Justin Carter, the League of Legends player who made a sarcastic comment on Facebook that landed him in jail, is currently free on bail thanks to a generous anonymous donation of $US500,000. Today, Carter spoke with CNN about his case. He laments making the comment on Facebook, and warns that people should be careful of what they say online.
“I just want to make it clear that people should be very, very careful of what they say and it’s being recorded all the time if you say it on any website, anywhere,” Carter said. “And you can get in trouble for something that’s not something you should get in trouble for. And I just want people to be warned.”
His comments mainly refer to the fact that he said he was “going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts.” The comment was allegedly followed up with “lol” and “jk” according to Carter’s father.
“It got taken out of context, and it’s been blown out of proportion,” Carter said when asked what he thought about the Facebook comment. He didn’t think his actions would end with him in jail.
If Carter is convicted, he could face up to 10 years in jail.
Comments
36 responses to “Jailed League Of Legends Player: ‘It’s Been Blown Out Of Proportion’”
Yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theatre…
And after hearing that realising you can’t smell smoke, it’s unbelievably cold and then you realise the theatre is made of ice…. It’s called common fucking sense.
Not to mention it’s a poor comparison.
It’s more like typing “FIRE” on a cinema’s Facebook page.
crowds don’t use common sense, fucking or otherwise
Absolutely disgusting that it cost half a million to get someone completely innocent out of jail. When you think about that it’s just obscene.
Common sense is dead.
“MURICA” ?
Such comments are unacceptable. So this is a good lesson for him. If you think that is fine, that is your opinion. But as a whole, that is just obscene and this whole mess could have been avoided if Carter just kept his comment to himself.
Whilst what he said is unacceptable, I still don’t think he should be jailed for it. Here in Australia, a man raped and killed a woman, and he didn’t even get arrested. Tell me, which one sounds more worse; A sarcastic comment, or taking away a woman’s life?
Yeah, he definitely has no right to express himself. Especially when it’s at nobody’s expense!
Freedom of speech goes both ways. Do not expect you can say what you like without fallback.
And he wasn’t expressing himself. He was being a immature clown.
Since when is this punishable by 10 years jail? I bet you were an immature clown once.
I mean sure if the cops showed up at his door and treated him seriously and told him the gravity of the situation, it would be fine, and good, because he’d learn his lesson (not that it should even be a lesson, do you seriously think his comment was actually offensive? People say worse shit on the net all the time). But he’s been in fucking jail for months! He’s been on suicide watch! In what world can you justify someone being abused in jail to the point of contemplating suicide for making a harmless joke? A joke that couldn’t conceivably hurt anybody in any meaningful way?
Freedom of speech DOES extend to your right to be an immature clown, by the way. Just because it’s ever-so slightly condemnable doesn’t diminish your right to do it.
What he said was not a harmless joke. End of story.
Aha, yes it was. Care to refute that with some actual evidence?
I don’t see how anyone could be “harmed” by such words unless they’ve lost a loved one in a similar disaster.
You do understand what “lol” and “j/k” means, right? Surely you do.
No need for evidence. Wisehacker said it on the internet which is proof enough!
I can play at that game.
What he said was a harmless joke. End of story.
Naive, ignorant, immature. These things describe your stance. Only someone so riddled with ignorance could say that a set of words in any context deserves 10 years in jail. Context because it was a joke. Now i’ve heard Louis C.K. and Anthony Jeselnik both tell jokes where they have fictionally claimed to murder a child. Ignorance of their context and a pure focus on words cuts everything intended out of the joke, selfishly replacing their intended meaning with your assigned one. The context of his words were public and by self admission an attempt at a joke that didn’t have insightful intent, but still maintained an innocent one. See, what you’re proposing is a world where words aren’t interpreted, where what is said is what is meant. Always. So there goes sarcasm, subtext, metaphor, subversion, protest… Etc. All of this goes because you approach this story with the momentous ignorance of a slave-driver. Stop embarrassing yourself.
I shagged your wife… Said it therefore true.
You go by the name WiseHacker. That implies that you are a hacker and you consider yourself a source of wisdom for other hackers. One could understandably mistake you for some sort of digital terrorist instructor. Get your arse to jail. It’s the only way you’ll learn that digital terrorism is a serious crime.
Sorry Wisehacker, I think I’m going to call the police and CIB because you could be a hacker and I’m scared you will hack my computer and steal my identity
That’s a cracker, not a hacker.
Oh sorry, I’m not down with the hacker lingo like you. well, that confirms that you are indeed a “hacker” which is illegal. So, by your logic I should report you as a suspected hacker right?
In the spirit of the discussion, that’s my mistake but it’s your problem.
Sorry, I’m trying not to be a tool about it but this is what you’re supporting. Someone misunderstands something, it gets sorted, and then that someone continues to pursue it as though the original misunderstanding was correct for no justifiable reason. If this kid had of intentionally led people to believe he was going to do it that would be one thing. It wouldn’t be a jailworthy offense unless someone got hurt or the panic seriously spiraled out of control, but it’d be serious business.
