$500,000 Donation Frees Jailed League of Legends Player

[J Tyran]

Why? Just.. why? You know Mr. good Samaritan $500,000 can do a lot of things, buy you a new TV, feed the poor, make a giant fire if you get it all in singles, hell just roll it up and smoke that shit just to show how rich you are, anything is a more noble cause than getting this braindead little shit out of jail.

/phones FBI, tells them a person on a forum is encouraging the destruction of currency (destruction of currency is a Federal crime under 18 USC § 333. Anyone aiding, abetting, counseling, commanding or inducing the commission of an offense, is subject to the same punishment as the principal defendant under Federal law).

See how that works? This guy said something pretty tasteless on the internet without really thinking about it. Just like you just did, was he stupid? Certainly but he is no criminal and shouldn't have been arrested, I would agree a search of him and his property would have been a sensible precaution to see if he had any stockpiles of ammunition or weapons. Maybe see if he had any odd outfits or written plans or "manifestos" and anything else unusual, he did not deserve to be arrested or to be given such an extraordinary bail fee.

(The FBI thing is not serious, just making the point how easy it can be to say something someone can inadvertently or deliberately take offense to and report as a crime threat)

well, if you aren't, then I am, because I am a concerned citizen and will report every crime I see on the internets because the internets is a serious place and everyone must be 100% serious ALL THE TIMES.

Obviously major_chaos is a a criminal if he is telling people ways to destroy and deface currency, and he should be punished for it just like how the 'brain dead kid' he keeps talking about.


TERRORISM BE DAMNED, WE NEED TO MAKE THE INTERNETS A SAFE PLACE FOR KIDS AND CATS.

Dammit, the FBI are coming for me now. Failing to report a crime is also a crime So by not reporting this evil person that could damage the economy (just what was he thinking saying things like that with everything the way it is right now?) in a terroristic fashion I broke the law too.

 

[Jadak]

Relevant section:

One of Carter's interlocutors felt differently. A Canadian national took a screenshot of Carter's post and sent it to the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association, a nonprofit which collects anonymous tips regarding possible criminal activity and passes them along to the police. According to the organization's official site, Crime Stoppers pays out rewards of up to $2,000 to anyone whose tip leads to an arrest.

Personally I feel that, if she did get paid, this Crime Stoppers Organisation should revoke her finder's fee. Or the family should sue for damages far exceeding a paltry $2000.

I really rather hope they didn't pay it in the first place and that they don't actually do that. "Leads to a conviction/fine/some confirmation of guilt" might be more appropriate.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

-He said something really REALLY stupid.
-He is an adult, thus I do not pity him.
-Jail time? No. But a psychiatrist would go a long way.
-Why I do not pity him? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_school_shooting To me this was far worse than any terrorist attack that we know of so far. So his "joke" went beyond tasteless.

What!?!?!?!!?!

Five kids dying in a school shooting is worse than 9/11 or the Oklahoma City bombing, or any other terrorist attack around the world that claimed more lives than that.

You need perspective.

At the most the LoL guy deserved brief suspension from the game, and someone to say that he should ease up on the dark jokes on the internet. But a psychiatrist, that is overreacting.

 

[Whytewulf]

I say this every time but this pisses me off so bad. Ruin a kids life for a comment that is clearly not serious.
Its not even worth looking into beyond checking the comments prior and after if even that.

...

He might be guilty under some bizarre interpretation of the law but then again we are all felons under those kind of standard

To some extent I agree, but then again, we are held accountable for our words and actions. How do you know he was not serious? Who is going to be the one to make the call to ignore it and then he goes to a school and does the unthinkable, because he got broken. Maybe this is a wake up call for everyone who posts silly things on the web, thinking there will not be consequences. It's kind of like speeding, yep probably 75% of the drivers are speeding, and only one gets pulled over, most slow down. Right or wrong, I think they did over do it, but let's not claim he is 100% innocent in this.

 

[Campaigner]

When I was a kid and watched a lot of TV, I used to look up to the US. I believed that sovjet was an evil, oppressive regime and that the US was the good guy with a strong justice system.

I stopped thinking that way long ago. I made the right choice.


This "terrorism" paranoia the US have is used to force all kinds of rightrestrictions on the world!

 

[DragonStorm247]

When I was a kid and watched a lot of TV, I used to look up to the US. I believed that sovjet was an evil, oppressive regime and that the US was the good guy with a strong justice system.

I stopped thinking that way long ago. I made the right choice.


This "terrorism" paranoia the US have is used to force all kinds of rightrestrictions on the world!

That might have actually been true once. But in the last decade I'm realizing that we lost the War on Terror.

 

[Miss G.]

