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A egregious misuse of justice (this is dead serious)

I dunno if you guys have seen or followed this story, but it is just...flat out infuriating. Especially to a gamer like me. Especially to a cynic like me. Especially to a smart-mouth fox like me. It KILLS me to have had to see this happen in our supposed great country.

A young man, Justin Carter, who's only 19 years old (he just turned 19...while in jail. Salt in the wound), was jailed for 8 years for making terroristic threats. This is like, the DEFINITION of a broken judicial system. 8 Years for making a sarcastic comment. A joke. It blows my mind all kinds of ways.

He was chatting with someone on Facebook about League of Legends, pretty standard fare. But dude called him "insane" over something that he had said. (Gaming trash talk, standard fare), but he replied with “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,” followed by “lol” and “jk”.

Someone completely else had taken notice of that comment, and found his personal information, and called the police on him. He was booked for terroristic threats, completely taking that line totally seriously and completely out of context, and apparently a bunch of total idiots in positions of power are agreeing that THIS was totally serious, correct, and a proper use of justice. No, no it isn't. It's WAY too freaking overblown, and it's the thought police (or in this case, their sister group, Sarcasm Squad) getting way too strong.

I can't believe that it's come to this. I know one should 'watch what they say' and crap but...really. Do we really need to walk on eggshells about every little thing we say? It's...it's heartbreaking. And I hope and pray that dude makes it out before his 20th. He doesn't deserve this. His family doesn't deserve this, and the police do not deserve the praise and back-patting they're getting for this. Justin needs to be free and back at home where he belongs. He's too young to get his life ruined over a sarcastic comment. Nobody would ever deserve something like this.

Normally, even about issues I'm passionate about, I'm rather passive when it comes to handling it online but this was my breaking point. I can't stand by and do nothing when this young man is sitting in jail, either sad, angry, or both, over a little facebook comment, when there is real crime NOT being pursued, or real crimes being punished with not even 1/8 of this guy's sentence. So join with me in this cause.

If you want some sources:

Kotaku

If you want a very well vocalized version of how I feel:

AlphaOmegaSin
(warning, dude is vulgar, and today, in particular, he's pissed)

If you want to make a difference in Justin Carter's life, sign this petetition:

Change

Don't stand for this. This is just plain, flat-out stupid. I know I get tired of seeing hate toward my country, but hey, if you got some rage about justice and its mistreatment in this country, vent. Because this just killed me to see how completely insane people can be.

Thanks for listening.

Viewed:	116 times
Added:	10 years, 9 months ago 01 Jul 2013 19:42 CEST

17 Comments on this Journal

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CharlesDragon

10 years, 9 months ago

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I allready sing for it. That person did this should Talk to Justin Parents FIRST BEFORE GET THE POLICE INVOLED. MAN THAT WAS STUPID ON THAT PERSON. Parents inside of there home should take care of there kids not the police in this. That only for Robbing or other things outside of the House.

Shokuji

10 years, 9 months ago

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@ CharlesDragon

Don't forget that Justin was 18 and, in this country, once you've been around the sun 18 times you're 'fair game' because you're considered a competent, mature and reasonable adult... even though it doesn't seem like many kids are being raised by competent, mature and reasonable parents. =/

Keeran

10 years, 9 months ago

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Yeah, 9-11 was a bad thing, but this is just a stupid repeat of McCarthyism, where if one was thought of being a Communist would be thrown in jail.

ShanetheFreestyler

10 years, 9 months ago

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This is just... it's so fucking dumb... The same system that's supposed to protect us from actual attacks and hunt down those responsible can also imprison us for making a sarcastic comment?

