Texas Teen Jailed for Tasteless Facebook Post

[EyeKhan]

Teen Jailed For Facebook Post Expresses Regrets

by MARK MEMMOTT
July 12, 2013 7:45 AM


An undated photo of Justin Carter, who's facing a felony "terroristic threat" charge in Texas.
Courtesy Jack Carter


"I certainly would have thought a lot more about what I said. ... People should be very careful about what they say" on social media sites.

That was the word Friday morning on CNN from Justin Carter, the 19-year-old Texas gamer who was arrested and jailed in February after making a Facebook comment about a school shooting.
His case has attracted attention around the nation, especially after Carter's father said his son had been beaten up by other inmates at the jail in Comal County, Texas, where he was being held while awaiting trial.

Thursday, as the All Tech Considered blog reported, an anonymous donor posted the $500,000 bond to allow Justin to go home.

CNN landed what it says is the first interview with Carter. He was joined by his parents and his attorney. They will be pushing to have the case against him dismissed.

Carter got in trouble with the law, as All Tech has reported, for this:

After he finished playing the online game League of Legends, where the community trash-talking can get quite toxic, court documents show he posted the following messages on a Facebook page:
"I think Ima shoot up a kindergarten / And watch the blood of the innocent rain down/ And eat the beating heart of one of them."

Carter's father says his son was responding to an insult by being sarcastic and followed the message with "JK" for just kidding, but that's disputed by police.

Does anyone think this makes any sense? Yes it's a sore subject given recent events but come on....

The point should be to put dangerous people in custody, not obviously harmless people who say something dumb. It's a waste of money, unnecessary harm to the kid and his family, and it's certainly not justice.

[Aimless]

Conducting a preliminary investigation makes sense. If the results of that indication indicate that there may have been real harmful intent and a real risk, then proceeding to trial makes sense. I can't help but think that a law must be overbroad if it can get someone sentenced to a couple of years in prison for those particular statements... and inconsistently enforced if it doesn't land more people in jail.

[Veldan Rath]

Just the nature of the PC police and the I Sue You crowd for not preventing something...

[EyeKhan]

Conducting a preliminary investigation makes sense. If the results of that indication indicate that there may have been real harmful intent and a real risk, then proceeding to trial makes sense. I can't help but think that a law must be overbroad if it can get someone sentenced to a couple of years in prison for those particular statements... and inconsistently enforced if it doesn't land more people in jail.

It's well beyond the point of determining whether this kid is a threat or not. He clearly is not. So his jailing with a $500k bond is not in any way based on him being a danger to anyone. And prosecuting him is simply based on his off color remark that was obviously not intended to be taken seriously.

[EyeKhan]

Just the nature I the PC police and the I Sue You crowd for not preventing something...

I don't understand what you mean.

[RandBlade]

Funny to hear this from the USA.

[Veldan Rath]

I don't understand what you mean.

Really? Political Correctness, and defensive law enforcement (like medicine) is the root cause of this foolishness.

[Loki]

Funny to hear this from the USA.

You'd only get arrested for that in Britain if the target was an ethnic minority.

[Ominous Gamer]

If they enforced this law against the entire LoL playerbase, drugs would no longer be the #1 cause for our overflowing jails.

[Veldan Rath]

Shhhh! Don't give the prison complex any more ideas!

[Loki]

If only abusing prisoners was a jailable offense.

[Timbuk2]

Hm indeed. I thought arresting people for social media commentary was the preserve of the British.

[Lewkowski]

If they enforced this law against the entire LoL playerbase, drugs would no longer be the #1 cause for our overflowing jails.

In defense of the LoL player base there are a lot of baddies in the game.

[LittleFuzzy]

Hm indeed. I thought arresting people for social media commentary was the preserve of the British.

Technically, I believe it's convicting people for social media commentary that's been the preserve of the British. We may yet see that here too but for right now the UK still holds its position.