Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Matt D
Writing a fictional short story about a high school being over run by zombies.  |
Oh ye gods! What next, episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (how many times did Sunnydale High get attacked by supernatural beings?!) being deemed illegal...???
__________________
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by punky
To be fair though, his grandparents found it and were so disturbed they turned it over to the police. Surely if it sounded so innocent, wouldn't they have dismissed it?
|
It depends.
There's no other information, but what if his grandparents were "concerned Christians" of the type who think that D&D and Heavy Metal lead to Devil Worship and simply over-reacted?
Quote:
|
The only reason this was taken seriously is because of Columbine. For months (and years?) they wrote things like this in their diaries - but everyone was accused of not caring and under-estimating, when people found out that some had read what they wrote, those kinds of things, and dismissed them.
|
But *how many* young teens write stuff like that? Yet somehow 99.999% of them manage not to go on to commit Columbine style massacres, so to assume that just because this guy wrote that story he was going to go on do such a thing would be like (oh, I'm sorry, I just *can't* resist this!
) assuming that all Muslims are potential terrorists...
__________________
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by punky
Its all about that saying... "with rights comes responsibility" I could say to you that i'll rip your eyes out. Even if I was joking, and never intended to carry it through, it is still a threat, and it is still ABH.
|
ABH? I think not.
AIUI you could, possibly, be charged with Affray, if the other person actually considered that you were going to carry out the action, but ABH requires, well, *actual* bodily harm!
Quote:
|
There's something that just doesn't seem right here. How can 2 grandparents AND the police force be exaggerating and "paranoid"? If it was one or the other, maybe... but both?
|
The Police are bound to act by the laws prevailing.
Quote:
|
Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.
|
The problem is that, once such an accusation is made, they are *forced* to follow it up, no matter what, they can't simply brush it off or say to the grandparents "don't be silly".