Detectives ID'ed six robbers and racists by using MySpace profiles to put faces to the names. The victim only knew her attackers by their first names, so detectives pulled up her friends list to get some of the suspects.
A middle school student may be expelled for posting graphic threats about his classmate, and 20 of his other classmates were suspended for viewing the posting.
As our "online personalities" come into question, we're all wondering: Should we be judged by what we put online? In the case of students facing school expulsion and suspension, the police should be dealing with this situation, not the school, as the alleged actions occurred on personal computers. (And getting kicked out of school seems like an insufficent answer to the problem.) By viewing the the threat, that immediately makes us corroborators?
As for ID'ing rapists through MySpace, it doesn't seem exactly fair. I thought that an integral part of the victim's case would include her ability to ID the attackers -- couldn't she just name some random "friends" on her list if she didn't know what they looked like? Eventually, parameters need to be set as to how relevant evidence gathered from the internet will be in law and order.
Adam Raymond @ Sun, 03/26/2006 - 11:04pm
Suspending students for LOOKING at a threat that someone else made? Facism.