I mean, for fuck's sake! Even when you take the comment out of context, it's still clear it was meant as a joking response to someone! If I saw this young man's comment out of context, the first thing I'd think of would be "Oh, someone must've made made some kind of insult on him and he's just saying that he'd be on a murderous rampage if he really was crazy, but he isn't". I wouldn't say "Oh dear God, he's a maniac! He must be locked up for the rest of his life before he hurts someone!" To say that would be an overreaction would be the understatement of all time! He does not, underline, italic, bold, all caps, red letters, DOES NOT deserve to be locked up for an off-the-cuff statement on how he believed he'd act if he was "insane" as whomever he was talking to claimed he was!

It is an overreaction of whomever saw the comment out of context, an overreaction of our justice system, and everyone responsible for putting this man in the same group of the truly criminal deserves to be locked up themselves or at the very least discharged from their positions! There's no reason to lock up someone for saying posting something they'd never even rose any alarms if it was just spoken in person between a few people!

Shokuji

10 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 10 years, 9 months ago by Owner

@ ShanetheFreestyler

"	ShaneoftheSound wrote:
	The same system that's supposed to protect us from actual attacks and hunt down those responsible can also imprison us for making a sarcastic comment?

This is what happens when we allow the justice system to be incentivized. Procecuters make more money putting people behind bars, so they will do everything in their power to do so.

trashbunny

10 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 10 years, 9 months ago by Owner

"	... great country...

http://i.imgur.com/TTtnguG.png

The people are nice. The government's the problem, though.

Shokuji

10 years, 9 months ago

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@ trashbunny

"	flufftails wrote:
	The people are nice. The government's the problem, though.

Let's do something about that: http://www.wolf-pac.com/

IrritatedCharizard

10 years, 9 months ago

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I would understand if he had the means/ plans for it and the police found proof of it but just to throw someone in jail for a comment like that is just... stupid. Ya he wasn't pretty smart to go and say it maybe some community service would be a totally better punishment. I know he might have been joking and but it's still not right to go and say that, let alone type it so there is a physical evidence to see.

Shokuji

10 years, 9 months ago

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@ IrritatedCharizard

The underlying problem is that they're punishing for (basically) thought crime now. Yes he typed out something vulgar, but it was done so for shock value, much like a comedian would do. Unless they investigated him and found premeditated plans in his possession to actually go shoot up a school it should have been taken as hearsay (in the form of text) and been thrown out of court! It's mind blowing that this guy had such a shitty lawyer to allow this to happen. Perhaps it was just a public defender that really didn't care if this guy was going to jail for nearly a decade and was just there to collect a paycheck. In any case, this shouldn't have happened based on the information provided.

shadycat

10 years, 9 months ago

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This country has gone completely insane since 9/11. Hell, It was already on the way after Columbine with zero tolerance policies and the like. Zero common sense is more like it. I was already an adult when 9/11 happened. The country I grew up in was a very different place than what it is today. Had those zero tolerance policies been in place when I was growing up, I would have been expelled in first grade when I brought a tiny Swiss army knife to school for show and tell. Instead, after I was done, the teacher took it and told me she would give it back at the end of the day. Which she did.
I'm not sure when we decided it was better to criminalize our children rather than educate them, but we seem to have done it.

Shokuji

10 years, 9 months ago

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@ shadycat

[rant] I'm getting annoyed when people use 9/11 as a reason for what they're doing. As far as I can tell the reason 9/11 happened was due to inaction by informed parties. IIRC, there was a report published before 9/11 titled something obvious like "Terrorists targeting buildings to fly planes into" or something similar; really direct and future-predicting. Apparently no one read it or cared until after it was too late. Another thing that bothers me a little was the inaction by the people on the planes who could have done something to stop the terrorists who were outnumbered 20 to 1 on those planes. At best the terrorists had makeshift knives, maybe a couple people would have died while taking the terrorists down but that would have been much better than what eventually happened. Though I understand that these passengers probably thought they were being held for ransom or something like that and wanted to stay alive so they stayed quiet and did nothing. What's that saying... bad things happen because good people do nothing to stop it? I think that applies here. [/rant]

