League of legends player facing up to 10 years in prison for online comments.

BloodBath

This is old news but I searched for it on here and couldn't find any threads talking about it.

Some American kid called Justin Carter is facing up to 10 years in jail for some comments he made on facebook after a heated argument with somebody in league of legends.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2014-02-13/news/the-facebook-comment-that-ruined-a-life/full/

While his comments were over the top, they were reactionary and sarcastic with no real intention. Nothing illegal happened here yet he spend 4 months in prison, was raped there and still has up to 10 years jail time hanging over his head.

Another prime example of America making terrorists out of people they accuse of being terrorists. Land of the free indeed.....

danthefan

'MURICA!

That is a horrendous story. His comments were obviously not the brightest but there is no real threat to anyone there.

sarumite

danthefan wrote: »

'MURICA!

That is a horrendous story. His comments were obviously not the brightest but there is no real threat to anyone there.

This kind of things isn't limited ot America. A guy was convicted for tweeting "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your **** together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!" and that wasn't in America.

BizzyC

Good Ol' Texas law enforcement...

BloodBath

BizzyC wrote: »

Good Ol' Texas law enforcement...

This is the patriot act in effect. The law applies right across America and you can be accused of being a terrorist for almost anything.

grizzly

It's worth noting that he had a restraining order from a girl in the school because he had threatened to kill her and himself in 2011. When authorities saw this comment on Facebook they had to take it seriously.

Kiith

Utterly ridiculous to jail someone for that. He deserves a kick up the hole, but to jail him for longer than some violent crimes is insane.

BloodBath

grizzly wrote: »

It's worth noting that he had a restraining order from a girl in the school because he had threatened to kill her and himself in 2011. When authorities saw this comment on Facebook they had to take it seriously.

Agreed, they had to investigate further but once it was obvious that it wasn't a genuine threat the case should have been dropped and the kid let off with a warning with monitoring of his future behaviour.

Instead he spend 4 months in jail with convicted criminals, was raped there, spent a lot of it in solitary confinement and was only released because an anonymous savior paid his ridiculous bail of €500k.

They also tried to get him to plead guilty with a reduced 8 year sentence. Now they are pressing ahead trying to convict him with up to 10 years jail time.

Total unjustifiable madness.

Noxin

danthefan wrote: »

'MURICA!

That is a horrendous story. His comments were obviously not the brightest but there is no real threat to anyone there.

How do you know there was no real threat to anyone? Maybe he was..
I'm sure some others in past shoot-ups were not considered dangerous but low and behold....

10 years is a bit much though. I've seen a lot worse get a lot less.

Fawk Nin

This is incredible. Obviously the kid is slightly emotionally unstable judging from the ex-girlfriend situation and posting suicide statuses (stati?) but send him to a therapist not to prison!

I couldn't help but chuckle at the OP being called BloodBath, careful mate.

BloodBath

Noxin wrote: »

How do you know there was no real threat to anyone? Maybe he was..
I'm sure some others in past shoot-ups were not considered dangerous but low and behold....

10 years is a bit much though. I've seen a lot worse get a lot less.

Your kind of brain washed mentality amazes me. Any kind of prison sentence for something an 18 year old wrote online is not justifiable at all.

Everybody makes mistakes and says stupid things that they don't mean in their lives. Especially online. Subjecting this kid to this kind of treatment is not going to make him a better person.

If anything it will turn him into a potential threat against the state by subjecting him to what can only be described as torture.

He did an idiotic thing but I'm sure he knows that, he's young and dumb and allowed to make mistakes.

They found nothing in the way of notes, guns, plans, bombs etc to link this kid to any kind of serious threat. He was just mouthing off like most idiotic kids, and many adults do online.

Like Fawk said the kid needs some counseling, not butt ****ing in a prison with hardened criminals.

Genghiz Cohen

BloodBath wrote: »

Your kind of brain washed mentality amazes me. Any kind of prison sentence for something an 18 year old wrote online is not justifiable at all.

Well that's not true at all.
Harassment, bullying and threats should be taken seriously regardless of the medium involved.

Kiith

BloodBath wrote: »

Your kind of brain washed mentality amazes me. Any kind of prison sentence for something an 18 year old wrote online is not justifiable at all.

To be fair, if he actually was planning something like this than it's a perfectly acceptable punishment imo.

My problem with it is that if they thought there was an actual threat, surely they should have investigated it better. Comments made on a Facebook page surely can't be enough to convict someone.

