IL: Yet another Facebook confrontation gets out of hand

[seamusTX]

In Normal, Illinois, Friday five shotgun rounds were fired into a home. Sunday a 20-year-old man was arrested and admitted to the shootings, which evolved from a confrontation on Facebook.

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/cr ... 03286.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



- Jim

[paulhailes]

Sounds like Normal facebook conversations get pretty violent

[Keith B]

It can get that way. And, it can get violent.

My daughter was being cyber-bullied by a girl who had been a friend, but got mad because my daughter went out with a boy the other girl had broken up with 6 months prior. They were not even trying to get back together, but the other girl was one of those 'If I can't have him, then no one can' types.

Anyway, my daughter started getting nasty text messages, harassing phone calls, and derogatory Facebook posts. These violated the Texas Online Harassment law. We advised her to tell the girl to stop or the incidents would be reported to the authorities.

They ceased for about 2 days, and started up again. One of the Facebook posts included a threat by a friend of the girl to help beat my daughter up. Now, knowing this girl and her friend, we totally knew this was just mouthing, but it still pushed the line way over and became a felony violation.

The next day, my daughter got a nasty note stuck to her windshield of her car at school and someone witnessed the girl placing it there. This was now a school issue too, so we had her print out all of the Facebook posts, take those and the non-deleted text messages and voice mails to the principle in charge of discipline at the school.

He took all of the information and called the girl into the office. When he presented it to her, he advised her that she and her friend had committed a Class C felony and could be facing jail time if we pressed charges. Needless to say, this girl about came unglued and realized she was 17 and an adult that could be heading to prison for what she thought was just harmless school kid stuff. The principle told her it was up to us, but if one more incident happened he would personally call the police resource officer in and get him involved. She was also to go back and have all posts by her or others deleted on Facebook. She was also to have NO contact with my daughter AT all.

The principle called my daughter back in and asked if we wanted to press charges. My daughter told him no, as long as this stopped and the Facebook posts were removed. He told my daughter that when he told the girl that she was looking at jail time and the cards were in our hands, what little color the girl had (she is very pale skinned) left her face and she started crying). He also told my daughter if one more thing was said to her or posted, that she was to come back in and they would pursue having her expelled and turned over to the police.

Well to make a long story short, everything was erased from Facebook that night, and the next morning my daughter saw this girl in the hall. When the girl spotted my daughter, she turned around and RAN away as fast as she could to make sure not to be anywhere near her.

So, bottom line, hormonal teenagers and these types of cyber threats and fights can be a big issue, but most states have laws in effect to deal with them. http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/Tele ... fault.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[seamusTX]

It seems the currently available level of technology enables this obsessive-compulsive behavior.

Back in the day, when most people had only one land line in their house and it cost real money, there were occasional outbreaks of harassing or obscene phone calls—but they weren't common and often could be traced. Parents generally did not let their kids use the phone a lot, and certainly would not have tolerated a kid making hundreds of phone calls.

I remember one time in the 1960s the cops came and hauled away the 20-ish man who lived next door to us in handcuffs. It turned out he had been making obscene phone calls from a public phone in a drug store a couple of blocks away.

Then there were the threatening letters made from words cut out of magazines—something you see only in old movies.

Now I have heard of cases where kids send hundreds of text messages a day or engage in group cyber-bullying, as you described. They don't understand this kind of thing has consequences in real life.

- Jim

[threoh8]

She was also to go back and have all posts by her or others deleted on Facebook.

I hope your daughter saved the posts in some format. It could be useful in the future.

Also, if the posts are part of an illegal activity, could deleting them be considered destroying or tampering with evidence?

[Keith B]

She was also to go back and have all posts by her or others deleted on Facebook.

I hope your daughter saved the posts in some format. It could be useful in the future.

Also, if the posts are part of an illegal activity, could deleting them be considered destroying or tampering with evidence?

Nah, it was only illegal if we chose to press charges. Just dumb hormonal teenage girl stuff. And, we know the other girl really well and there was nothing serious going to happen with her; just running her mouth. We just wanted it to cease and desist. She was just clueless about how serious what she was doing was. When the principal told her of the consequences if we wanted to pursue it, she was scared straight. Funny thing is, they had just had an all-school bulletin about 2 weeks before on the seriousness of Cyber harassment and the implications. Goes to show how little attention teens pay to what they are being told by adults. Almost as bad as husbands not hearing anything their wife tells them.

[rp_photo]

I tend to get in a lot more confrontations online vs. face-to-face.

Almost all of my strife has been within the photography community, and so far the gun community (both online and face-to-face) has proven to be much friendlier.

[seamusTX]

I tend to get in a lot more confrontations online vs. face-to-face.

People will dish out threats and insults online that they would never dare to do in person. It seems like they will go ballistic over trivial stuff like whether Schwinn bicycles are trash or just junk.

I rarely get as much as a dirty look in person because I am mean looking. Even panhandlers tend to leave me alone unless they are brain-damaged or mentally ill.

- Jim