When I was a kid and watched a lot of TV, I used to look up to the US. I believed that sovjet was an evil, oppressive regime and that the US was the good guy with a strong justice system.

I stopped thinking that way long ago. I made the right choice.


This "terrorism" paranoia the US have is used to force all kinds of rightrestrictions on the world!

We have a lot of American television channels available in The Bahamas and I used to think relatively well of our US neighbors when I was growing up, watching the cartoons on Saturday mornings. I only came here for school last year and now I'm hoping I can leave for home (or Australia and then home) as quickly and unscathed as possible. It's downright scary what they do here sometimes. I think they should omit the whole 'justice, freedom etc.' if they can't even be bothered to uphold it with its own people. I don't know who it is they're trying to fool but it certainly isn't me.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

"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."

The first time I saw this story it was reported he ended the 'threat' with "LoL JK." Was that incorrect?

He did. People have just been carelessly omitting it.

Even without that addition, the whole thing is just dripping with sarcasm. Who else thinks the investigator for this case should be fired on grounds of incompetency?

I'm no scientist, but I find it's always jackass District Attorneys trying to move up in the District Attorney world who wind up prosecuting stuff like this.

Perhaps. But someone looked at this and made the judgement call, "Looks like teh terror to me, let's arrest his ass." That person is either incompetent or malicious, either way they should not be in the position to be able to do this.

Personally I would've arrested him too. Terrorism isn't something to dismiss so readily. But locking him up in a police cell while they searched his room/house and analysed exactly what he said, as well as an interrogation would have sufficed.

And he would have learned a good lesson out of it too.

There's a difference between "come down to the station so we can do a quick search and ask you some questions" and an actual arrest, throwing him in a cell with actual criminals.

And what lesson is that? "Don't say anything ever?" I believe that's a terrible lesson.

Like I said, terrorism is serious. You don't "ask" a potential terrorist to "come down to the station".

If someone told you they were gonna shoot up a school full of children would you ask them to go down to the station and turn themselves in?

And the lesson is; don't say dumb shit.

That's not what I said. It's not calling you and asking you to drive over there, its showing up at your doorstep and saying "We need to ask you some questions, come with us." Holding someone in a police station is very different from holding them in prison.

By the way, since when did we as a society start placing Columbine and 9/11 in the same category? "Terrorist" has just become a broad label used to incite justification for extreme measures at this point.

Who said anything about "calling" someone and asking them?

I also said myself that he should have been kept in a police cell too. Go back and look if you don't believe me.

All I'm saying is that an arrest was a good call in my opinion. Nothing "incompetent" or "malicious" about arresting someone who is said to be a potential terrorist. Bear in mind that these police acted on the words of the Canadian women who reported it, who most likely forgot to mention the fact that he said "lol jk" afterwards.

For holding him at the station for a day of investigation as you described, you would be right. Extreme, but arguably rational.

However, when you say "arrest" bear in mind that is a different thing entirely. Arrest is what they actually did; take him to prison and lock him away to await trial. When I speak of incompetence, I refer to this. What they should have done was look him up, look over the comments and the conversation, maybe hold him in the station for a day and search his house, and then let him go when they find no evidence. An investigator who goes into this, sees the circumstances and lack of evidence, and still thinks its an actual threat that necessitates long term incarceration, is frankly a sh*tty investigator.

By arrest I meant take him to the police station to be detained.

It obviously has a slightly different meaning where you're from. But the act of arresting someone to my knowledge doesn't involve shipping them off to prison for a lengthy amount of time.

Do they really take people straight to prison where you're from? I thought criminals (or potential criminals) are taken straight to a police station for questioning?

Anyway, I'm sick of semantics. We agree that this kid got shafted unfairly.

 

[Whytewulf]

When I was a kid and watched a lot of TV, I used to look up to the US. I believed that sovjet was an evil, oppressive regime and that the US was the good guy with a strong justice system.

I stopped thinking that way long ago. I made the right choice.


This "terrorism" paranoia the US have is used to force all kinds of rightrestrictions on the world!

And where did you go? Also talk to a few people in Russia about how free they are? Maybe talk to an all female band recently jailed. Or their treatment of gays? The US isn't perfect and the US makes mistakes, but our media is so HUGE and sensationalize everything, it get's huge amounts of attention. Maybe the US can learn from this a bit.

 

[DragonStorm247]

"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."

The first time I saw this story it was reported he ended the 'threat' with "LoL JK." Was that incorrect?

He did. People have just been carelessly omitting it.

Even without that addition, the whole thing is just dripping with sarcasm. Who else thinks the investigator for this case should be fired on grounds of incompetency?

I'm no scientist, but I find it's always jackass District Attorneys trying to move up in the District Attorney world who wind up prosecuting stuff like this.

