Moron Posts Videos Of Himself Terrorizing People With A BB Gun, Is Summarily Arrested

from the enjoy-prison,-dumbass dept

In the pantheon of dumb criminals we've covered at Techdirt, we've already handed out awards for dumbest criminal, best dumb criminal in college, and criminal with the most hubris ever. While most crimes wouldn't qualify as "funny" per se, I have to admit that I rarely am genuinely angry at any of these idiots. It's more along the lines of head-shaking and chuckling at the stupidity of it all.

But not with this guy, who somehow thought it'd be a laugh to videotape himself threatening people with a pellet gun and pretending to rob them, then uploading the videos to the internet. His victims, obviously, didn't know it wasn't a real firearm. The criminal, obviously, is a sociopath.

Twenty-one-year-old Daron Stinson is facing a host of felonies after he "pretended" to rob and shoot at frightened pedestrians with a pellet gun that looked like a handgun. In one video he points his gun at a 51-year-old man salting a sidewalk and demands the man load it in his trunk. Stinson also posted multiple videos on Instagram of himself shooting the pellet gun as his victims react with terror.

I'm not posting any videos of Stinson's uploads, because I don't want to give even a moment of time to his horrifically unabashed asshole-ish-ness. Seriously, it's these types of people that make me want to believe in Hell, just so I have some place to put them.

"He considers it funny," Rodney Stinson, his father, told NBC 10. "He does a lot of other things. Nothing with the gun is funny. Nothing. I don't consider it funny."

Well, good for you. None of us do, either. Fortunately, thanks to his own uploads, Stinson was arrested and will hopefully be facing a prison sentence and the life-long stigma of being a convicted felon. I can't help but think back to a recent post about an innocent child being shot dead in Georgia for the crime of holding a Wii controller, yet this jackass doesn't get nabbed in Philly until he uploads videos of his own crimes to the internet?

Enjoy prison, jerk!

Filed Under: criminal, daron stinson, stupidity, video

Found Him: This Has To Be THE Dumbest Criminal

from the sharing-is-caring dept

In our ongoing coverage of the crossroads of technology and stupid criminals, we've seen quite a bit of dumb, ranging from really stupid to the kind of stupid that is so painful one wonders how faith in humanity persists. I now submit to you that we've found the purist expression of stupidity in a criminal known to man.

Meet Anthony Lescowitch, 35, and apparent testimony personified to our failing educational system. Anthony was wanted by police in Freeland (heh), PA, where police helpfully engaged their community by submitting a wanted photo of our criminal and a public BOLO (be on the lookout) on their Facebook page. After all, you never know what helpful citizen will assist law enforcement by sharing that status update with their friends, widening the net for a criminal on the run. Hell, sometimes it's that very criminal who so assists LEOs, as Anthony proved by sharing the status on Facebook.

Lescowitch shared the wanted bulletin minutes after Freeland police posted it on the department Facebook page Monday night, authorities said. He was being sought on assault-related charges.

It takes a lot of cajones for a criminal to share a post seeking his own incarceration and you would think anyone willing to do so would possess a keen criminal mega-mind to rely on so as not to get caught. Anthony does not possess a keen criminal mega-mind. In fact, given his subsequent actions, one wonders whether he possesses basic mental faculties at all.

An officer pretending to be an attractive woman then messaged Lescowitch, according to police. Lescowitch refused the offer of a drink but eventually agreed to meet for a cigarette, and was arrested at the agreed-upon location. After the arrest, police posted this message: "CAPTURED!!!!!! SHARES OUR STATUS ON FACEBOOK ABOUT HIMSELF, CAPTURED 45 MINUTES LATER."

If it took cajones to share the post, it takes some massive combination of hubris and years spent living under power lines to then meet up with a suddenly appearing attractive woman for a smoke. That his capture was then announced via the department's Facebook account only completes the circle of fun. I only wish Anthony had the capability to share the news of his own arrest from prison.

