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Banden wrote:

Because putting people away just because we feel like it is a despotic and cruel way to run a society?

They weren't put away for fun or at some random guy's whim, they broke the law and got caught. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

I'm not saying the legal system is perfect or even close, but this isn't even something like gay marriage where it's arguable to say the law should 100% be changed. That's who they are. No one has to have weed or similar stuff to survive or they just die or become unhappy for the rest of their lives.

I really don't care if it is made legal or not, it won't affect me, all my point is is stop doing the crime if you dislike jail.

Gotta love the "if you punish anyone for anything you'll wind up punishing everyone for everything" insane slippery slope arguments that pop up every time someone gets arrested for anything related to this hobby.

Sewingrose wrote:

What is it with mentally unstable people latching onto the idols? Poor girl is probably all shook up from this mess.

When you have a fanbase, there's always the chance you'll attract crazy, no matter what it is. Example, when Tiny Toons was a thing, Tres MacNeille had to cancel con appearances because she was getting threatening and/or stalkerish messages.

Idol signers are creepiness magnets.

Mr. sickVisionz wrote:

No, by my logic you arrest people who say that they plan on murdering someone.

Mr. sickVisionz, I plan on killing you. I don't know how, I don't know when, but I plan to murder you.

There, now call the FBI. Go on, call them. After all, I threatened to end your life, I must be mentally unbalanced. I need to be arrested and put in a psychiatric jail to protect you.

Here's a fun fact. Random postings on the internet don't mean squat. How did that girl's family know this guy was serious? They don't. No-one does, except himself and maybe his immediate family or acquaintances. Statistically speaking, I posit that you have a higher chance of being struck by lightning (1 in 700,000) in a given year than being physically assaulted by someone who threatened you on the internet.

My advice? Don't play games on X-Box Live, or you may end up putting half the teenagers in America in juvenile prison after they threatened to "pwn your ass".

dtm42 wrote:

My advice? Don't play games on X-Box Live, or you may end up putting half the teenagers in America in juvenile prison after they threatened to "pwn your ass".

That and this could happen.

I'm pretty confident there's more to this story than what we've been given, as people generally don't over-react to a threat unless there's other substantial issues to coincide with it.

Excessive communication, most often associate with delusional statements of love, were probably received long before the threats (and is hinted at since he felt jealous of the communications with other men) which prompted worry from the girl and her family.

Now comes the idiotic media to take partial information and distribute to the masses who can't formulate the missing pieces on their own and relate it to drug wars or "better safe than sorry" stupidity.

dtm42 wrote:

Mr. sickVisionz wrote:

No, by my logic you arrest people who say that they plan on murdering someone.

Mr. sickVisionz, I plan on killing you. I don't know how, I don't know when, but I plan to murder you.

There, now call the FBI. Go on, call them. After all, I threatened to end your life, I must be mentally unbalanced. I need to be arrested and put in a psychiatric jail to protect you.

This isn't seriously comparable to the situation here. You two are, unless one or both of you are misrepresenting you locations, not even on the same landmass, rather than in a relatively geographically compact nation with a comprehensive rail transit system. Further, Mr. sickVisionz is not a female minor who is part of a celebrity group that appeals to a socially marginal demographic of a relatively patriarchal society in an industry that simultaneously projects an illusion of intimacy between idol and audience and dehumanizes the idol. Similarly, you have not demonstrated any prior particular interest, fixation or possessiveness toward Mr. sickVisionz. On top of that, it's obvious from context that your 'threat' is merely an obnoxious rhetorical ploy.

Banden wrote:

Mr. sickVisionz wrote:

If 2.5 million people couldn't get it through their heads that threatening to murder people wasn't an awesome and ok thing to do then they deserve to be in the prison system.

This is the same logic that brought America the war on drugs, and where has that landed this country? Our prisons are so overcrowded with petty drug offenders that states like California have been forced to start releasing inmates because they can't build new prisons fast enough. Make threatening text messages imprisonable crimes and we're going to need to start turning US states into penal colonies. Yours wouldn't happen to be in the market would it?

Mr. sickVisionz wrote:

Additionally, you are aware that there is more than one police officer in Japan right? Arresting someone who is threatening murder doesn't mean that all other crime goes unpunished and without prosecution.

In this economy law enforcement agencies are understaffed and overworked with current caseload. Any personnel reassigned to crack down on offensive text messages and Internet postings is categorically not solving other crimes. Law enforcement does have finite resources, just like everyone else, and to the best of my knowledge all criminal cases in Japan have not been recently solved at once or anything.

