Student Arrested And Charged With 'Terrorizing' For Shooting Classmates... With An iPhone App
from the reportedly,-assailant-also-made-'pew-pew-pew'-noises-with-his-mouth dept
Much like non-terroristic threats are now the new terroristic threats, in today's climate of zero tolerance policies, fake weapons have become the new real weapons. Pop tart bitten into a vaguely gun-ish shape? That's a weapon. Fingers clasped together in a gun-like fashion? That's a weapon. Drawing of a gun? That's a weapon. And now, virtual, video-game, only-appear-on-a-powered-up-iPhone guns? Those are weapons.
In a story that sounds as absolutely made-up and ridiculous as the name of the high school at which it occurred (which I would love to believe is a mashup of H.L. Mencken and the upper middle class twits he would have tweaked bitterly and mercilessly), a student has been arrested for "shooting" his classmates with an augmented reality app. NO. I AM SERIOUS.
A student at H. L. Bourgeois High School accused of using a mobile phone app to simulate shooting his classmates was booked and jailed in Terrebonne Parish.There's no part of that preceding sentence that isn't mind-flayingly ridiculous. Want to see how lifelike this "simulation" is? Here's some "exciting" video of the app (Real Strike) in action.
If you'll note, the other mall patrons don't seem the least bit alarmed that someone is firing off round after virtual round at them with an iPhone. In fact, everyone looks completely unaware, not to mention unscathed. I suppose it might be a bit more unsettling if this were uploaded and publicly viewable [oh wait...], but the emphasis is on "a bit." Unless you're Major Malcolm Wolfe of the Terrebonne Sheriff's Department.
[Major Malcolm] Wolfe's office says a 15-year-old was arrested after posting a video on YouTube using the Real Strike app to shoot other kids at school, “He said it was a result of him being frustrated and tired of being bullied. He said that he had no intentions of hurting anybody. We have to take all threats seriously and we have no way of knowing that without investigating and getting to the bottom of it.”Wolfe says "investigating," but nothing else in his statements indicates any sort of investigation has taken place. As for the charges, they seem disproportionate, to say the least. No one was terrorized or interfered with while the video was being recorded. After the video was uploaded, there still wasn't much "terrorizing" or "interfering" occurring. People were being not being physically shot by an arsenal of fake weapons contained entirely within a kid's cell phone, nor were they being threatened in any specific sense. Just because it was (temporarily) uploaded to YouTube doesn't suddenly make the "shooting" more "real."
He says the student was arrested for terrorizing and interference of the operation of a school.
Here's the actual wording for Louisiana's "terrorizing" statute, not much of which seems to fit the student's actions.
§40.1. TerrorizingThat's a whole lot of time served and a hefty fine for playing an iPhone game. It's going to be pretty hard for a prosecutor to make this stick as none of the above really applies to the teen's actions. Some concerned parents contacted the authorities after viewing the video, but it's hard to believe the student's actions resulted in creating "sustained fear" or a "serious disruption." The school wasn't evacuated or put on lock down so other than someone in administration overreacting (and there's no details suggesting anyone has), there's really no "interference" there.
A. Terrorizing is the intentional communication of information that the commission of a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist, with the intent of causing members of the general public to be in sustained fear for their safety; or causing evacuation of a building, a public structure, or a facility of transportation; or causing other serious disruption to the general public.
B. It shall be an affirmative defense that the person communicating the information provided for in Subsection A of this Section was not involved in the commission of a crime of violence or creation of a circumstance dangerous to human life and reasonably believed his actions were necessary to protect the welfare of the public.
C. Whoever commits the offense of terrorizing shall be fined not more than fifteen thousand dollars or imprisoned with or without hard labor for not more than fifteen years, or both.
But I guess this all depends on whether the prosecutor is as easily moved to overreaction as the Sheriff's Department is. Wolfe sounds overly worried. Let's hope that's not contagious.