However his ‘crime’ here doesn’t even seem to be that bad. He said something that he thought everyone he was talking to would understand was a joke. It proved to be poor judgement. He wasn’t starting a fire, he wasn’t even yelling fire as a prank, he was just saying fire near a paranoid person. There’s a world of difference between teaching a 19 year old to be aware that when they say stupid stuff in public others may be listening and throwing them in jail.
What you are missing is the “I find such comments to be unacceptable”. It is most definitely not a good lesson. It’s ham fisted and bordering on comical.
Any rational minded person who viewed the original exchange in context could see it was not said in anything even resembling sincerity. I even support them investigating the complaint, but that is where it should have stopped.
What exactly is wrong with being an immature clown? Surely you don’t expect people to be 100% serious and sincere at all times. I, for one, enjoy the fun acting the immature clown can often bring.
Dark/shock/black humour is not everyone’s cup of liquefied baby, but that doesn’t mean those who do enjoy and partake in it should be punished for it.
Yeah. Hindsight is great like that. “We could have avoided it if…” I love the word “if”. A range of possibilities there.
I also love how you think a kid should be imprisoned around actual criminals for saying something stupid. That’s the absolute best way to make sure he comes out a reoffend. What the hell do you think happens in prison?
On that note. Prison is NOT a punishment. It’s purpose is for REHABILITATION. Unlike drugs and alcohol, you can’t rehab that by putting them in a group with each other to share stories. The entire system is flawed.
It’s supposed to be for rehabilitation in some cases, but that’s very much not how it’s treated – both by people who cry for justice and really just want to see someone suffer out of vengeance, and the judiciary who indulges them.
One of the key reasons the system is flawed.
You can’t fix the problem if all you do is stuff it out of sight and blame it for raised taxes.
No the whole fucking situation could have been avoided if the idiot who made the complaint took two simple seconds to read the context of the conversation.
If not then, the whole situation could have been avoided AFTER that even, by the police, who after arresting him (ok it’s a fair call for them to at least investigate) who could have gotten a transcript of the conversation, investigated, said ‘Oh it was just in jest, here’s the CONTEXT of it. No worries. Listen kid, you’re a moron. We’re keeping you in a cell OVERNIGHT to teach you a lesson.’ and let him go in the morning.
That’s the extreme extent to which it should have gone, at most, a stay in a cell overnight. Even that, I’m hesitant to agree with. I don’t actually think it’s wrong the police investigated a comment like that, I think it’s wrong it went any further than an initial investigation.
I’d prefer to be in a room with an immature clown who makes poor-taste jokes, rather than one who thinks dumb 19 year olds should be jailed for their online comments.
This is just stupid, especially when there are hundreds of murders and crimes happening all around them. No wonder their murder rate is so high…
Yeah that’s an entirely different department, bub
I think the whole thing is a joke. I mean, I understand that society should try to keep standards when it comes to language, morals and ethics, but not at the cost of liberty and justice.
This is just some politician’s idea of “setting an example” to the new social media generation. The world keeps changing and people fear change.
Governments run by old men and women who used to have full power and control are realising the internet has given back freedom of expression to the people. The US Government especially has issues with that.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I certainly don’t usually believe in fighting authority, but I’m seriously getting worried about how far governments will try to set further “examples” and limit personal freedoms. I say resist corruption and injustice as strongly and loudly and often as you can. Thank God for the internet!
USA just keeps going down hill lol j/k
10 years jail there for TREASON…
He made a stupid joke. But the even more stupid joke is that someone would report it and authorities would post bail at $500,000.00.
EDIT: “It got taken out of context, and it’s been blown out of proportion” I see what he did there… still making jokes j/k lol 🙂
Well I’m torn, on the one hand it seems silly and a big waste of money.
On the other hand it’d be nice if this over-reaction got more people to be less callous about such horrible things.
Back on the first hand, it seems quite obvious it was not meant to be taken seriously.
And yet the second hand still has remarks about how airports have made it clear you don’t even JOKE about having a bomb as it’s not a risk they can afford to take.
Basically I agree with his thing about watch what you say when you’re being recorded, there are times and there are places.
I’ll never tell a dead baby joke again.
Wow, never be angry and say something so over the top it implies it is not serious. Kids are immature, say stupid crap and get smacked on the head for it. It is called growing up.
When people grow up the go through MATURITY and learn from being a stupid smart arse kid.
10 years plus a $500K bail – please. This is why I hate Murica! (by hate I mean love before I get accused of something literal -_-).
A woman gets jailed for 20 years potentially because she fires a WARNING SHOT at a man who has repeatedly beaten her and she fears, validly, for her life. She did not wound him. She gets 20 years.
A young man looks at 10 years in jail because of a stupid sentence on the internet. He has comitted NO CRIME. Not one crime at all. Yet he is being treated as if he has. He’s literally committed NO CRIME. But he’s looking at jail.
Yet a man murders a young boy, shoots him dead, cold heartedly, using the ‘stand your ground’ justification and manages to walk free. Trayvon loses his life to a bastard with an itchy trigger finger, the media posts ‘gangsta pictures’ of Trayvon and ‘noble’ pictures of this murderer, creating bias even before the trials done.
What a country.
Murrikah. Land of the free. Home of the insane.