Teen Justin Carter Jailed In Texas After Making Sarcastic Threat In Facebook Comment

[cali]

and threat should be in quotation marks. I'm so sick of this idiocy. The kid has been in jail since the end of March

Maybe it's time the Internet adopted a "sarcasm" tag to alert readers to the use of irony in online conversation, and, hopefully, avoid situations like that of Justin Carter, a Texas teenager who has been in jail since February over a Facebook comment that failed to make a woman in Canada LOL.

Earlier this year, Carter and a friend got into an Facebook argument with someone regarding "League of Legends," an online video game with notoriously die-hard fans. Justin's father, Jack, explained to ABC local affiliate KVUE that at the end of the conversation "[s]omeone had said something to the effect of 'Oh you're insane, you're crazy, you're messed up in the head,’ to which [Justin] replied 'Oh yeah, 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,’ and the next two lines were lol and jk [all sic]."

In case you've never been online before today: Internet shorthand LOL stands for "laughing out loud"; JK means "just kidding."

A woman in Canada who came across the boy's post failed to see the humor, however, and alerted police after Internet research revealed Carter, who was 18 at the time of the incident, lived near an elementary school. Carter was taken into custody and charged with making a "terroristic" threat.

<snip>

In the meantime, Carter, now 19, faces up to eight years in prison. His trial is scheduled to begin July 1.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/27/teenager-justin-carter-facebook-comment-jail_n_3512025.html

[cali]

1. this is so crazy. More:

<snip>

In an exclusive interview, Michael Byrne of FreetoPlay.tv spoke to Jennifer Carter, Justin's mother, who explained the traumatic ordeal that her son continues to endure:

"He’s had a pretty rough time in jail. He’s never been in any kind of trouble before and hes not really familiar with the criminal world. Yeah, so he’s been transferred quite a few times after being assaulted in jail. They keep switching him from unit to unit and apparently, after the last time he was assaulted, the guards were concerned that he would try and kill himself and they placed him in solitary for his own protection."

Carter's hearing is on Monday, July 1; he is currently being held under federal felony terrorism charges.

According to his mother, neither Justin or his family had firearms in their possession when their homes were searched by police officers.

As a father and former teacher, I understand completely the fear and strength of emotions surrounding any threats towards children--particularly those in the manner that Carter made. However, those comments currently see a 19 year old, who appeared to make a poor choice in humor, facing a legal system pressing for his imprisonment for a minimum of eight years.

<snip>

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32644

[FourScore]

2. I'm sure the parents of the Newtown victims thought it was HILARIOUS! nt

[cali]

3. it was a bad joke but he's being charged for making a terrorist threat

and that's just ridiculous.

[JoeyT]

4. Doesn't matter what they think is funny.

What matters is if it's a credible threat, and anyone with a lick of sense can see that it isn't. I don't care if every person in the country is shocked and appalled by it, it still isn't a "terroristic threat".

[petronius]

5. Well, I certainly feel safer with this terrorist in custody!

Wait for it...


Wait for it...


Can you guess what's next?


That's right!





I think there should be serious repercussions against the police officers, prosecutors, and anyone else involved in making the decision to pursue this - and in my ideal world we'd be able to extradite that shit-stirring Canadian and have her serve the same amount of time this mouthy kid has...