Filed Under: anthony lescowitch, dumb criminals, freeland, stupidity

Stupid Criminals: Posting Vacation & Shopping Pictures Of Yourself On Facebook While A Fugitive

from the stupid-is-as-stupid-does dept

There must be some heavy metals in the water wherever criminals grow up, because they do some really stupid things. Recall the young mastermind who allegedly committed a drunken hit and run and then posted about it on Facebook. Or the bank-robbing vixen who somehow thought making a YouTube video bragging about her crimes was a great idea. It's a strange kind of dichotomy for law enforcement agencies that at once catch these dummies using internet services and websites while also decrying Craigslist as some kind of enabler, rather than a holding pen for future convicts. The point is that criminals, by and large, are stupid, and if you give them just enough bandwidth-cord, they'll inevitably hang themselves with it.

Such is the case with the latest entrant into the "Hey, Come Arrest Me" sweepstakes, a purported gang member who robbed a man of thousands in jewelry on camera in the UK, jumped a flight to South America to return to his native Columbia (no extradition treaty with the UK), following a brief vacation in Brazil, and then returned to the UK to upload pictures of himself Christmas shopping.

Charles Rodriguez, 31, is a Colombian man who police believe is a member of the crime gang the Latin Kings. In October 2011, along with another man, he allegedly beat a jeweler who had been returning from a sales trip.

"Rodriguez's arrogance was astonishing. After committing an appalling attack on a jewellery trader, he fled the country to his native Colombia where he knew he could not be extradited," Detective Sergeant Roger Smethurst said in a statement. "However, his lack of remorse was evident by the fact he brazenly posted sightseeing pictures from Brazil - at a time when he was on the run - on his Facebook page."

Manchester police were following along the entire way, ostensibly "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing" at what I'm sure were the beautiful sights of Brazil. Perhaps they even placed wagers on what Rodriguez would buy his grandchildren. I don't know. What I do know is that they continued following him on his digital sight-seeing picture-show in the hopes that eventually Rodriguez would do something monumentally stupid.

Rodriguez, it would appear, is not the kind of man who disappoints.

In 2012 he reentered the U.K. with a false passport. He even posted photos of himself Christmas shopping and sightseeing around London. Rodriguez was stopped by London police for driving suspiciously. Though he faked his name, fingerprinting revealed his identity.
"Rodriguez must have thought he was above the law and untouchable because even when he finally returned to the UK, knowing he was still wanted, he still posted pictures of himself Christmas shopping in London on his Facebook page," Smethurst said.

He has since pled guilty to robbery and has been ordered to serve more than five years in prison. So raise your glasses of Newcastle Brown to Mr. Rodriguez. If the police have any sense of humor at all, they'll allow him to Facebook check-in to prison.

Filed Under: criminals, self-incrimination, social media, stupidity

DailyDirt: Stupiditry From Job Seekers

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Some mistakes are hard to avoid completely. Typos are usually forgivable, even when they result in some terrible misunderstandings. But job applicants are told time and time again that typos are horrendous errors, and anyone applying for a job should be especially careful about eliminating spelling mistakes and typing errors. However, focusing too much on simple errors could allow some much bigger mistakes to slide by. Here are just a few examples.

• Vanessa Hojda made a spectacularly bad email mistake by attaching the wrong file and (instead of her resume) sending a crazy-looking picture of Nicolas Cage with her job application. She didn't get the job that she was applying for, but her 15 minutes of internet fame probably won't hurt her career too much, either. [url]
• CareerBuilder has published a list of some other outrageous resume mistakes. They also list examples of resumes with a "creative approach" where the candidate was hired. Warning: there may be a fine line between creativity and stupiditry for some... [url]
• This cover letter from an aspiring Wall St trader is a bit too colorful for most financial institutions. "Please explain your rationale for the rainbow" will likely be a long-remembered response for some Wall St firms. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: mistakes, nicolas cage, resume, stupidity, typos, vanessa hojda
Companies: careerbuilder

DailyDirt: Stupiditry, Yah

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Everyone does something stupid from time to time, but there are some stories that are just amazingly bizarre and a little bit dumb -- and they should be shared. But the Darwin Awards are a bit too brutal because someone has to die (or be made sterile) as a result of his/her own stupidity. So here are just a few examples of stupiditry in action, where people might get injured but not too seriously.

• Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker, tried to convince a bunch of folks that "there is absolutely nothing you can't overcome" with an exercise of walking over hot coals. For 21 people, though, it was second or third degree burns that needed to be overcome. [url]
• Stubbs the cat has been the mayor of the Alaskan town of Talkeetna for 15 years. Stubbs doesn't raise taxes and has high approval ratings -- and he was named "Stubbs" because he has no tail. Mayor Stubbs also takes advantage of his political power: he will only drink water out of a wine glass laced with catnip. Ah, stupiditry strikes again, and we fell for this hoax. [url]
• Catherine Venusto faces six felony charges for altering her kids' grades with the unauthorized use of a computer. This mother could be looking at up to 42 years in prison or a $90,000 fine, which should definitely teach her kids a lesson about cheating. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: bizarre, catherine venusto, stupidity, talkeetna, tony robbins

What's Next? Can Senators Ban Stupidity While Driving?

from the legislating-while-grandstanding dept

A whole bunch of people have been submitting the story that some US Senators are now pushing a law that would effectively ban texting while driving across the country. Now, you may note that this is a state issue, rather than a federal issue, so the Senators have a sneaky way around that: they basically say that if states don't pass such a law, they'll withhold federal highway money. Now, let's be very clear here: texting while driving is moronic. It's obviously incredibly stupid and dangerous and you would have to be an idiot to do it. There was a recent study that wasn't even worth mentioning because of course trying to type a message on your phone while you're driving is going to massively diminish your driving skills and put everyone around you in danger.

That said, it's unclear what good a "ban" on this does. It's like trying to ban stupidity. There are a bunch of driver distractions, and people will continue to do them with or without a "ban." The real answer is a combination of (a) education and (b) potentially technological solutions (voice control with voice-to-text?). Perhaps you could make the argument that a regulatory ban would serve to educate, but it seems like there should be more effective ways to teach people that it's incredibly dumb to try to type out a text message while driving.

Filed Under: driver distractions, stupidity, texting while driving

No, The Internet Is Not Bad For Science; Bad Research Is Bad For Science

from the watch-where-you-place-that-blame dept

Wired has an article discussing the assertion published in the journal Science (not online at the moment) claiming that the internet is bad for science, because researchers just do some searches online and get the most popular hits or the most recent hits, and fail to dig deeper or look at older research. Of course, that's placing the blame on the wrong party. The problem isn't the internet: it's people who do bad research on the internet. If you use the internet as one tool of many in doing your research, and make sure to follow up on reading the actual research and following through on the citations, then the internet can be quite useful. I know I've found that in doing some recent economics research. Being able to search online, in addition to through some print journals, resulted in finding some additional useful research I wouldn't have come across otherwise. Of course, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that a journal whose history is paper-based would push out an article trashing the internet for research.

Filed Under: internet, research, stupidity

Back In My Day, We Didn't Have These Young Whippersnappers With Their Facebooks And Their Googles

from the where's-my-sliderule? dept

It looks like Nick Carr is actually a bit late to the game in blaming the internet for making people dumb these days. Someone else is coming out with an entire book called The Dumbest Generation, which claims that today's kids are totally screwed up thanks to the internet. This book has received enthusiastic reviews from folks, such as a Chicago Sun Times columnist, trotting out the modern version of the "those young whippersnappers" lines. The evidence? The fact that kids use the internet more to communicate with others, rather than to suck at the teat of the established "authoritative" media.

Romenesko, however, points us to a fantastic response from another reporter, Steve Rhodes, who points out how dumb it is to call this generation dumb thanks to the internet. In fact, he makes the point quite clear, by noting that the idea that the established media, such as the Chicago Sun Times, is somehow a bastion of intelligence is easily debunked:

And I'm not sure where a Sun-Times columnist gets off complaining that the Internet is dumbing down America while the paper is running a "Which Team's Fans Are Hotter?" contest.

As for all that communication going on? That helps make people smarter:

I'm a Facebook fan. It's very powerful, and I've hardly begun to exploit all of its capabilities.... I feel smarter after spending time on Facebook; I feel dumber after reading the local newspapers....

He then gets the other columnist to admit that he's never even seen Facebook, despite bashing it as being a terrible thing for kids to be using all the time.

I'm not trying to pick on Lazare - well, actually I am - but he's emblematic of a newspaper creature that is just beyond me. See, he didn't want to know what he was talking about. He just didn't want to know....