Now that's out of my system; If Columbine didn't change how we secure our schools then all the kids who perished did so in vain. At this point no one should worry about someone saying what this Justin guy said because we should have learned from our history and made adjustments. My guess is very little was actually done or changed after Columbine and that's why authorities tend to overreact still. That said, you never scream "FIRE" in a theatre. Yes what he said was done for shock value and it should have been ignored but you got to be careful about what you say in this thought-crime future we're living in.

shadycat

10 years, 9 months ago

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@ Shokuji

You're kind of making my point. Both Columbine and 9/11 changed us as a society. Ben Franklin said that those who would sacrifice freedom for temporary safety deserve neither. This is exactly the devil's bargain we made. In both cases, the terrorists won. They forced us to change how we live. We are less free than we were before.
It was right after 9/11 that Dick Cheney told us that we had to watch what we said. Fuck that and fuck him. Save the equivalent of shouting fire in the theater, the first amendment still applies, as much as politicians and pigs wish it didn't. I reserve the right to express myself to my full capabilities without living in correctional facilities. Yeah, I'm goin' out on an NWA reference.

Shokuji

10 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 10 years, 9 months ago by Owner

@ shadycat

Well let me be clear, when I say "inaction by informed parties":
I'm talking about how there was a report called Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. before 9/11 happened but apparently it was ignored. And that kind of security/defense was before the Patriot act, before the NSA, etc. Frankly, if we had more competent people elected into our government 9/11 probably wouldn't have happened. I know that's easy for my fat ass to say sitting in this chair in front of my monitor, but that seems to be the truth.

Let me also be clear about what I mean by "how we secure our schools":
I'm not talking about 'pro-actively' turning-in people who say crude, sarcastic things like what Justin said. I'm talking about what they're doing at the schools. It can't be that hard, or expensive, to have simple security provisions in place. It would make very little difference to the kids at a school if it's a 'closed campus' or not. They'll still have access to all of the facilities but the campus would be much more safe for them without significantly encroaching on any one's freedom(s). There will be a fence between them and potential intruders, lock-down procedures (if alarms sound; lock door & take cover) in case danger manages to make it within the fence. And, while it's somewhat controversial, a properly trained armed guard who's job isn't to stop threats but rather slow them down to a crawl which gives time for the authorities to arrive and take care of things.

But I agree, the terrorists have won because we're still shaking in our boots, over securing some things (like airline flights) to the point costing people additional money and time, while reasonable measures are not being being taken. It makes me wonder if this is another Haliburton or Blackwater where special interests profited greatly from the turn of events. So rather than doing stuff that would work better they're focusing on stuff that makes certain people more money. This is one of the reasons why you're going to hear me talk about Wolf PAC a lot.

shadycat

10 years, 9 months ago

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@ Shokuji

I may have misunderstood some of your points, but regarding schools, really? Locked doors? Fences? Armed guards? Huh. That sounds an awful lot like prison. I went to a high school with an open campus policy. If you were a junior or senior with a 3.0 GPA or better, you were allowed to leave campus if you didn't have a class. We used to go shoot pool in the next town if we had a couple of free blocks strung together.
We certainly need better ways to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally ill people. What I absolutely reject is turning ourselves into a police state and our children's educational experience into an exercise in siege mentality. I will never consent to live in that world.

Shokuji

10 years, 9 months ago

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@ shadycat

I suppose you could demonize it like that if you wanted. 99% of the time it would be like any other day, so comparing it to a prison is a bit much. A prison keeps 'bad people' in, what I'm talking about keeps 'bad people' out. Totally different concept. I'd just rather not see another mass shooting, especially not at a school. You'd think something would have happened due to Columbine but then Sandyhook happened. I'm sure this is a money issue. Children lives just aren't worth enough to the government, apparently.

Shokuji

10 years, 9 months ago

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Sorry for replying to nearly everyone. ^_^;; I suppose you can gather how I feel about this through those comments.