Perhaps. But someone looked at this and made the judgement call, "Looks like teh terror to me, let's arrest his ass." That person is either incompetent or malicious, either way they should not be in the position to be able to do this.

Personally I would've arrested him too. Terrorism isn't something to dismiss so readily. But locking him up in a police cell while they searched his room/house and analysed exactly what he said, as well as an interrogation would have sufficed.

And he would have learned a good lesson out of it too.

There's a difference between "come down to the station so we can do a quick search and ask you some questions" and an actual arrest, throwing him in a cell with actual criminals.

And what lesson is that? "Don't say anything ever?" I believe that's a terrible lesson.

Like I said, terrorism is serious. You don't "ask" a potential terrorist to "come down to the station".

If someone told you they were gonna shoot up a school full of children would you ask them to go down to the station and turn themselves in?

And the lesson is; don't say dumb shit.

That's not what I said. It's not calling you and asking you to drive over there, its showing up at your doorstep and saying "We need to ask you some questions, come with us." Holding someone in a police station is very different from holding them in prison.

By the way, since when did we as a society start placing Columbine and 9/11 in the same category? "Terrorist" has just become a broad label used to incite justification for extreme measures at this point.

Who said anything about "calling" someone and asking them?

I also said myself that he should have been kept in a police cell too. Go back and look if you don't believe me.

All I'm saying is that an arrest was a good call in my opinion. Nothing "incompetent" or "malicious" about arresting someone who is said to be a potential terrorist. Bear in mind that these police acted on the words of the Canadian women who reported it, who most likely forgot to mention the fact that he said "lol jk" afterwards.

For holding him at the station for a day of investigation as you described, you would be right. Extreme, but arguably rational.

However, when you say "arrest" bear in mind that is a different thing entirely. Arrest is what they actually did; take him to prison and lock him away to await trial. When I speak of incompetence, I refer to this. What they should have done was look him up, look over the comments and the conversation, maybe hold him in the station for a day and search his house, and then let him go when they find no evidence. An investigator who goes into this, sees the circumstances and lack of evidence, and still thinks its an actual threat that necessitates long term incarceration, is frankly a sh*tty investigator.

By arrest I meant take him to the police station to be detained.

It obviously has a slightly different meaning where you're from. But the act of arresting someone to my knowledge doesn't involve shipping them off to prison for a lengthy amount of time.

Do they really take people straight to prison where you're from? I thought criminals (or potential criminals) are taken straight to a police station for questioning?

Anyway, I'm sick of semantics. We agree that this kid got shafted unfairly.

Usually they detain you at the station first. The actual arrest is when they stick a charge on you later (ie arrested for assault). That's when they read you your rights and such.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

When I was a kid and watched a lot of TV, I used to look up to the US. I believed that sovjet was an evil, oppressive regime and that the US was the good guy with a strong justice system.

I stopped thinking that way long ago. I made the right choice.


This "terrorism" paranoia the US have is used to force all kinds of rightrestrictions on the world!

And where did you go? Also talk to a few people in Russia about how free they are? Maybe talk to an all female band recently jailed. Or their treatment of gays? The US isn't perfect and the US makes mistakes, but our media is so HUGE and sensationalize everything, it get's huge amounts of attention. Maybe the US can learn from this a bit.

I wholeheartedly agree with this man. Russia is the country that just tried (and found guilty) a man who has been dead for four years for exposing their corruption.

This whole thing is stupid, at worst the guy needed a ban from the game. I've said worse to my friends and similar online. Still, it warms my heart that someone donated so much of their own money and asked for not even recognition in return.

 

[Coles_Law]

The "eat their still-beating hearts" part may well be what saves him. To me, that's what pushes his statement to the realm of the absurd. (Though Jeffery Dahmer would be an exception to that rule there).

 

[Pebkio]

That's a very tricky issue. If she only did it for the money (worse still, if she was fully aware of the sarcastic context), a suit might very well be justified. If she was simply a concerned (if severely ignorant) citizen then ... I suppose you are right, she should not be punished. But in either case I do not think should be rewarded for this either. Crimestoppers should ask her to return the money.

Possibly, but again, it was up to the authorities to act with care and precision when they arrested someone who was reported. Do you know how many people report on someone -daily- just to get the money? And they don't get paid. Anyone anywhere can report, but if the people in charge decide to act on the report, then yes, pay them no matter the outcome because they did some work that was used. And that's fine because everyone has their own take on life.

That's why having the right people in charge is so key, so important, because we have to put all of our faith on them, to best decide which reports to follow and which to ignore. And to be honest, I don't think there's anything sinister here, just an overreaction on everyone's part. Which is why I have no sympathy for this kid: everyone is in hyper "scared of everything" mode and this idiot doesn't have the wherewithall to tone his shit down.

