No Justice

Want to wipe the smirk off of almost anyone's face? Have him read the story about Meagan (linked in the post title).

You'll damn near cry. The problem is what to do... what can you do?

Read the story. The essentials are a 13 year old girl, a nice boy talking with her via MySpace, an eventual turn-around from the boy who then insults her and posts a number of vulgar smears, followed by the girl's suicide.

Turns out the boy wasn't a boy... it was adults, parents of one of Meagan's neighborhood friends. Meagan and the girl regularly were friends and then cold... apparently, the parents of the girl wanted to make Meagan feel as bad as their daughter had by creating a nice boy and then crushing her emotionally. Clearly they didn't make Meagan commit suicide, but they are the cause.

Meagan's parent mourn and are very frustrated... they are apparently divorcing. They can't do anything against the neighbors. Meagan's parents hope to see a state and/or federal law created to make such actions punishable.

Is that even possible? How could you prove it? I mean, clearly the parents of the other girl are jackasses, even if they wanted to protect their own daughter, but what they did was twisted in the extreme.

I just can't see how you would even begin to wrangle this legally... not without creating a huge problem.

Meagan's parents, Ron and Tina, are devastated as you can imagine. They want to make sure no one goes after the other parents as the police will immediately look to them. Maybe a prayer for Meagan and her family is in order.


Minor UPDATE: 2:10 pm, Friday November 23, 2007
The Admiral posted on this subject at Anti-Strib.

Apparently, city officials passed a law against cyber-harassment.

The penalty: A $500 fine and 90 days in jail. A misdemeanor.

Hardly the sort of punishment you would pin on folks who were the inadvertant cause of your daughter's suicide... and to where do you go from there? Isn't there already some kind of law for severe harassment on the books in some places? Wouldn't it apply to harassment via the Internet? Again, is is necessary?

We are setting a very dangerous precedent with political correctness in this country. Our rights are slowly and methodically being limited with "good intentions" being the excuse. Communism took hold by "good intentions" and we are not paying attention to history.

In the Comment section, Ed provided a link to the story as reported in the Enemy Paper. Unfortunately, his analysis in the Comment section is pretty lean.

Apparently there was no law against it, and maybe there needn't be, but what they did sure was mean.

I'm just going to take the opportunity to make the same comment I made to The Admiral... you guys are a day late and a dollar short. (Ed's comment might be two dollars short.)

Local conservative and frequent reader of the Anti-Strib (who would make a great addition to Minnesota politics as an elected official) Sue Jeffers adds:

I think MN passed a cyber bulling bill this past session of which I predict will be as effective as the ban on bullying on the playground that was passed a couple years ago.

Lots of foolish state laws become federal laws. More people should dust off their copy of the Constitution.

Unfortunately, what Sue said could apply to any number of proposed bills and laws in the world of local, state, and federal politics. (Again, with this attitude Sue would make a great contribution in the political world.)