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A Tacoma seventh grader faced federal interrogation at school for what he posted on his Facebook page. His mom said it all happened without her knowledge or permission.
After Osama bin Laden was killed, 13-year-old Vito LaPinta posted an update to his Facebook status that got the Feds attention.
"I was saying how Osama was dead and for Obama to be careful because there could be suicide bombers," says LaPinta.
A week later, while Vito was in his fourth period class, he was called in to the principal's office.
"A man walked in with a suit and glasses and he said he was part of the Secret Service," LaPinta said. "He told me it was because of a post I made that indicated I was a threat toward the President."
The Tacoma school district acknowledged a Secret Service agent questioned Vito and that it was a security guard who called Vito's mom because the principal was on another call. The school district said they didn�t wait for Vito�s mother to get there because they thought she didn't take the phone call seriously.
First, I find it bothersome that such an interrogation of a minor can take place in a public school, with the school's permission, and above all, without notifying and/or obtaining parental permission and presence. How audacious of the government. I'm sure it's legal, though; there are loopholes to cover any contingency. Nevertheless...a 13-year old kid, over a Facebook post?
Secondly, I can't quite understand what was unique about the post. Within a day of bin Laden's unfortunate incident, there were similar articles, warnings and threats all over the internet. And while we're at it, how was the secret service clued in to that post? Do they watch everybody's Facebook page? If so, how?|||FOX news?
I wonder how they can spin that to make Obama look bad.
"13 yo also says he has Obama's true long-form."
Noooooo!|||Just assume that even though it's Fox, they actually got it right.|||Hey, it was a cheap joke... I didn't actually mean it seriously.
It probably happened as described. And I do find it troubling for several reasons. First and foremost is because that kind of comment is the type of thing anyone who follows the news might say. I probably said it in this very forum.
*Gasp* I'm off to edit some of my posts. BRB|||I also don't see what was so unique about the kid's post to warrant a visit from the Secret Service. I've seen worse on the internets. Far worse.
So I can't help but feel there's another aspect to the story that we aren't being told. But true or not, the story is excellent chum for the conspiracy loons. Click for some entertaining comments:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/secret-s...book-post.html|||Quote:
I also don't see what was so unique about the kid's post to warrant a visit from the Secret Service. I've seen worse on the internets. Far worse.
So I can't help but feel there's another aspect to the story that we aren't being told. But true or not, the story is excellent chum for the conspiracy loons. Click for some entertaining comments:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/secret-s...book-post.html
Yeah, I already saw and avoided a couple of those conspiracy forums. What I'm wondering is if the post was actually written in a threatening manner and it's being stroked by the media (ok fine, by Fox) to look all like, Big Brother.|||Quote:
I'm sure it's legal, though; there are loopholes to cover any contingency.
I wouldn't be too certain of that. There are different rules for when schools act as an educational administration and when they act as agents of law enforcement.|||I dunno, when the highest-levels of the government are concerned, there's a lot they can do to get off without any consequences. "We must investigate every threat," "We didn't cause the child any harm," etc.
Honestly, if all they did was show up to the kid's school, ask if he made the post, and left, then I'm glad they investigated. It's not like I'd put it past a terrorist to make a fake Facebook account to exchange messages. So if they were just verifying that it was a real kid who made a dumb comment, then, fine.
One also wonders how they got the info?|||This is happening a lot, police being horrible at interpreting online posts and/or jokes. (there were 2 cases in the netherlands/belgium recently iirc.)
Then again some suicides/killing sprees have been announced on the internet, so I guess it's good they take it seriously, however they should spend a couple minutes figuring out if it's a joke and if the person posting it is an actual threat before they send a SWAT unit over.
It might be a good investment to create a bot that searches the web and picks out keywords like "I'm gonna kill xxx tomorrow" with someone looking over the matches to find out if action is required from law enforcement.
Then again they probably have that already but just suck at doing research.|||I don't know what's scarier: Feds interrogating a 13 year old, or feds using facebook as a credible source for homeland security.
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