Edit: She didn't tell the police to jail the kid... she didn't tell the judge to set a $500,000 bail... all she did was collect up info on a potentially dangerous situation involving an apparent crazy person and gave it to the authorities.

 

[Pebkio]

If they can prove to a jury that the report was done specifically for the cash reward, the Canadian in question should be on the hook for ruining a kid's life. IF this is the case, they should take the loons away from the loon.

See above: she didn't have it set up for the kid to be jailed for so long. She didn't set the bail money.

And as an added bonus, STILL not her responsibility even if she knew about the sarcasm. The kid did something so very stupid as to set himself up for massive problems and someone took advantage. It happens, and it happens more often the more you expose yourself to danger. I don't go around saying stuff like that, or any dangerous anything... and especially not to strangers.

Btw... everyone who's my friend but just on the internet: Still a stranger.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

Why? Just.. why? You know Mr. good Samaritan $500,000 can do a lot of things, buy you a new TV, feed the poor, make a giant fire if you get it all in singles, hell just roll it up and smoke that shit just to show how rich you are, anything is a more noble cause than getting this braindead little shit out of jail.

Congratulations on insulting the entire gaming community. If you were to make a stupid petty mistake and thrown in jail sentenced to nearly a decade of time, I hope people broadcasts your post to the rest of the public over and over to prevent donations.

 

[JarinArenos]

No! Absolutely not! Well, sue the Attorney General and his office, sure, but you should NEVER make it punishable to be careful about crazy people. Anybody should be able to point out a potentially dangerous person and it's up to the authorities to act with discresion.

Ehhh... fine, okay, that's a fair argument. The AG should still have known better. Arrest and scare the kid, sure. But this is just a massive waste of money and permanent damage to a kid for a moment of stupidity.

 

[DragonStorm247]

Which is why I have no sympathy for this kid: everyone is in hyper "scared of everything" mode and this idiot doesn't have the wherewithall to tone his shit down.

That shouldn't matter though. Just because something makes people (even if its a lot of people) uncomfortable, that doesn't mean you can silence it. I cannot accept the "too soon" argument; people process and move on at different rates, and you can't punish someone just because you feel sore. That's not justice.

Was it distasteful? Perhaps. If you believe that justifies this outcome you are being petty and unjust.

Was it stupid? I say not nearly as much as people are claiming; if this is your excuse for his incarceration, know that there are people far more influential who demonstrate much greater idiocy on a frequent basis. I ask why you prioritize Justin Carter over Todd Akin?

Was it a threat? The answer here is fairly clear. We have seen no evidence to support these charges, with every piece of information indicating his innocence. So then how is this even remotely justified?

 

[Siege_TF]

I wish someone threw you in jail for something stupid you said when you were a kid, and locked you up in solitary confinement with no light of day and no human interaction for months going on years. And I want you to read forum posts of people mocking you and calling you a braindead little shit. Maybe then you'll realize exactly how you sound right now.

Yea, I would feel really stupid for having been a braindead little shit. Hell that's already how I look back on almost everything I did before I was 17. Although somehow I never did say I was going to kill anyone, or rape their mother, or beat them like a n*****, its almost like I never thought the internet gave me an excuse to stop acting like a functioning human being and turn into a howling neanderthal.

Except for on the eleventh of July, 2013. I suggest reigning in your own toxicity if you want to be taken seriously.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

If they actually convict this guy, we may as well just blow up the planet because why bother anymore.

 

[Miss G.]

Which is why I have no sympathy for this kid: everyone is in hype "scared of everything" mode and this idiot doesn't have the wherewithall to tone his shit down.

I agree that he shouldn't have made the joke but I still feel bad for him on the grounds that his father said the kid doesn't pay attention to news and didn't know about the whole Sandy-Hook incident. I can understand because I don't pay attention to news much myself, if at all, and learned about it later from my own dad (and had to look it up on news sites) just like all the other recent shootings and even the Boston Bombing. But that's mostly because if my television is on at all its either because I'm using my PS3 or its tuned to HGTV, NatGeo Wild (or TRUTV for when World's Dumbest is on). And because if I don't step outside I can forget I'm not back in my home country where this brand of crazy stuff doesn't happen.

My real problem is that the entire thing is OUT OF CONTEXT!!!!! IF you look at the entire conversation he was just shooting the shit and talking about a suicide run in IN A FUCKING GAME that would have been almost a sure fire way to lose. He was basically planning a Leroy Jenkins. Someone called him crazy and that was his response......

That is like taking the sentence "I want to stab that guy 100 times with my spy before he puts that fucking turret down again!!" Then just taking "I want to stab that guy..." and charging that person with attempted murder.

I'm kinda lazy with checking on Facebook, is there any sort of link to the full conversation?