As some of you are probably aware there is a very much
publicized trial going on about a Rutgers student who committed suicide because
his roommate would record and web cam him doing sexual acts with another man.
The student is named Tyler Clementi, and he jumped off the George Washington Bridge
in on September 22, 2010. The roommates name is Dharon Ravi, and the first time
that he left his webcam on was, according to Ravi, because of security issues
and he did not trust the man that Clementi brought into the room. He then
witnessed Clementi kissing the man and then twittered about it. The second time
he invited people on twitter to also watch the webcam, which was pointing
directly at Clementi’s bed. After this second time, Clementi jumped off the
bridge to commit suicide. Ravi is currently under prosecution for this event
and charged with invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering, and
evidence tampering.
This is a picture of Tyler Clementi:
There is always a big deal being made about cyber bullying
in this country and how it can affect the victims. This is truly a different
situation that from most cyber bullying examples I have seen in the past. Most
of the time I thought it would be happening online, usually in chat rooms and
whatnot. It really is amazing how evil and unjust people can be with each other
just because they are online and cannot see the other person. This event is in
my opinion definitely more serious that the above example of what cyber
bullying is. It is obvious that Ravi intended to show the webcam online and for
the reason of embarrassing and harassing Clementi. He definitely deserves to be
charged with the crimes he did, but what I found curious was that he was not
actually charged with anything even close to manslaughter or murder. He indeed
did not murder or intend for Clementi to be killed, but because of Ravi’s
actions Clementi committed suicide. I am very curious about what his sentence
would be if he is found guilty of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Do
you think that Ravi deserves to go to prison for what he did, or do you think
that there is a more suitable punishment for his crimes?
Another very interesting part of this case was that Ravi was
not the only one involved in this scheme. Molly Wei was also with Ravi the
first time he saw the webcam and was a part of the plan to show the webcam on
twitter. Wei is actually not being charged with a crime because she is
testifying against Ravi. She still might be expelled from the University
though, along with Ravi. Probably the most interesting turn of events in this
case was that Ravi rejected a plea agreement which involves him spending
absolutely zero time in prison. That very much surprised me, but from further analyze
of the evidence and events it seems that the prosecution may be in trouble. There
are some hidden factors in the case that really helps the defense. One is that
the twitter event never actually happened and that the actual viewing of the
webcam only happened for a few seconds. This is going to be a very interesting
case and one that I will follow very closely. I ask again, do you think that he
should be found guilty for his crimes?
I have no idea if he should be guilty of his crimes or not only because we do not have all the information in front of of to be able to look at and decide what should happen. True it is not Ravi's fault that Clemunti went to such extremes over this, but do you think that this would of made him do this? Could it have been something else going on in his life, could it have been something like he could of been mentally unstable? We all have no idea, so it is kind of hard to just point fingers at someone. Who knows maybe the kid only was running the webcam to see if his roommate was stealing from him and then he came across something like him having sex with another male. Then he felt like oh my god, I have to show someone else which was not smart and is invasion of privacy which I agree he should be charged with that if you can find out that he actually did show friends this video. But for him to be recording to make sure he was not being a victim is not a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very sad blog. It is scary that people are taking their lives due to being bullied. I feel that schools should be taking proper measures in order to help the spread of being bullied. I feel that he should be charged with something. His actions are the reason Tyler committed suicide. I feel that his actions were rude, wrong, and hurtful. If he didn’t agree with his roommate being gay then he should have moved out. I don’t feel that it is right to make fun of someone for their sexual preference. Everyone is different and they shouldn’t be made fun of due to it. I will defiantly keep up on this case to find out the outcome.
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