But newspapers went off the rails at just the moment the Internet flourished as an even better place to do journalism and communicate with people. It should have been a glorious melding of the minds for a better, more creative and fun and civically inspired tomorrow, but all newspaper people could see was the threat, not the opportunity.

So, again, just as with every generation, there will be a group of folks who complain that today is somehow worse, and "back in my day" things were somehow better. None of it's true. Things change, the world adapts -- and if you choose not to, things may seem worse, but it isn't in any real objective sense. But, in the meantime, for those folks who are scared of change and afraid of actually recognizing how the changing world is full of opportunities, it means there's an opportunity to sell silly books with provocative headlines. Moral outrage ahead! The kids are using Facebook rather than flipping baseball cards and throwing jacks!

Filed Under: dumbest generation, generation gap, internet, stupidity

There's Stupidity Somewhere Here, But It's Not Coming From Google...

from the provocative-titles dept

Matt Asay writes about Nick Carr's article in the July issue of The Atlantic, "Is Google making us stupid?" I'm not so sure that you can make such a generalization, but something certainly seems to be messing with Nick Carr's reasoning ability. With such a provocative title, I was expecting a little more evidence with a lot less storytelling and speculation -- but I was seriously disappointed.

There are some valid concerns nested in there, but the tone is attention-seeking and hyperbolic. More importantly, Carr seems to be jumping to the wrong conclusions, as appears to be typical. In the article, Carr writes:

[S]cholars examined computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites, one operated by the British Library and one by a U.K. educational consortium, that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information. They found that people using the sites exhibited "a form of skimming activity," hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they'd already visited. They typically read no more than two pages of an article or book before they would "bounce" out to another site. Sometimes they'd save a long article, but there's no evidence that they ever went back and actually read it.

I'm sorry, but how is this "chilling" (as Radar Online claims)? Carr doesn't explain why skimming is problematic, aside from worrying that we're becoming "mere decoders of information," like computers. Did paper cause people to become mere transmitters of information? We aren't deprived of our ability to reflect or think deeply by using Google's search engine or by skimming through blog posts.

I don't understand why this is even considered a problem. I skim a ton of stuff online and often make quick judgments as to whether or not its worth my time. There's a lot of crap in the long tail. But there are also a lot of worthwhile things. Skimming is human filtering, it's a necessary and useful part of processing the vast amount of information available online. I'm not going to read everything I find on the web. Most articles I will scan quickly, but there are many other things that I read in detail and at length.

What's wrong with skimming?

And then there's Matt's attack on Twitter:

Speaking of Twitter, am I the only one who views it as further evidence of a soundbite culture that struggles even to think beyond 140-character blips?

Come on! It's a medium! What about the famous quote? "I've written you a long letter because I haven't had time to write a short one." (paraphrased - usually attributed to Mark Twain, but it appears it may be Blaise Pascal). It's harder to be concise. Regardless, Twitter is a medium, it's micro-blogging. Just because you make use of a different medium doesn't mean that it controls your thinking or prevents you from using other mediums. Did telegrams make people stupid? I use the Internet to update my Facebook status and to write 2500 word emails to stay in touch with close friends.

Twitter doesn't make people stupid.

Nor does Google or Wikipedia or anything else. People are just stupid irrespective of technology. Myself included. I don't do stupid things because of technology, I do stupid things because sometimes I do stupid things. We may see stupidity manifested in different ways on different mediums, but I have a hard time believing that the medium is to blame.

Filed Under: nick carr, stupidity, technology
Companies: google, twitter

You Can't Legislate Stupidity Away... But Can You Automate It Away?

from the someone's-trying dept

For years, we've pointed out that, as much as politicians try, you simply cannot legislate stupidity away. However, could you automate it away? Apparently that's what some programmers are working on, trying to come up with a spam filter-like system to automatically detect and quarantine "stupid" comments in forums and blog comments. As someone who spends way too much time reading the comments around here, there is some appeal in the concept of such a thing. But, the reality is that it's unlikely to work. Stupidity will no doubt route around any such filters pretty quickly. Besides, it sounds like it would really only catch the blindingly obvious stupid comments anyway, rather than the more frustrating and more common variety: which are comments from people who read what they want something to say, rather than what it actually says. What we really need is not a stupidity filter, but a comment troll filter -- or perhaps just a great big lesson in reading comprehension.

Filed Under: stupidity