Internet troll jailed after mocking deaths of teenagers

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phil777
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18 Sep 2011, 1:46 pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/1 ... -teenagers

Apparently, they said Duffy has Asperger's syndrome, but lives out a "miserable existence" from drinking, and being solitary. =/

I personnally like to troll as well, but not about such delicate subjects, it really shows bad taste.



Woodpecker
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18 Sep 2011, 2:25 pm

This distasteful case of trolling has already been discussed in another thread

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp4012827 ... t=#4012827 which is entitled "'Troll' sentenced for post death messages",

I think that the conduct of this troll is disgusting. I do not care if he has AS, NT or alphabet soup his conduct caused grave distress and upset to people. I think he is the modern version of a person who writes poison pen letters to the family of a dead person.


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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity :alien: I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.


ruveyn
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18 Sep 2011, 3:11 pm

Woodpecker wrote:
This distasteful case of trolling has already been discussed in another thread

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp4012827 ... t=#4012827 which is entitled "'Troll' sentenced for post death messages",

I think that the conduct of this troll is disgusting. I do not care if he has AS, NT or alphabet soup his conduct caused grave distress and upset to people. I think he is the modern version of a person who writes poison pen letters to the family of a dead person.


Disgusting behavior to be sure. But is it a crime if there is no threat issued?

ruveyn



AtticusKane
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18 Sep 2011, 3:42 pm

Should the kids' families form a posse and go kick the living s**t out of him? Absolutely. Should the legal system get involved at all? This shouldn't even be a question. That a judge even has the opportunity to impose punishment on him for this, is a blatant violation of the 1st amendment and completely obscene.

Almost as wrong as the kid was in the first place....



Mindslave
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18 Sep 2011, 4:16 pm

AtticusKane wrote:
Should the kids' families form a posse and go kick the living s**t out of him? Absolutely. Should the legal system get involved at all? This shouldn't even be a question. That a judge even has the opportunity to impose punishment on him for this, is a blatant violation of the 1st amendment and completely obscene.

Almost as wrong as the kid was in the first place....


Probably the whole point is to eventually curb freedom of speech on the Internet. Cyberterrorism, online bullying, all we need is one more excuse and that will be enough to censor the Web.



Tequila
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18 Sep 2011, 4:19 pm

The other point is here that the media are twisting the meaning of the word 'troll'. It never meant anything like this before the meeja idiots decided it meant something else entirely.

What this guy did wasn't trolling (winding some people up on a message board) but going out of one's way to be as deliberately hurtful as possible.

I think two things though:

a) He never would have gone to the deceased girl's family and said those things because, well, I wonder why?
b) I don't think he should have been prosecuted for it. It's an unpopular view but there are privacy settings on tribute page websites (and Faceache) for a reason. Use them.



MotherKnowsBest
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18 Sep 2011, 5:30 pm

AtticusKane wrote:
Should the kids' families form a posse and go kick the living s**t out of him? Absolutely. Should the legal system get involved at all? This shouldn't even be a question. That a judge even has the opportunity to impose punishment on him for this, is a blatant violation of the 1st amendment and completely obscene.

Almost as wrong as the kid was in the first place....


Only if you are in America, which neither he, nor the families he targeted, nor the judge were.



AtticusKane
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18 Sep 2011, 5:49 pm

MotherKnowsBest wrote:
AtticusKane wrote:
Should the kids' families form a posse and go kick the living s**t out of him? Absolutely. Should the legal system get involved at all? This shouldn't even be a question. That a judge even has the opportunity to impose punishment on him for this, is a blatant violation of the 1st amendment and completely obscene.

Almost as wrong as the kid was in the first place....


Only if you are in America, which neither he, nor the families he targeted, nor the judge were.


Good point haha. Tho the general concept applies to every human, regardless of local law.



MotherKnowsBest
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18 Sep 2011, 6:07 pm

AtticusKane wrote:
MotherKnowsBest wrote:
AtticusKane wrote:
Should the kids' families form a posse and go kick the living s**t out of him? Absolutely. Should the legal system get involved at all? This shouldn't even be a question. That a judge even has the opportunity to impose punishment on him for this, is a blatant violation of the 1st amendment and completely obscene.

Almost as wrong as the kid was in the first place....


Only if you are in America, which neither he, nor the families he targeted, nor the judge were.


Good point haha. Tho the general concept applies to every human, regardless of local law.


I disagree. Different societies have different standards of what they deem acceptable and in a democracy the laws reflect society's views. American society deems freedom of speech absolute(ish). European society deems freedom of speech a right that has to be carefully balanced against other people's right to not have to listen. Different cultures = different norms.



AtticusKane
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18 Sep 2011, 6:42 pm

Unless he hacked their computers and plastered the insults all over their desktops, they didnt HAVE to listen. And like I said. Kid shoulda got his ass beat. Tho I guess a few weeks of jail is, ahem, arguably "reasonable" in this case, freedom is not something that gets taken away for being a jerk. If that was the case, every as*hole in the world should be in jail. It's not logical.



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18 Sep 2011, 8:39 pm

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Perhaps getting his name and picture in the newspapers will haunt him for years to come. I hear that employers now regularly google the names of job applicants.



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19 Sep 2011, 7:58 am

Hi, Everyone, From what I read, he didn't write anything, but rather altered images of dead teen-agers for the purpose of hurting their families further. An image is registered instantaneously, there is no opportunity to avoid recagnizing what you have seen. One girl was accidentally killed by a shotgun blast; Mr. Duffy sent a picture of her face, with bullet holes added. One girl threw herself under a train because she couldn't stand being bullied; he sent a picture of Thomas The Train, with her face on the front of the engine. He was not expressing opinions, he was laughing at their deaths, using the internet to hurt people, degrading memories of their loved ones. If this is freedom of speech, what is he saying? Seriously,what did he ever say that his message was? One thing established years ago is that unless someone can be categorized as a celebrity, there is a right to privacy. Regarding whether a crime was comitted, wasn't this an emotional attack? The courts are recognizing bullying as a crime. The reason this case has been brought up is that his lawyer says that he has Asperger's. I see nothing in deliberate malicious behaviour that has anything to do with Asperger's. Nor his claimed alcoholism, though there are plenty of people who get mean when they're drunk. Most of THEM are more likely to punch someone than create an elaborate internet image, targeting people already in pain. Sylkat :x