“You can’t ignore it,” says Major Malcolm Wolfe. “We don’t know at what time that game becomes reality.”I don't know, Maj. Wolfe, but I'll try to guess. It becomes reality when the student has access to 25 military-grade weapons? Or access to any weapons? The willingness and ability to actually gun down his classmates with real weapons? His parents stated their son didn't have access to any guns. But still: safety.
Here's the money quote, the one that indicates that "safety" means overreacting.
“With all the school shooting (sic) we’ve had in the United States, it’s just not a very good game to be playing at this time,” according to Wolfe.With all the school shootings? As a member of law enforcement, it might do Wolfe some good to exchange his hysteria for facts. The number of mass shootings (school or otherwise) isn't rising. Just because something happened recently doesn't mean it's increasing and just because you want to arrest a kid for exercising a little non-violent catharsis doesn't make this belief any more true.
And for all the tough talk by school districts and other authority figures about fighting bullying, it's the bullied kid who ends up in cuffs. Nice one, Team Safety First.
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Filed Under: arrests, augmented reality, kids, overreaction, police, terror
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This is...
This is what our country has become.
The land of the watched and home of the cowardly.
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Re: This is...
So we either grow a set or agree to have them removed.
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I hope the kid wind the mandatory lawsuits and this moron loses his job in law enforcement.
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When police in D.C. can make threats at the First Lady and still not be arrested, you think anything will happen?
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Teen's Joke 'Threat' Lands Him In Solitary; While Cop Saying He Wants To 'Kill' The First Lady Walks Free
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130709/18282723752/teens-joking-threat-lands-him-solitary -confinement-cop-says-he-wants-to-kill-first-lady-walks-free.shtml
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Why it is necessary to suspend or kick students out
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Re: Why it is necessary to suspend or kick students out
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Re: Why it is necessary to suspend or kick students out
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Re: Why it is necessary to suspend or kick students out
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The terrorists are winning.
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Re: The Real Michael
The robber barons won a long, long time ago. Welcome to the new dark ages
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Wouldn't this mean that whenever the government tells the public about terrorist threats, that should be considered terrorizing?
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So yeah, not really.
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Remember kids, don't touch that fire alarm, even if the school's on fire!
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"It shall be an affirmative defense that the person communicating the information provided for in Subsection A of this Section was not involved in the... creation of a circumstance dangerous to human life and..."
Except if you read this carefully, if the student (or teacher) accidentally set that fire, he's still on the hook if he pulls that alarm. The law states that the communication of information must be intentional, but the affirmative defense does NOT state anything about intentionally creating the circumstances.
And he cannot tell someone ELSE to pull the fire alarm, or even tell anyone about the fire, because then he would be communicating information causing evacuation/disruption/fear for safety.
What's the point of electing all these lawyers to public office if they can't even get the laws right?
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that is about the ONLY way we can roll back this bullshit: people standing together and simply saying "NO!, we're not putting up with this bullshit any longer..."
unless/until we sheeple bare our fangs and bark back, The They (tm) will keep ratcheting down the strictures...
TAKE BACK our country, TAKE BACK our freedoms, RESTORE the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and shove those motherfucking eagles up The Man's butt...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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The emphasis is mine. Since they believe that it's in the welfare of the public, no law was broken.
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Ah, those crazy kids...
I mean where do they get these ideas. That it is OK to be upset or even GOD FORBID angry because someone treated you unpleasantly.
Next time you just need to write in your diary is only the most vague terms that people are upsetting you and that you are sad by this, otherwise you will be upset by the amount of time you spend in jail.
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Reaping years of ever-inflating "terrorism" definition
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Bang! Bang! You're Dead!
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Sorry here's the link...
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Guilty as charged...
Excuse me while I become a fugitive from the law.
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Re: Guilty as charged...
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https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/real-strike-original-3d-augmented/id507884100?mt=8
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Duh!
Did you think people who get into positions of authority were the bullied, or the bullies?
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Re: Duh!
