you start a sentence with “Oh yeah” you are being sarcastic
This should never be considered without incontrovertible proof. Without said proof, there is not ever any way that we could be sure that anyone ever could be planning to harm another or if those others could have been prevented from harm with prior knowledge.
eg. tomorrow, that classroom could be killed by somebody else who has said nothing ever about it and there’s no way for us to know.
Kinda ridiculous.
I might just shoot up a school full of kids, Might not eat their hearts though.
… and thus the cycle of idiots continued.
Yep exactly.
I just did the exact same thing as that kid really.
You realise he just called you an idiot right?
But the hearts are the best part!
Just make sure they are still beating after massacring your victims though, else all that effort would be for naught.
Cops at your door in 3…2…1
Bags the brains!
You make a good point. You will see a huge surge of comments like this from trolls around the world now. Who want to take advantage of America’s completely stupid decision to lock him up. The people who went through those massacres have already suffered enough, and now because of the publicity of this ridiculous incident, they will have to relive it all the time.
All they’re doing is creating another criminal. Criminalisation is a problem, especially for kids like this who either have to learn how to defend themselves or die.
It’s good to see a negative reaction to people saying stupid shit online, but the legal reaction is so ridiculously over the top that I’d be laughing if this kid wasn’t getting the shit kicked out of him.
i think everyone needs to lighten up and get a sense of flippin reality back into your lives without your heads being constantly stuck up ur arseholes and becoming blind to society and what is going on with the younger generations of today.
I honestly can’t get over the audacity of some u people who agree with whats happening.
Some rock spider dog can go and rape a child and be out of jail in less than 2 – 3 yrs u rob a bloody bank u get 10 yrs on the bottom lucky to even get parole..
WAKE UP SERIOUSLY THIS TEENAGER DOESN’T DESERVE THIS. If there’s anger issues or depression don’t u think finding this Kid some support and help for his problems to solve them. Instead of doing what they’re doing and making this young mans mental and emotional state 10 times more fukd up than before..
Humanity just isn’t the same anymore. No one gets treated like a person A HUMAN BEING!!!!!! Where has humanities compasssion, morals, and simple common descent courtesy gone at the end of the day? All to quick to judge the person next to you. Like anyones perfect enough to judge and be so harsh on this young man…
SHAME SHAME SHAME… SHAME ON ALL OF YOU WHO SEE AND AGREE WITH THE REASONING OF THIS SITUATION….. TRUE SHAME!!!!!!
You should head on over to here to sign the petition if you feel strongly about this:
http://www.change.org/petitions/release-my-son-justin-carter-in-jail-for-a-facebook-comment
They should have posted this to the white house. They are required to respond to petitions that gain more than 50,000 signatures.
He said “lol, jk”. Pretty damn sure that makes it clear he didn’t mean what he said seriously. I say stuff like that jokingly to my mates all the time, obviously not directed at their schools because we’re all in uni, but who the hell takes that sort of thing seriously?! 8 years of prison time is definitely uncalled for in this situation. Just leave it at time served and let him have the criminal record hanging over his head as a reminder that if you say stupid @#$% in the wrong place you are gonna get your ass kicked for it.
Sad sad world…
ahhh terrorism, the cold war bogeyman of the new millenium…just another behind the scenes way for the govt to control the population by fear,I read George Orwell’s 1984 when i was a young bloke(a long time ago in a galaxy far,far away) & that scared the crap out of me back then, but I can see the stuff in the book slowly leeching it’s way into gov & society and that scares me more…….
Read Brave New World; that shit is becoming more true every day, I swear.
I want to believe that his defence wasn’t “But I said lol, jk!”
How else exactly would you signify sarcasm? Are we going to have to have some kind of official ruling on what is and isn’t recognized and sanctioned sarcasm so that you don’t get dragged out of your home and thrown in jail for months without trial over it? Or do you think sarcasm should be illegal?
The initial comment itself conveyed sarcasm through the ‘oh yeah’ and the sheer absurdism (often used to lampoon) of eating hearts, the ‘lol JK’ is, in the modern parlance, the very clear and unambiguous statement that they were not being serious. ‘Just kidding’. How much clearer can it get?
If I respond to an argument about gamer violence and say something like, “Pfft. Right. Like I’m going to go take my picket to the white house and blow it up. Jesus.” *eyeroll* Should I get arrested and thrown in jail as a suspected TERRORIST for that?
Would you say, “I want to believe that his defence wasn’t using ‘pfft’ or ‘Jesus’ or ‘eyeroll’?
It’s a fucking GREAT defense.
I honestly cannot believe this is even happening.
Are you seriously telling me, that every single person in a position to set this kid free, is sitting there thinking “No, I’ll leave him in there”. What the hell is wrong with you Americans?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
You have ruined this kids life. We all know he will probably be found guilty, not because he is, but because the US will make him guilty.
This is so fucking wrong.
I hope he doesn’t though, I hope he gets let out, and sues for millions. That kind of abuse is wrong, and everything that has happened against him goes against his civil rights, and even breaches the US constitution.
FFS people. HE IS NOT GUILTY OF ANYTHING YET AS HE HAS NOT BEEN TO TRIAL. If he had posted bail he would be out. Wait for a jury to decide and if he’s found not guilty or the case is thrown out there will probably be a lawsuit which will award him enough compensation to buy a house (or go to a US college for a year).
I see what you did there. Lols for the compensation.
Seriously though, they set bail at half a million dollars. My family all lives pretty comfortably and I still doubt they’d easily be able to get the seriously expensive loans on which they would need to pay interest, IF they can secure it – have you tried getting a half-million dollar home loan? Or any home loan for that matter? Now go tell your bank that you don’t plan on using it to buy a house, but want to risk it on bail for a suspected criminal.
America, the land of overreacting!
I think one of the worst things is this:
So someone who made a threat, but not committed a crime is much more of a threat than someone who has already done the deeds?
Yeah, maybe I never want to go overseas. Just about everywhere seems completely screwed and likely to get me imprisoned or killed for doing something completely acceptable here.
On the one hand, you have a kid who made a stupid comment and immediately declared it was a joke. For this, he was jailed, beaten, repeatedly abused, and locked up alone and naked. So far he has been held for five months without a trial. (“Justice delayed is justice denied”).
On the other hand, you have the relatively small number of people who would have seen the original comment, the vast majority of whom would have seen it immediately labelled as a joke and recognised that kids say stupid things and that the typical mass-murderer does not joke about it in public. The one person who actually complained was not even in the same jurisdiction. None of these people were physically hurt, and it’s highly debatable whether any of them were even discomfited.
So. Two groups (one of which is a single individual). Which one is the victim here? My guess is that the kid has suffered more than all of the alleged “victims” combined.
Times like this I’m glad I DON’T live in the land of getting tossed in gaol for making smart-arse cracks.
America: Land of the highest per-capita jailed population in the world, home of the fucking terrified.
By the way, happy Independence Day!
I think this was the correct decision. You can tell this guy is dangerous and lives have been saved because of his current removal from society.
Have a cry little bitch. Wah, wah.
Why don’t people like it when I threaten to kill children and eat their hearts? It’s all good because I wrote JK after it.
Serves him right. Teach all the little troll assholes a lesson. Teach them that what they say can and will have consequences.
He deserves it.
What about the people in the past whom he may have caused to develop mental disorders because of his abuse?
LOL JK