It's not that the police should turn a blind eye to threatening text messages. But there is a line to walk, and what your saying is way over the line in chilling effect territory. ("Even if it's just a joke, arresting the poster has the side of effect...")

Myaow wrote:

Do keep in mind that the "Akihabara killer" from a few years ago preceded his murders with text posts on 2ch. So not every Internet threat is necessarily one with no actual power or intent behind it.

And as part of the judicial process, I have no problem with that. That is a cornerstone of criminal justice in a democratic society. What's not okay is not caring whether a threatening text message is a joke or credible threat because Internet people are rude and ought to fear for their freedom.

The Japanese police are hardly "stretched" thin. Japan having a relatively lower crime rate than the US and a more "law abiding" population, they actually have time to go after these minor things.

Surrender Artist wrote:

This isn't seriously comparable to the situation here.

This is totally off-topic but is that Orson Welles in your icon, Surrender Artist? What's that from?

poonk wrote:

Surrender Artist wrote:

This isn't seriously comparable to the situation here.

This is totally off-topic but is that Orson Welles in your icon, Surrender Artist? What's that from?

Why, yes it is. It's from the eighth episode of The Critic's second season, "Frankie and Ellie Get Lost". The parodies of him on The Critic are actually where I first heard of Orson Welles. I've been known to quote them spontaneously.

Surrender Artist wrote:

This isn't seriously comparable to the situation here.

It doesn't have to be.

I was out to simply prove that Mr. sickVisionz's logic is fraught with intractable problems. I did that.

Zac wrote:

Gotta love the "if you punish anyone for anything you'll wind up punishing everyone for everything" insane slippery slope arguments that pop up every time someone gets arrested for anything related to this hobby.

What if you were the target of some crazed idiot that you somehow managed to tick off on ANN? Would you be such laissez-faire then?

LordByron227 wrote:

The Japanese police are hardly "stretched" thin. Japan having a relatively lower crime rate than the US and a more "law abiding" population, they actually have time to go after these minor things.

Or report en-masse to stop some noise trucks from advancing.

Sunday Silence wrote:

Zac wrote:

Gotta love the "if you punish anyone for anything you'll wind up punishing everyone for everything" insane slippery slope arguments that pop up every time someone gets arrested for anything related to this hobby.

What if you were the target of some crazed idiot that you somehow managed to tick off on ANN? Would you be such laissez-faire then?

I think you may want to re-read Zac's post. He was mocking the arguments of people who have objected to this arrest. He wasn't upset about the arrest.

As for my own view on this matter, well, death threats have been illegal in a lot of places, including the US, for quite a while now. This is not some sudden, new attack against free speech or anything. I don't have an issue with death threats being illegal, and I wasn't aware there were many people that did. If he had made the threats on paper, would people's attitudes be different?

It's true that, online, a lot of silly, stupid crap gets posted, and there's a lot of hyperbole. There are a lot of posts that could potentially be considered "death threats" that clearly aren't legitimate threats. But so what? That doesn't somehow make it impossible for real threats to be posted online also.

If someone were to post on some message board, "I'm going kill you, you &*^^ing piece of %^$!," and then proceeded to describe your house, address, car, your job and your daily routine, while also posting pictures of the shotgun he just purchased, would you think to yourself "oh, posted online, people say they're going to kill each other online all the time, nothing to be concerned about. Why, if I called the cops on this guy, I'd have to arrest half the internet!"?

Somehow I doubt it. Now, we have no idea if these guys threats were that detailed... because none of us have any idea what they were! Perhaps the cops did make a mistake, and there were just a few idle comments that clearly weren't serious. Or perhaps this guy really was planning on trying to kill her, and made it clear from his posts that was the case. We don't know, so it's silly to go on some rant about how unfair this is and how half the internet is in danger, etc, etc.

dtm42 wrote:

Surrender Artist wrote:

This isn't seriously comparable to the situation here.

It doesn't have to be.

I was out to simply prove that Mr. sickVisionz's logic is fraught with intractable problems. I did that.

I agree with Surrenderman's dissertation, that I read in Maurice LaMarche's Orson Wells voice, the situations are hardly similar as you wrote that as a "Take that" instead of an actual threat fueled by any sort of actual resentment toward Mr. sickVisionz.

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