:-(
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Hmmm. Interesting statute
IANAL. This seems like it could be used against many a police department, government agency, and media outlet. I have received a great deal of communications from these and other groups that try to keep us in a sustained state of fear so that we will comply with their desire to expand power...OMG! The terrorist have already won!
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Edukasun
Education is the barrier that we permanently separate us in our new two class system... Those with private school education and those doomed and damned by the Public Schools...
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*Whoop ... Whoop* Retard Alert - Retard Alert
Now we'll have to excise a larger portion of the population in order to control the spread of this insidious cancer called "lunacy-incredulitis" that has obviously spread.
Nuke em from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
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Correction, Major Malcolm Wolfe: You don't know that the game DOES become a reality.
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It helps with that feeling of impotence
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Thank goodness we have guys like this looking after our safety. I would have looked at this game and said "It's just a video game."
Luckily, he has the foresight to think ahead to a time when video games start to leak out of our devices and become reality. Or, we enter some kind of virtual reality in which these games BECOME the reality and can actually do some real physical harm.
I thought all that kind of thing was just science-fiction, but I suppose like the Star Trek communicator, we should really be worried about science-fiction turning into science.
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On the fence about this
The sheriff's department, on the other hand, are completely blowing this out of proportion. "Terrorizing"? Really? Maybe if he was trying to intimidate everyone who was bullying him by posting the video to YouTube, but I kinda doubt it.
Maybe if the guns in the app fired lasers instead of bullets we wouldn't have this problem.
I highly doubt this kid will be get convicted, but who knows these days.
As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."
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BS
Just a thought..
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This kind of logic that law enforcement around the world is taking, this retrograde stance totaly divorced from the reality, is as bad as those troll patent firms that go after consumers of printers because they were infringing the patent by not licencing it. And should be dealt in the same way.
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Already in a dystopia.
Then, the police look for answers everywhere except for the scene of the crime. They end up blaming triggers instead of our culture of stress and fear.
The victims end up as super victims, and we don't care. Cheating, bullying, and fear-mongering win here. We're already in a dystopia. We aren't much different than the world in this show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Pass
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Re: Already in a dystopia.
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(I would say extradition, but that's not descriptive enough)
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Retarded
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"I'm crushing your head"
and equally harmless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwlAvsPvPfg
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“We don’t know at what time that game becomes reality.”
I don't know, Maj. Wolfe, but I'll try to guess. It becomes reality when the student has access to 25 military-grade weapons? Or access to any weapons? The willingness and ability to actually gun down his classmates with real weapons?
Pretty much anyone who is old enough to understand a Looney Tunes cartoon is able to differentiate fantasy from reality (with few exceptions, such as Major Wolfe). Even young children playing FPSes rated well outside their age range (e.g. M for Mature) can tell the difference between a COD title and picking up an AR-15. There's a certain gravity to real weapons much like that of walking close to an unprotected ledge.
We're seeing more and more increased liquifaction of the law, as the police are more forgiving of its own missteps and so of the public's, where it's become acceptable to incarcerate someone just in case something is dangerous or an indicator of crimethought, rather than being an actual crime.
It is already the tolerated norm, but for internet reprisal. I expect it's already being abused to harrass people who are disfavored by those in power. Oh, wait...
As of this posting I have not received a US National Security Letter or any classified gag order from an agent of the United States
Encrypted with Morbius-Cochrane Perfect Steganographic Codec 1.2.001
Monday, September 16, 2013 11:10:09 AM
soldier napkin kitchen guitar jealousy mole stardom blanket
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Do not target at innocent people or animals who are not aware of this app.
Notice that second part. Once my pets become aware of this app... I'm in much bigger trouble than firing an augmented reality weapon. :)
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/sarcasm. I really do not condone the actions of the school or Sheriff in this case.
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Welcome to the New World Order
We are becoming a police state, big brother is everywhere. We are no longer a free society. As George Bush Sr put it, "where law and order will abide". Welcome to the New World Order! We are now programmed to believe whatever they want us to believe! America can't even see it's own demise!
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Speak English & no you're not allowed to redefine it
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