BloodBath

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Well that's not true at all.
Harassment, bullying and threats should be taken seriously regardless of the medium involved.

Ok we better start building more prisons then.

Taking it seriously is investigating the matter further. Taking it too far is putting the kid in prison with a 500k bail that his parents and family could never pay and trying to sentence him to 10 years in prison with 0 evidence outside of a statement made online that was taken completely out of context.

penev10

The kid isn't going to be jailed. The police will sit him down with his parents and give him a good talking to and he'll probably be on some register so he can't buy a gun.

The moronic media just exacerbates these situations by quoting ridiculous jail times and getting on their high horse when it suits them.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

penev10 wrote: »

The kid isn't going to be jailed. The police will sit him down with his parents and give him a good talking to and he'll probably be on some register so he can't buy a gun.

The moronic media just exacerbates these situations by quoting ridiculous jail times and getting on their high horse when it suits them.

he was already jailed, his bail was set at 500k. they were out for this kids blood

BloodBath

penev10 wrote: »

The kid isn't going to be jailed. The police will sit him down with his parents and give him a good talking to and he'll probably be on some register so he can't buy a gun.

The moronic media just exacerbates these situations by quoting ridiculous jail times and getting on their high horse when it suits them.

Did you even read the article or any of the comments? He spent 4 months in prison already and was only released because an anonymous person with a ****ing soul paid his ridiculous $500,000 bail bond.

He was raped, beaten and kept in solitary confinement in prison.

The case is going ahead and they are trying to jail him because the state will get sued for millions if they don't secure a conviction.

gimli2112

If this becomes the norm we better start building bigger jails and I need to stop playing FPSs online drunk.

Noxin

Everyone may make stupid mistakes by saying stupid things online but this wasn't the first time he did it either.
Threatening his ex, and to shoot up a school after she dumped him. That's twice he's threatened the same thing.
Yea I am aware of the even worse stupid things you say to an ex after being dumped but it still does not take away from the fact that he has threatened to shoot up a school twice.
No they did not find any weapons during a search but lets face it, how difficult is it to get some over there?

I'm not saying he should have ended up in prison. And definitely not for 10 years. But counselling would not be sufficient punishment either.

BloodBath

He was 18 years old. He made a mistake. He might not be in the soundest place emotionally but that does not make him a criminal. If you're going to start locking up all emotionally unstable people then 50% of the population should be in prison. (mainly women )

Are we living in some sort of Minority Report style dystopian world where people get locked up before they commit a crime?

It's worrying that people can support these actions at all. When your civil liberties are being striped away left , right and center and the public support it we're ****ed as a society.

landsleaving

BloodBath wrote: »

It's worrying that people can support these actions at all. When your civil liberties are being striped away left , right and center and the public support it we're ****ed as a society.

This is the crux of it really. He's a dick, clearly, but the worst punishment he should be getting is a ban from the game and if the state insist on getting involved, a few days of community service to show him that his stupid, sarcastic comments aren't going to be tolerated. And obviously counselling.

penev10

BloodBath wrote: »

Did you even read the article or any of the comments?

Didn't read it all, my bad

I'll get my coat.................

Taylor365

What has this got to do with games and league of legends?

I only see facebook comments?

Mal-Adjusted

"Carter's comments were part of a duel between dorks, and may have had something to do with a game with strong dork appeal called League of Legends."

bit of an amateurish article in fairness.

Mickeroo

Taylor365 wrote: »

What has this got to do with games and league of legends?

I only see facebook comments?

I think the comments were a direct result of a LoL match and happened on a LoL facebook page. That was my understanding anyway.

Kiith

Plus, games train you to kill people, so it'll attract more readers if you say he was a gamer.

Taylor365

I'm sure there are many people in prison who were trained to be killers by jumping on mushrooms.

Genghiz Cohen

BloodBath wrote: »

Ok we better start building more prisons then.

Taking it seriously is investigating the matter further. Taking it too far is putting the kid in prison with a 500k bail that his parents and family could never pay and trying to sentence him to 10 years in prison with 0 evidence outside of a statement made online that was taken completely out of context.

Now now, leave the hyperbole aside.
I never said what happened was justified, just that the medium that threats are made in is irrelevant.

BloodBath

Maybe the wrong forum for it alright. Wasn't sure where to post it.

It's more of a political and law issue I guess. I read the argument started in league of legends though and continued on facebook. If any of you have played lol I'm sure you might have heard similar said.